….."So you are praying a great deal to your Lord, aren't you?' ,the Count asked in a sarcastic tone.
Mina was silent. He stood by her side as if waiting for her to answer.
"What would have I been if it hadn't been for Our Lord?", she whispered quickly and with much feeling, for she meant it.
"And what does your God do for you in return?", he was still inquiring
Mina didn't utter a word for a long time. Her whole body was trembling with emotional tense.
"Don't ask me questions! You aren't worthy…"She suddenly cried out, throwing an angry glance at him, then looking down again. "He does everything for me. Everything!"
With a new, unfamiliar and somewhat painful feeling the Count was looking deeply into that dainty face; those meek brown eyes, which could glare with such a blaze; such a righteous passion; that tiny body still trembling with angst. It all seemed weird to him, practically impossible.
Suddenly he caught a glimpse of the book she still had in her hands. He noticed it from the beginning, but now he finally saw what it was. It was New Testament in English translation. The book was old and apparently much used.
"Where does THIS come from?", he shouted across the room.
Mina was still standing in the same place, near the desk.
"I brought it from home", she answered reluctantly, not looking at him.
Things were definitely becoming weirder and weirder.
The Count crossed the room, put a candle onto the desk, and started turning the pages.
"Where is it here about Lazarus?", he inquired all of a sudden.
She did not answer.
"Where is it about Lazarus' resurrection?", he insisted. "Find it for me, Mina."
Mina rigidly glanced at him from aside.
"You are looking in the wrong place…. it's in St. John's..."
"Oh", he laughed bitterly, "I forgot the Protestants study the Gospel as diligently as your pupils back in London".
"And you Eastern…" She suddenly cut her phrase
"Go on, you meant, perhaps, "you-Eastern-Orthodox-tend to kiss-the Gospel-more-than-actually-read-it'?" This time he didn't sound sarcastic, though perhaps he meant to.
"I'm sorry, I actually forgot who I was speaking to", she blushed.
"So find it and read it to me out loud,please". The Count sat near the desk, put his head onto his arms and was gloomily looking somewhere aside as he got ready to listen.
Mina made an undecided step towards the desk, took the book back into her hands. She could hardly believe the Count to be having such an eager desire to listen to the Holy Scripture. Nevertheless, she had to proceed.
"Have you never read it yourself?" Mina asked the Count, glancing at him across the desk. Her voice was getting more and more rigid
"Ages ago… when I was young…Now read!"
"Haven't you heard it in Church?"
"Well .. it was also more than 400 years ago." Again his voice seemed rather bitter than malicious.
Mina was in doubts. Her heart was beating quickly. In fact, after all that had happened, she didn't have the heart to read to him.
"Why on earth should you ask me to read Gospel to YOU?", she suddenly whispered as if she was too numb to breathe." You are not believing, are you?…"
"READ! I command you! It's my wish!",he shouted
With trembling hands Mina opened the book and found the necessary abstract. Two times she started reading and two times her voice failed her.
"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Martha and her sister Mary", she finally succeeded in pronouncing.
The Count, of course, understood the reason of her unwillingness to read. He realized that it cost her great pains to show anyone, especially him, the interior of her heart. To show the secret longing which she had nourished within her for a long time, maybe since her childhood, when at the loss of her parents and afterwards , when she felt utterly alone at the boarding school, God became her best friend and comforter…
And from each next word, strangely enough, her voice was becoming higher and higher. So she went up to the 19th verse….
"And many of the Jews had joined the women about Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming ,went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will giveyou"
Here she stopped again, feeling her voice might fail her once more
"Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again". Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day" Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me, shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him…(Here, having made a deep breathe, as if in pain, Mina pronounced clearly and with force, as if she was confessing it herself out loud )"Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world"
She threw a quick glance at the Count's face, then looked down again and continued reading. The latter was sitting motionless at the desk, staring somewhere aside and listening without looking at her. So they came up to the 32th verse..
"Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died". Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see". Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See, how He loved him!" And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"
The Count turned to Mina and was watching her with anxiety. She was already trembling as if some fever seized her. He knew she would behave like this, as they was approaching the passage about the greatest and unheard -of miracle Her voice became solemn and filled with great joy, and that joy gave her a sort of new almost supernatural strength. It didn't matter now she no longer saw what she was reading – she knew those lines by heart. At the last verse she lowered her voice to give a vivid picture of unbelieving people's doubt, reproach and blasphemy, which were soon to give way to awe, tears and emerging faith. "And he too", she thought," he who is now blind and unbelieving, he will hear it now and will believe, yes, he will, right here and now…."
"Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days" She made an emphasis on the word "four". " Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me". Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out (she was shivering as if from cold while reading the lines) bound hand and foot with graveclothes , and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him and let him go". Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him."Then she stopped reading, closed the book and quickly stood up.
"I have finished", Mina whispered abruptly, standing still and turning her head aside, avoiding to look into his eyes
TO BE CONTINUED…