“Wait!” interrupted one of the merchants who had forced his way to the front. “St. Cyril says something else.”
“St. Cyril says the same thing. Only he bids you keep both fingers straight.”
“That must make a difference.”
“Wait, my good man, that’s wrong.... Don’t interrupt....” The speakers stopped. “Let him finish.... What about the fist, merchant?”
“Yes ... that’s the main thing.”
“It’s like this: if he lost his fingers he wasn’t to blame. That means: God allowed it. It was His will! But a man can’t live without making the sign of the cross. Without the sign of the cross he’s worse than this heathen Tatar. He’s bound to cross himself ... with his right hand....”
“Well?”
“And his fingers,” concluded Dmitry Parfentyevich after a pause: “His fingers he must place in thought, as he is ordered by the holy fathers and patriarchs....”
The crowd heaved a sigh of relief and joy.