king of his own late experiences with his boon companions.

All surrounded the prince with exclamations of welcome, and, on hearing
that it was his birthday, with cries of congratulation and delight; many
of them were very noisy.

The presence of certain of those in the room surprised the prince
vastly, but the guest whose advent filled him with the greatest
wonder--almost amounting to alarm--was Evgenie Pavlovitch. The prince
could not believe his eyes when he beheld the latter, and could not help
thinking that something was wrong.

Lebedeff ran up promptly to explain the arrival of all these gentlemen.
He was himself somewhat intoxicated, but the prince gathered from his
long-winded periods that the party had assembled quite naturally, and
accidentally.

First of all Hippolyte had arrived, early in the evening, and feeling
decidedly better, had determined to await the prince on the verandah.
There Lebedeff had joined him, and his household had followed--that is,
his daughters and General Ivolgin. Burdovsky had brought Hippolyte, and
stayed on with him. Gania and Ptitsin had dropped in accidentally later
on; then came Keller, and he and Colia insisted on having champagne.
Evgenie Pavlovitch had only dropped in half an hour or so ago. Lebedeff
had served the champagne readily.

"My own though, prince, my own, mind," he said, "and there'll be some
supper later on; my daughter is getting it ready now. Come and sit down,
prince, we are all waiting for you, we want you with us. Fancy what we
have been discussing! You know the question, 'to be or not to be,'--out
of Hamlet! A contemporary theme! Quite up-to-date! Mr. Hippolyte has
been eloquent to a degree. He won't go to bed, but he has only drunk a
little champagne, and that can't do him any harm. Come along, prince,
and settle the question. Everyone is waiting for you, sighing for the
light of your luminous intelligence..."

The prince noticed the sweet, welcoming look on Vera Lebedeff's face, as
she made her way towards him through the crowd. He held out his hand to
her. She took it, blushing with delight, and wished him "a happy life
from that day forward." Then she ran off to the kitchen, where her
presence was necessary to help in the preparations for supper. Before
the prince's arrival she had spent some time on the terrace, listening
eagerly to the conversation, though the visitors, mostly under the
influence of wine, were discussing abstract subjects far beyo