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The prince had spread out near him his purchases, carved boxes,

and knick-knacks, paper-knives of all sorts, of which he bought a

heap at every watering-place, and bestowed them upon everyone,

including Lieschen, the servant girl, and the landlord, with whom

he jested in his comically bad German, assuring him that it was

not the water had cured Kitty, but his splendid cookery,

especially his plum soup. The princess laughed at her husband for

his Russian ways, but she was more lively and good-humored than

she had been all the while she had been at the waters. The

colonel smiled, as he always did, at the prince's jokes, but as

far as regards Europe, of which he believed himself to be making

a careful study, he took the princess's side. The simple-hearted

Marya Yevgenyevna simply roared with laughter at everything

absurd the prince said, and his jokes made Varenka helpless with

feeble but infectious laughter, which was something Kitty had

never seen before.