is own activities
connected with him, or ever to have attributed importance to what
Speranski was doing. That precise, mirthless laughter rang in Prince
Andrew's ears long after he had left the house.

When he reached home Prince Andrew began thinking of his life in
Petersburg during those last four months as if it were something new. He
recalled his exertions and solicitations, and the history of his project
of army reform, which had been accepted for consideration and which they
were trying to pass over in silence simply because another, a very poor
one, had already been prepared and submitted to the Emperor. He thought
of the meetings of a committee of which Berg was a member. He remembered
how carefully and at what length everything relating to form and
procedure was discussed at those meetings, and how sedulously and
promptly all that related to the gist of the business was evaded. He
recalled his labors on the Legal Code, and how painstakingly he had
translated the articles of the Roman and French codes into Russian,
and he felt ashamed of himself. Then he vividly pictured to himself
Bogucharovo, his occupations in the country, his journey to Ryazan;
he remembered the peasants and Dron the village elder, and mentally
applying to them the Personal Rights he had divided into paragraphs, he
felt astonished that he could have spent so much time on such useless
work.

CHAPTER XIX

Next day Prince Andrew called at a few houses he had not visited before,
and among them at the Rostovs' with whom he had renewed acquaintance
at the ball. Apart from considerations of politeness which demanded the
call, he wanted to see that original, eager girl who had left such a
pleasant impression on his mind, in her own home.

Natasha was one of the first to meet him. She was wearing a dark-blue
house dress in which Prince Andrew thought her even prettier than in her
ball dress. She and all the Rostov family welcomed him as an old friend,
simply and cordially. The whole family, whom he had formerly judged
severely, now seemed to him to consist of excellent, simple, and kindly
people. The old count's hospitality and good nature, which struck one
especially in Petersburg as a pleasant surprise, were such that Prince
Andrew could not refuse to stay to dinner. "Yes," he thought, "they
are capital people, who of course have not the slightest idea what a
treasure they possess in Natasha; but they are kindly folk and form
the bes