“Father Sergius! I will change my life. Do not forsake me!”

“Go away.”

“Forgive me⁠—and give me your blessing!”

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost!”⁠—she heard his voice from behind the partition. “Go!”

She burst into sobs and left the cell. The lawyer came forward to meet her.

“Well, I see I have lost the bet. It can’t be helped. Where will you sit?”

“It is all the same to me.”

She took a seat in the sledge, and did not utter a word all the way home.