candles, and not having got them (their prayers remaining

unanswered), were each of them convinced that their want of

success was accidental, and that this organisation, approved by

the educated and by archbishops, is very important and necessary,

if not for this, at any rate for the next life.

Maslova also believed in this way. She felt, like the rest, a

mixed sensation of piety and dulness. She stood at first in a

crowd behind a railing, so that she could see no one but her