maid, who on her knees was
pulling the skirt straight and shifting the pins from one side of her
mouth to the other with her tongue.

"Say what you like," exclaimed Sonya, in a despairing voice as she
looked at Natasha, "say what you like, it's still too long."

Natasha stepped back to look at herself in the pier glass. The dress was
too long.

"Really, madam, it is not at all too long," said Mavra, crawling on her
knees after her young lady.

"Well, if it's too long we'll take it up... we'll tack it up in one
minute," said the resolute Dunyasha taking a needle that was stuck on
the front of her little shawl and, still kneeling on the floor, set to
work once more.

At that moment, with soft steps, the countess came in shyly, in her cap
and velvet gown.

"Oo-oo, my beauty!" exclaimed the count, "she looks better than any of
you!"

He would have embraced her but, blushing, she stepped aside fearing to
be rumpled.

"Mamma, your cap, more to this side," said Natasha. "I'll arrange it,"
and she rushed forward so that the maids who were tacking up her skirt
could not move fast enough and a piece of gauze was torn off.

"Oh goodness! What has happened? Really it was not my fault!"

"Never mind, I'll run it up, it won't show," said Dunyasha.

"What a beauty--a very queen!" said the nurse as she came to the door.
"And Sonya! They are lovely!"

At a quarter past ten they at last got into their carriages and started.
But they had still to call at the Taurida Gardens.

Peronskaya was quite ready. In spite of her age and plainness she had
gone through the same process as the Rostovs, but with less flurry--for
to her it was a matter of routine. Her ugly old body was washed,
perfumed, and powdered in just the same way. She had washed behind her
ears just as carefully, and when she entered her drawing room in her
yellow dress, wearing her badge as maid of honor, her old lady's maid
was as full of rapturous admiration as the Rostovs' servants had been.

She praised the Rostovs' toilets. They praised her taste and toilet, and
at eleven o'clock, careful of their coiffures and dresses, they settled
themselves in their carriages and drove off.

CHAPTER XV

Natasha had not had a moment free since early morning and had not once
had time to think of what lay before her.

In the damp chill air and crowded closeness of the swaying carriage, she
for the first time vividly imagined what was in store for her there a