Strona 19 z 3800

One of the next arrivals was a stout, heavily built young man

with close-cropped hair, spectacles, the light-colored breeches

fashionable at that time, a very high ruffle, and a brown dress

coat. This stout young man was an illegitimate son of Count

Bezukhov, a well-known grandee of Catherine's time who now lay

dying in Moscow. The young man had not yet entered either the

military or civil service, as he had only just returned from

abroad where he had been educated, and this was his first

appearance in society. Anna Pavlovna greeted him with the nod she

accorded to the lowest hierarchy in her drawing room. But in

spite of this lowest-grade greeting, a look of anxiety and fear,

as at the sight of something too large and unsuited to the place,

came over her face when she saw Pierre enter.