Thrusting his fellow-penitent aside, Araktseieff hastened to Photios.
Photios was in the act of reading vespers. Araktseieff did not suffer him to come to an end.
"Was this letter from the Czar addressed to you?"
"To me."
"And you threw it on the dust-heap?"
"That you might find it there."
"I have found it. My penance is over. I return to St. Petersburg."
"Just what I wished to accomplish."
"You have accomplished it. But you do not yet know what you were doing when you brought Alexis Araktseieff forth from the grave? You constrained him back to life and the world, once more to prove the stuff that is in him. Well may you tremble before a resuscitated Araktseieff!"
"A blessing be upon all your actions!" stammered the Archimandrite, and continued his vespers.