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"First of all, dear friend, tell me how you are. Set your

friend's mind at rest," said he without altering his tone,

beneath the politeness and affected sympathy of which

indifference and even irony could be discerned.

"Can one be well while suffering morally? Can one be calm in

times like these if one has any feeling?" said Anna Pavlovna.

"You are staying the whole evening, I hope?"

"And the fete at the English ambassador's? Today is Wednesday. I

must put in an appearance there," said the prince. "My daughter

is coming for me to take me there."

"I thought today's fete had been canceled. I confess all these

festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome."

"If they had known that you wished it, the entertainment would

have been put off," said the prince, who, like a wound-up clock,

by force of habit said things he did not even wish to be

believed.

"Don't tease! Well, and what has been decided about Novosiltsev's

dispatch? You know everything."