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"Don't joke; I mean to have a serious talk with you. Do you know

I am dissatisfied with your younger son? Between ourselves" (and

her face assumed its melancholy expression), "he was mentioned at

Her Majesty's and you were pitied...."

The prince answered nothing, but she looked at him significantly,

awaiting a reply. He frowned.

"What would you have me do?" he said at last. "You know I did all

a father could for their education, and they have both turned out

fools. Hippolyte is at least a quiet fool, but Anatole is an

active one. That is the only difference between them." He said

this smiling in a way more natural and animated than usual, so

that the wrinkles round his mouth very clearly revealed something

unexpectedly coarse and unpleasant.

"And why are children born to such men as you? If you were not a

father there would be nothing I could reproach you with," said

Anna Pavlovna, looking up pensively.