on Princess
Bielokonski.

"All right, my friend, talk away, talk away!" she remarked. "Only don't
lose your breath; you were in such a hurry when you began, and look what
you've come to now! Don't be afraid of speaking--all these ladies
and gentlemen have seen far stranger people than yourself; you don't
astonish THEM. You are nothing out-of-the-way remarkable, you know.
You've done nothing but break a vase, and give us all a fright."

The prince listened, smiling.

"Wasn't it you," he said, suddenly turning to the old gentleman, "who
saved the student Porkunoff and a clerk called Shoabrin from being sent
to Siberia, two or three months since?"

The old dignitary blushed a little, and murmured that the prince had
better not excite himself further.

"And I have heard of YOU," continued the prince, addressing Ivan
Petrovitch, "that when some of your villagers were burned out you gave
them wood to build up their houses again, though they were no longer
your serfs and had behaved badly towards you."

"Oh, come, come! You are exaggerating," said Ivan Petrovitch, beaming
with satisfaction, all the same. He was right, however, in this
instance, for the report had reached the prince's ears in an incorrect
form.

"And you, princess," he went on, addressing Princess Bielokonski, "was
it not you who received me in Moscow, six months since, as kindly as
though I had been your own son, in response to a letter from Lizabetha
Prokofievna; and gave me one piece of advice, again as to your own son,
which I shall never forget? Do you remember?"

"What are you making such a fuss about?" said the old lady, with
annoyance. "You are a good fellow, but very silly. One gives you a
halfpenny, and you are as grateful as though one had saved your life.
You think this is praiseworthy on your part, but it is not--it is not,
indeed."

She seemed to be very angry, but suddenly burst out laughing, quite
good-humouredly.

Lizabetha Prokofievna's face brightened up, too; so did that of General
Epanchin.

"I told you Lef Nicolaievitch was a man--a man--if only he would not
be in such a hurry, as the princess remarked," said the latter, with
delight.

Aglaya alone seemed sad and depressed; her face was flushed, perhaps
with indignation.

"He really is very charming," whispered the old dignitary to Ivan
Petrovitch.

"I came into this room with anguish in my heart," continued the prince,
with ever-growing agitation, speaking quicker an