Anton Chekhov

“ He heard the lay brother walking away and Father Sisoi the priest coughing in the next room. The monastery clock struck the quarter.
His Reverence undressed and began his prayers. He spoke the old, familiar words with scrupulous attention, and at the same time he thought of his mother. She had nine children, and about forty grandchildren. She had lived from the age of seventeen to the age of sixty with her husband the deacon in a little village. His Reverence remembered her from the days of his earliest childhood, and, ah, how he had loved her ! ”

“ He sat by the altar where the shadows were deepest, and was swept in imagination back into the days of his childhood and youth, when he had first heard these words sung. The tears trickled down his cheeks, and he meditated on how he had attained everything in life that it was possible for a man in his position to attain ”

“ He is pretty well, praise be to God. But his son Nikolasha wouldn't go into the church, and is at college instead learning to be a doctor. He thinks it is best, but who knows? However, God's will be done!"
"Nikolasha cuts up dead people!" said Kitty, spilling some water into her lap.
"Sit still child!" her grandmother said, quietly taking the glass out of her hands.
"How long it is since we have seen one another!" exclaimed his Reverence, tenderly stroking his mother's shoulder and hand. ”

“ A month later a new bishop was appointed, and every one forgot his Reverence Peter. Only the dead man's mother, who is living now in a little country town with her son the deacon, when she goes out at sunset to meet her cow, and joins the other women on the way, tells them about her children and grandchildren, and her boy who became a bishop. ”

“ You really mustn't fall ill ! You have to be on your feet all day long. My goodness, it makes one tired to see you ! Never mind, Easter is no longer over the hills and far away. When Easter comes you will rest. God will give us time for a little talk then, but now I'm not going to worry you any more with my silly chatter. Come, Kitty, let his Lordship have another forty winks—"
And the bishop remembered that, when he was a boy, she had used exactly the same half playful, half respectful tone to all high dignitaries of the church. ”

“ As soon as he got back from church the bishop said his prayers, and went to bed, drawing the covers up closely about his ears. The moonlight troubled him, and soon the sound of voices came to his ears. Father Sisoi was talking politics with his mother in the next room.
"There is a war in Japan now," he was saying. "The Japanese belong to the same race as the Montenegrins. ”

“ And therefore his Reverence felt at ease with Sisoi, even though he was, without doubt, a rough and quarrelsome person.
After morning prayers on Tuesday the bishop received his suppliants, and lost his temper with them. He felt ill, as usual, and longed to go to bed, but he had hardly entered his room before he was told that the young merchant Erakin, a benefactor of the monastery, had called on very important business. The bishop was obliged to receive him. Erakin stayed about an hour talking in a very loud voice, and it was hard to understand what he was trying to say. ”