olkonski. The count did not set out cheerfully
on this visit, at heart he felt afraid. He well remembered the last
interview he had had with the old prince at the time of the enrollment,
when in reply to an invitation to dinner he had had to listen to an
angry reprimand for not having provided his full quota of men. Natasha,
on the other hand, having put on her best gown, was in the highest
spirits. "They can't help liking me," she thought. "Everybody always has
liked me, and I am so willing to do anything they wish, so ready to
be fond of him--for being his father--and of her--for being his
sister--that there is no reason for them not to like me..."

They drove up to the gloomy old house on the Vozdvizhenka and entered
the vestibule.

"Well, the Lord have mercy on us!" said the count, half in jest, half
in earnest; but Natasha noticed that her father was flurried on entering
the anteroom and inquired timidly and softly whether the prince and
princess were at home.

When they had been announced a perturbation was noticeable among the
servants. The footman who had gone to announce them was stopped by
another in the large hall and they whispered to one another. Then a
maidservant ran into the hall and hurriedly said something, mentioning
the princess. At last an old, cross looking footman came and announced
to the Rostovs that the prince was not receiving, but that the princess
begged them to walk up. The first person who came to meet the visitors
was Mademoiselle Bourienne. She greeted the father and daughter with
special politeness and showed them to the princess' room. The princess,
looking excited and nervous, her face flushed in patches, ran in to meet
the visitors, treading heavily, and vainly trying to appear cordial and
at ease. From the first glance Princess Mary did not like Natasha. She
thought her too fashionably dressed, frivolously gay and vain. She did
not at all realize that before having seen her future sister-in-law she
was prejudiced against her by involuntary envy of her beauty, youth, and
happiness, as well as by jealousy of her brother's love for her. Apart
from this insuperable antipathy to her, Princess Mary was agitated just
then because on the Rostovs' being announced, the old prince had shouted
that he did not wish to see them, that Princess Mary might do so if
she chose, but they were not to be admitted to him. She had decided to
receive them, but feared lest the prince might at any moment in