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"Oh, don't speak of his going, don't! I won't hear it spoken of,"

said the princess in the same petulantly playful tone in which

she had spoken to Hippolyte in the drawing room and which was so

plainly ill-suited to the family circle of which Pierre was

almost a member. "Today when I remembered that all these

delightful associations must be broken off ... and then you know,

Andre..." (she looked significantly at her husband) "I'm afraid,

I'm afraid!" she whispered, and a shudder ran down her back.

Her husband looked at her as if surprised to notice that someone

besides Pierre and himself was in the room, and addressed her in

a tone of frigid politeness.

"What is it you are afraid of, Lise? I don't understand," said

he.

"There, what egotists men all are: all, all egotists! Just for a

whim of his own, goodness only knows why, he leaves me and locks

me up alone in the country."

"With my father and sister, remember," said Prince Andrew gently.