How splendid!  Oh, Lord!

FRIAR (looking dejectedly into the distance)

I’ll go to the woods.

LIPA

And to think that only yesterday everything was just as usual.  There was nothing of all this, no miracle, nothing.  There was only Savva—­I can’t believe it was yesterday.  It seems to me a whole year has passed, a century.  Oh, Lord!

FRIAR (his face clouding)

Why did he do it?  Why?

LIPA

Can’t you guess, Vassya?

FRIAR (waving his hand)

I asked him to come to the woods with me.  He should have come.

LIPA

Did he tell you anything?

FRIAR (waving his hand)

He should have come.  Yes, he should have come.

LIPA

Ah, Vassya, Vassya, on account of your woods you missed one of the greatest events that ever happened—­so great, in fact, that no man remembers the like of it.  Ah, Vassya, how can you be speaking about anything else when right now, right here—­right here—­a miracle has happened.  Do you understand?  A miracle!  The very mention of it fills one with awe.  A miracle!  Oh, God!  Where were you, Vassya, when the explosion occurred?  In the woods?

FRIAR

Yes, in the woods.  I didn’t hear the explosion.  I only heard the ringing of the alarm bell.

LIPA

Well?

FRIAR

Nothing.  I ran back and found the gate open and everybody crying like mad.  And the ikon—­

LIPA

Well, well?  Did you see?

FRIAR

Yes, it was in the same place as before.  And all around—­(Growing animated) You know the iron grating over there—­you know it, don’t you?  It was twisted like a rope.  It’s funny to look at.  It looks like something soft.  I touched it, and it wasn’t soft, of course.  What power!  It must have been something tremendous.

LIPA

Well, and what about the ikon—­the ikon?

FRIAR

What about it?  Nothing.  It’s there in its place, and our people are praying to it.

LIPA

Oh, Lord!  And the glass is whole too?

FRIAR

The glass is whole too.

LIPA

That’s what they told me, but I can’t believe it yet.  Forgive me, O Lord!  Well, what are they doing?  They are overjoyed, I suppose.