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"Alone all the same, without my friends.... And he expects me not

to be afraid."

Her tone was now querulous and her lip drawn up, giving her not a

joyful, but an animal, squirrel-like expression. She paused as if

she felt it indecorous to speak of her pregnancy before Pierre,

though the gist of the matter lay in that.

"I still can't understand what you are afraid of," said Prince

Andrew slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife.

The princess blushed, and raised her arms with a gesture of

despair.

"No, Andrew, I must say you have changed. Oh, how you have...."

"Your doctor tells you to go to bed earlier," said Prince Andrew.

"You had better go."

The princess said nothing, but suddenly her short downy lip

quivered. Prince Andrew rose, shrugged his shoulders, and walked

about the room.

Pierre looked over his spectacles with naive surprise, now at him

and now at her, moved as if about to rise too, but changed his

mind.