lowed.

"Business afterward. I will do anything you wish," said Maslenikoff,
leading him through the parlor. "Announce Prince Nekhludoff to Her
Excellency," he said on the way to a lackey. The lackey, in an ambling
gait, ran ahead of them. "Vous n'avez qu'a ordonner. But you must see
my wife without fail. She would not forgive my failure to present you
last time you were here."

The lackey had already announced him when they entered, and Anna
Ignatievna, the vice-governess--Mrs. General, as she called
herself--sat on a couch surrounded by ladies. As Nekhludoff approached
she was already leaning forward with a radiant smile on her face. At
the other end of the reception-room women sat around a table, while
men in military uniforms and civil attire stood over them. An
incessant cackle came from that direction.

"Enfin! Why do you estrange yourself? Have we offended you in any
way?"

With these words, presupposing an intimacy between her and Nekhludoff,
which never existed, Anna Ignatievna greeted him.

"Are you acquainted? Madam Beliavskaia--Michael Ivanovich Chernoff.
Take a seat here."

"Missy, venez donc a notre table. On vous opportera votre the. And
you," she turned to the officer who was conversing with Missy,
evidently forgetting his name, "come here, please. Will you have some
tea, Prince?"

"No, no; I will never agree with you. She simply did not love him,"
said a woman's voice.

"But she loved pie."

"Eternally those stupid jests," laughingly interfered another lady in
a high hat and dazzling with gold and diamonds.

"C'est excellent, these waffles, and so light! Let us have some more."

"Well, how soon are you going to leave us?"

"Yes, this is the last day. That is why we came here."

"Such a beautiful spring! How pleasant it is in the country!"

Missy in her hat and some dark, striped dress which clasped her waist
without a wrinkle, was very pretty. She blushed when she saw
Nekhludoff.

"I thought you had left the city," she said to him.

"Almost. Business keeps me here. I come here also for business."

"Call on mamma. She is very anxious to see you," she said, and,
feeling that she was lying, and that he understood it, her face turned
a still deeper purple.

"I shall hardly have the time," gloomily answered Nekhludoff,
pretending not to see that she was blushing.

Missy frowned angrily, shrugged her shoulders, and turned to an
elegant officer, who took from her hands the empty teacu