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The vicomte was a nice-looking young man with soft features and

polished manners, who evidently considered himself a celebrity

but out of politeness modestly placed himself at the disposal of

the circle in which he found himself. Anna Pavlovna was obviously

serving him up as a treat to her guests. As a clever maitre

d'hotel serves up as a specially choice delicacy a piece of meat

that no one who had seen it in the kitchen would have cared to

eat, so Anna Pavlovna served up to her guests, first the vicomte

and then the abbe, as peculiarly choice morsels. The group about

Mortemart immediately began discussing the murder of the Duc

d'Enghien. The vicomte said that the Duc d'Enghien had perished

by his own magnanimity, and that there were particular reasons

for Buonaparte's hatred of him.

"Ah, yes! Do tell us all about it, Vicomte," said Anna Pavlovna,

with a pleasant feeling that there was something a la Louis XV in

the sound of that sentence: "Contez nous cela, Vicomte."