Thirty years ago, all the young people of the county town of Streletsk were in love with Sanya Diesperova, the daughter of a provincial priest. Of all the fans, she liked one Jordanian, silent, stately and handsome seminarist.

He scared her with his silent love, the fire of black eyes and blue hair, she flashed, meeting his eyes, and pretended to be arrogant, not seeing him.

Another fan of Sani was the provincial dandy Selikhov, witty, resourceful and amiable. To Father Sani, he seemed like a good young man, not like a gloomy and impoverished Jordanian.

Sanya wore a colorful Mordovian costume and often went for walks, accompanied by a crowd of girlfriends and fans, in whose company there was a giant Horizon. During one of these walks, Selikhov proposed to Sanya, and she married him.

Thirty years have passed. Jordanian and Selikhov did not forget about each other, although they avoided meeting. They used all their strength to compete in achieving fame, wealth and honor.

Both rivals have achieved a lot. The Jordanian became archpriest, and the whole county surprised with his mind, rigor and scholarship. Selikhov became rich and became famous for ruthless usury.

Jordan indifferently suffered the death of his unloved wife, with whom he lived ten years.Selikhov hardly spoke to Alexandra Vasilievna and was jealous of her all over Fr. Kira, in front of a photograph of whom she once found in tears.

Years passed by years, and Alexandra Vasilievna had one dream left - about the house. All the wealthy people of Streletsk wrote at home to their wives. Only Selikhov did not follow this custom, and Alexandra Vasilyevna was afraid to remain in old age without a roof over her head.

Selikhov stubbornly kept silent about his posthumous will. He never went outside, wandered around the rooms and constantly changed his will. Alexandra Vasilievna knew that it cost him nothing to doom her to poverty, deprive her not only of money, things, but also of her angle.

Her husband forbade her to talk to him. Only at the guests, all of the same ones who had visited no more than two or three times a year, Selikhov was amiable, playful and sweet.

O. Cyrus drank. Tall, burly, he looked like a boyar, was strong and handsome for a long time. With merchants about. Cyrus was rude, with bosses - sharp and resourceful, with freethinkers - merciless. The whole city admired Fr. Cyrus as a man of extraordinary intelligence and rare scholarship. Everyone and always about. Cyrus said “you”, did not like old women, passionate fans of the local holy fool, and hated human disgrace.

I could not stand about. Cyrus and the tramps. Once on the street appeared a Serb with a tambourine and a monkey. He sang sadly and passionately about his homeland. O. Cyrus forbade the Serb to walk the streets of Streletsk and advised him to return to his homeland and find a decent craft. Father Cyrus's gates were forever locked. Only a water carrier opened them, a skinny old man whom the archpriest favored.Having once learned that a water carrier brought a barrel of water to Selikhova, Fr. Cyrus "drove him out of the yard forever."

Selikhov forbade his wife to go to the cathedral, where he served. Cyrus, and she went to St. Nicholas Church. All their lives, Alexandra Vasilievna was between them, all their lives they competed in the championship, they yielded to each other only the road to the grave. It seemed to Alexandra Vasilyevna, “that there was great love in her life: that she buried her in her soul.”

Do not be about. Cyrus the priest, she could dream of a secret sinful relationship with him; but he was before God, the secrets of birth, marriage, communion and death were in his hands.

Horizontov, who was also once a fan of Alexandra Vasilievna, graduated from seminary and academy, was distinguished by high growth, breadth of bone and a powerful voice. He chose the modest path of a teacher and, having passed it, returned to his hometown.

For the gigantic, stooped figure of Gorizontov, they called him Mandrill. He bathed daily, right up to the Veil, and ate for ten. Horizons struck the townspeople "with their appearance, their appetite, their iron constancy in habits, their inhuman calmness and their philosophy." He believed that all human efforts should be aimed at prolonging life, and steadily followed this. To the question about. Kira - he is a fool or a sage - Gorizontov replied that he intends to enjoy longevity and holds tightly in his hands a "precious cup of life."

Selikhov died in the thirty-first year of his married life, while serving in the St. Nicholas Church. Funeral served on. Cyrus.

Contrary to Alexandra Vasilyevna’s fears, she got the house and all other property. Now she could live at her pleasure, but life turned out to be fresh for Alexandra Vasilyevna as a prosphora. “She felt bored that there was nothing to pray to her,” and she considered herself unworthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.

There were no thoughts, no memories. There was only a feeling of bitter spring tenderness for someone - either to himself, or to about. Cyrus, not that to Selikhov ...

In these April days, Alexandra Vasilyevna often looked at old photographs of Selikhov and Iordanov and regretted that God did not give her children. Once she met Gorizontova near the city garden, she called out, but he did not speak to her, only politely bowed from afar.

Once, on a hot May day, sitting in the garden behind a samovar, Alexandra Vasilievna lost her senses. It turned out to be a light blow. Alexandra Vasilyevna began to recover quickly. Lying in bed, she shyly told the cook that she had a dream about two young monks who entered her bedroom, stripped, laid on the floor, "and she was so joyful, scary and ashamed as she had never been in life."

After this dream, it began to seem to Alexandra Vasilievna that she would enthusiastically give up her newfound life in one visit to Fr. Cyrus.

It was terrible to remember that happiness, that fear, that love that once used to pour a girl’s face with hot paint, to feel how this distant, not yet rotten love reaches the heart.

And it seemed to Alexandra Vasilyevna that this love merges together the one she loved and the unloved, with whom she had lived all her life.

On June 10, “one very important person” was to arrive in Streletsk, whom Fr. was going to meet Cyrus. For a whole month, Alexandra Vasilievna dreamed of meeting Fr. Kira at the station, sewed a new dress. One day she saw Fr. Kira is a tramp Serb, who was driven away by a crowd of people. Sam about. Cyrus did not go out, and Alexandra Vasilievna realized how weak he was.

On the tenth, in terrible heat, Alexandra Vasilievna went to the station. From there they brought her dead - an elderly woman was crushed in the crowd. The Selikhovs' house was inherited by distant relatives, furniture was taken out and the guest was let in - a drunk and impoverished nobleman.

Horizon went to Moscow in speed - he was negotiating with the Imperial University of Moscow to sell his own skeleton to this university and hoped that pundits would not take advantage of their acquisition for a long time. And about. Cyrus stayed to die in Streletsk.