Resurrection

His eyes filled with tears as he was saying all this to himself,

good and bad tears: good because they were tears of joy at the

awakening of the spiritual being within him, the being which had

been asleep all these years; and bad tears because they were

tears of tenderness to himself at his own goodness.

He felt hot, and went to the window and opened it. The window

opened into a garden. It was a moonlit, quiet, fresh night; a

vehicle rattled past, and then all was still. The shadow of a

tall poplar fell on the ground just opposite the window, and all

the intricate pattern of its bare branches was clearly defined on

the clean swept gravel. To the left the roof of a coach-house

shone white in the moonlight, in front the black shadow of the

garden wall was visible through the tangled branches of the

trees.

Nekhludoff gazed at the roof, the moonlit garden, and the shadows

of the poplar, and drank in the fresh, invigorating air.

"How delightful, how delightful; oh, God, how delightful," he

said, meaning that which was going on in his soul.