ove seemed completely to surround the countess
every moment, not explaining or consoling, but recalling her to life.

During the third night the countess kept very quiet for a few minutes,
and Natasha rested her head on the arm of her chair and closed her eyes,
but opened them again on hearing the bedstead creak. The countess was
sitting up in bed and speaking softly.

"How glad I am you have come. You are tired. Won't you have some tea?"
Natasha went up to her. "You have improved in looks and grown more
manly," continued the countess, taking her daughter's hand.

"Mamma! What are you saying..."

"Natasha, he is no more, no more!"

And embracing her daughter, the countess began to weep for the first
time.

CHAPTER III

Princess Mary postponed her departure. Sonya and the count tried to
replace Natasha but could not. They saw that she alone was able to
restrain her mother from unreasoning despair. For three weeks Natasha
remained constantly at her mother's side, sleeping on a lounge chair
in her room, making her eat and drink, and talking to her incessantly
because the mere sound of her tender, caressing tones soothed her
mother.

The mother's wounded spirit could not heal. Petya's death had torn from
her half her life. When the news of Petya's death had come she had been
a fresh and vigorous woman of fifty, but a month later she left her room
a listless old woman taking no interest in life. But the same blow that
almost killed the countess, this second blow, restored Natasha to life.

A spiritual wound produced by a rending of the spiritual body is like
a physical wound and, strange as it may seem, just as a deep wound may
heal and its edges join, physical and spiritual wounds alike can yet
heal completely only as the result of a vital force from within.

Natasha's wound healed in that way. She thought her life was ended,
but her love for her mother unexpectedly showed her that the essence of
life--love--was still active within her. Love awoke and so did life.

Prince Andrew's last days had bound Princess Mary and Natasha together;
this new sorrow brought them still closer to one another. Princess Mary
put off her departure, and for three weeks looked after Natasha as if
she had been a sick child. The last weeks passed in her mother's bedroom
had strained Natasha's physical strength.

One afternoon noticing Natasha shivering with fever, Princess Mary took
her to her own room and made her lie down