ay. If you are ready, we will
go."

Meanwhile, Alexander had had his hair cut short, in the military
fashion, and had been divested of the immense beard which hid half his
face. A tub and a suit of civilized clothes did the rest, even though
the latter did not fit him as well as Gregorios had expected. Gregorios
is a deceptive man and is larger than he looks, for his coat was too
broad for Alexander, and hung loosely over the latter's shoulders and
chest. But in spite of the imperfect fit, the change in the man's
appearance was so great that I started in surprise when he entered the
sitting-room, taking him for an intruder who had walked in unannounced.

He was very beautiful; that is the only word which applies to his
appearance. His regular features, in their extreme thinness, were
ethereal as the face of an angel, but he had not the painful look of
emaciation which one so often sees in the faces of those long kept in
confinement. He was very thin indeed, but there was a perfect grace in
all his movements, an ease and self-possession in his gestures, a quiet,
earnest, trustful look in his dark eyes, which seemed almost unearthly.
I watched him with the greatest interest, and with the greatest
admiration also. Had I been asked at that moment to state what man or
woman in the whole world I considered most perfectly beautiful, I should
have answered unhesitatingly, Alexander Patoff. He had that about him
which is scarcely ever met with in men, and which does not always please
others, though it never fails to attract attention. I mean that he had
the delicate beauty of a woman combined with the activity and dash of a
man. I saw how the lightness, the alternate indolence and reckless
excitement, of such a nature must act upon a man of Paul Patoff's
character. Every point and peculiarity of Alexander's temper and bearing
would necessarily irritate Paul, who was stern, cold, and manly before
all else, and who readily despised every species of weakness except
pride, and every demonstration of feeling except physical courage.
Alexander was like his mother; so like her, indeed, that as soon as I
saw him without his beard I realized the cause of Madame Patoff's
singular preference for the older son, and much which had seemed
unnatural before was explained by this sudden revelation. Paul probably
resembled his father's family more than his mother's. Madame Patoff, who
had loved that same cold, determined character in her husband