pprove, my dearest!" said he with a significant look,
and after a short pause he added: "And I behaved badly today. You
weren't in the study. We began disputing--Pierre and I--and I lost my
temper. But he is impossible: such a child! I don't know what would
become of him if Natasha didn't keep him in hand.... Have you any idea
why he went to Petersburg? They have formed..."

"Yes, I know," said Countess Mary. "Natasha told me."

"Well, then, you know," Nicholas went on, growing hot at the mere
recollection of their discussion, "he wanted to convince me that it is
every honest man's duty to go against the government, and that the oath
of allegiance and duty... I am sorry you weren't there. They all fell
on me--Denisov and Natasha... Natasha is absurd. How she rules over him!
And yet there need only be a discussion and she has no words of her
own but only repeats his sayings..." added Nicholas, yielding to that
irresistible inclination which tempts us to judge those nearest and
dearest to us. He forgot that what he was saying about Natasha could
have been applied word for word to himself in relation to his wife.

"Yes, I have noticed that," said Countess Mary.

"When I told him that duty and the oath were above everything, he
started proving goodness knows what! A pity you were not there--what
would you have said?"

"As I see it you were quite right, and I told Natasha so. Pierre says
everybody is suffering, tortured, and being corrupted, and that it
is our duty to help our neighbor. Of course he is right there," said
Countess Mary, "but he forgets that we have other duties nearer to us,
duties indicated to us by God Himself, and that though we might expose
ourselves to risks we must not risk our children."

"Yes, that's it! That's just what I said to him," put in Nicholas, who
fancied he really had said it. "But they insisted on their own view:
love of one's neighbor and Christianity--and all this in the presence of
young Nicholas, who had gone into my study and broke all my things."

"Ah, Nicholas, do you know I am often troubled about little Nicholas,"
said Countess Mary. "He is such an exceptional boy. I am afraid I
neglect him in favor of my own: we all have children and relations while
he has no one. He is constantly alone with his thoughts."

"Well, I don't think you need reproach yourself on his account. All that
the fondest mother could do for her son you have done and are doing for
him, and of course I a