Interrupted Stories

be said that Lev Stepanovich was particularly unhappy about this, however, he was angry about it as if it were a disorder, and in moments of annoyance, he reproached his wife in a rather original way, saying: "God has granted me a wife stupider than a cockroach; what is a cockroach? Filth, yet it breeds children." With this, one could see the proud consciousness that he, for his part, did not blame himself for it—and indeed, without blatant injustice, it was difficult to blame Lev Stepanovich, taking into account at least one striking similarity to him: the cook's children. The main thing that angered Lev Stepanovich was the lack of purpose in the household and the management of the estate. "I," he would say, "toil day and night, I have doubled the plowing, and established order, and I protect the forest, and I do not spend money; but I think to myself, what for? I do not even know myself; it is as if I am managing for my brother's son, and he will take everything and not even say thank you. I know him, he took after his mother, she was a crafty woman, and there is quite enough of the boorish blood in him. Of course, it is my duty, I was placed by God as a landowner specifically to manage; in the next world, I will be asked for an account, but it would still be better if there were a real heir!"
And Lev Mikhailovich sadly shook his head, sitting on the hard chairs covered with black leather, tacked down with copper nails. Marfa Petrovna would weep bitterly from such conversations

and, for her worldly deprivations, would turn to spiritual comforts.
Right near the manor house, through the endowment of Lev Stepanovich, a stone church with three altars was erected. The bedroom windows looked out toward the belfry; at the first tolling of the bells, Marfa Petrovna would hurriedly get dressed and appear in the house of God before anyone else. Lev Stepanovich would come later, and only on major holidays and Sundays. Marfa Petrovna, however, appeared at all services, at funerals, christenings, and weddings. Lev Stepanovich would stand at the front, would hum along with the choir and keep a vigilant eye on the order; he himself would pull the ears of mischievous boys and, through the headman, would signal when it was necessary to cross oneself and when to perform prostrations. He was a lover and connoisseur of the divine service; he would summon the young deacon to his home, and for three months, every day, he taught him how to cense and how to make the proclamation while raising the orarion, with a half-turn on the ambon—the deacon indeed performed the proclamation and the half-turn so masterfully that Mozhaysk merchants would come to admire it and would find that the Hierodeacon of the Savvin Monastery was far inferior to the one from Lipovka.
This monastery was thirty versts from Lev Stepanovich's estate. He constantly sent there not so much rich, but constant offerings—ten cartloads of last year's grain and some