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78 The Gospel in Dostoyevskythe children had come over to my side. I at once told them of thepastor’s action and explained it to them. They were all angry withhim, and some of them were so enraged that they threw stonesand broke his windows. I stopped them, for that was wrong;but everyone in the village heard of it at once, and they beganto accuse me of corrupting the children. Then they all realizedthat the children loved Marie, and were dreadfully horrified; butMarie was happy. The children were forbidden to meet her, butthey ran out to where she kept the herds, nearly half a mile fromthe village. They carried her dainties, and some simply ran out tohug and kiss her and say ‘I love you, Marie,’ and then ran back asfast their legs would carry them. Marie was almost beside herselfat such unlooked-for happiness; she had never dreamed of thepossibility of it. She was shamefaced and joyful. What the childrenliked doing most, especially the girls, was running to tellher that I loved her and had talked to them a great deal abouther. They told her that I told them all about her, and that nowthey loved her and pitied her and always would feel the same.Then they would run to me and with such joyful, busy faces tellme that they had just seen Marie and that Marie sent her greetingsto me. In the evenings I used to walk to the waterfall; therewas one spot there quite hidden from the village and surroundedby poplars. There they would gather round me in the evening,some even coming secretly. I think they got immense enjoymentout of my love for Marie, and that was the only point in which Ideceived them. I didn’t tell them that they were mistaken, that Iwas not in love with Marie but simply very sorry for her. I sawthat they wanted to have it as they imagined and had settledamong themselves, and so I said nothing and let it seem that theyguessed right.