|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: himself it all occurred so naturally that he could not imagine
how he could have acted otherwise.
His father, a retired colonel of the Guards, had died when Stepan
was twelve, and sorry as his mother was to part from her son, she
entered him at the Military College as her deceased husband had
intended.
The widow herself, with her daughter, Varvara, moved to
Petersburg to be near her son and have him with her for the
holidays.
The boy was distinguished both by his brilliant ability and by
his immense self-esteem. He was first both in his
| 
