choir sounded most merry tunes sung by amateur choristers, with

bellowing bass and shrill boys' voices among them.

Nekhludoff passed up to the front. In the middle of the church

stood the aristocracy of the place: a landed proprietor, with his

wife and son (the latter dressed in a sailor's suit), the police

officer, the telegraph clerk, a tradesman in top-boots, and the

village elder, with a medal on his breast; and to the right of

the ambo, just behind the landed proprietor's wife, stood Matrona