"Your Excellency! you know the great sin I have committed, and for which I never can atone." And she sank her head remorsefully.
Was she really penitent, or was it only hypocrisy?
"And what do you do while others are having their meal?"
"I read the Psalms to them."
"What! you can read already? and the Psalms into the bargain! I should like to hear that. Bring her a Psalm-book. Now sit here and read. Which one is it?"
The girl, sitting down as she was bid, rested the finger-tip of one hand daintily on the table, while with the forefinger of the other she marked the syllables as she read, "Lord, the hea-then are come in-to thine in-her-i-tance."
"Wonderful! But do you understand what you are reading about? Who are the 'heathen'?"
"The Turks!" The girl spat out the words, as beseems an orthodox Muscovite.
"Who is the 'Lord'?"
Rising, the girl answered: