he noticed that Vera was being carried away
by her self-satisfied talk, but that Prince Andrew seemed embarrassed, a
thing that rarely happened with him.

"What do you think?" Vera was saying with an arch smile. "You are so
discerning, Prince, and understand people's characters so well at a
glance. What do you think of Natalie? Could she be constant in her
attachments? Could she, like other women" (Vera meant herself), "love a
man once for all and remain true to him forever? That is what I consider
true love. What do you think, Prince?"

"I know your sister too little," replied Prince Andrew, with a sarcastic
smile under which he wished to hide his embarrassment, "to be able to
solve so delicate a question, and then I have noticed that the less
attractive a woman is the more constant she is likely to be," he added,
and looked up at Pierre who was just approaching them.

"Yes, that is true, Prince. In our days," continued Vera--mentioning
"our days" as people of limited intelligence are fond of doing,
imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of
"our days" and that human characteristics change with the times--"in our
days a girl has so much freedom that the pleasure of being courted often
stifles real feeling in her. And it must be confessed that Natalie is
very susceptible." This return to the subject of Natalie caused Prince
Andrew to knit his brows with discomfort: he was about to rise, but Vera
continued with a still more subtle smile:

"I think no one has been more courted than she," she went on, "but till
quite lately she never cared seriously for anyone. Now you know, Count,"
she said to Pierre, "even our dear cousin Boris, who, between ourselves,
was very far gone in the land of tenderness..." (alluding to a map of
love much in vogue at that time).

Prince Andrew frowned and remained silent.

"You are friendly with Boris, aren't you?" asked Vera.

"Yes, I know him..."

"I expect he has told you of his childish love for Natasha?"

"Oh, there was childish love?" suddenly asked Prince Andrew, blushing
unexpectedly.

"Yes, you know between cousins intimacy often leads to love. Le
cousinage est un dangereux voisinage. * Don't you think so?"

* "Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood."

"Oh, undoubtedly!" said Prince Andrew, and with sudden and unnatural
liveliness he began chaffing Pierre about the need to be very careful
with his fifty-year-old Moscow cousins, and in th