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At dinner Anna Mikhaylovna talked the whole time about the war

news and about Nikolenka, twice asked when the last letter had

been received from him, though she knew that already, and

remarked that they might very likely be getting a letter from him

that day. Each time that these hints began to make the countess

anxious and she glanced uneasily at the count and at Anna

Mikhaylovna, the latter very adroitly turned the conversation to

insignificant matters. Natasha, who, of the whole family, was the

most gifted with a capacity to feel any shades of intonation,

look, and expression, pricked up her ears from the beginning of

the meal and was certain that there was some secret between her

father and Anna Mikhaylovna, that it had something to do with her

brother, and that Anna Mikhaylovna was preparing them for it.