“Well, my dear?” queried the countess.“Ah, he is in a terrible
condition! One would not recognise him, he is so ill, so ill; I was
there only a minute, and did not say two words.”“Annette, for God's sake
don't refuse me,” the countess said suddenly with a blush, which was
strangely incongruous with her elderly, thin, and dignified face, taking
the money from under her handkerchief. Anna Mihalovna instantly grasped
the situation, and was already bending over to embrace the countess at
the appropriate moment.“This is for Boris, from me, for his equipment
…”CHAPTER XVCOUNTESS ROSTOV, with her daughters and the greater number
of the guests, was sitting in the drawing-room. The count led the
gentlemen of the party to his room, calling their attention to his
connoisseur's collection of Turkish pipes.Now and then he went out and
inquired, had she come yet? They were waiting for Marya Dmitryevna
Ahrosimov, known in society as le terrible dragon, a lady who owed her
renown not to her wealth or her rank, but to her mental directness and
her open, unconventional behaviour. North Face Vest
Marya Dmitryevna was known to the imperial family; she was known to all
Moscow and all Petersburg, and both cities, while they marvelled at
her, laughed in their sleeves at her rudeness, and told good stories
about her, nevertheless, all without exception respected and feared
her.In the count's room, full of smoke, there was talk of the war, which
had been declared in a manifesto, and of the levies of troops. The
manifesto no one had yet read, but every one knew of its appearance. The
count was sitting on an ottoman with a man smoking and talking on each
side of him. The count himself was neither smoking nor talking, but,
with his head cocked first on one side and then on the other, gazed with
evident satisfaction at the smokers, and listened to the argument he
had got up between his two neighbours.One of these two was a civilian
with a thin, wrinkled, bilious, close-shaven face, a man past middle
age, though dressed like the most fashionable young man.He sat with his
leg up on the ottoman, as though he were at home, and with the amber
mouthpiece in the side of his mouth, he smoked spasmodically, puckering
up his face. cheap North Face Men Jacket
This was an old bachelor, Shinshin, a cousin of the countess's, famed
in Moscow drawing-rooms for his biting wit. He seemed supercilious in
his manner to his companion, a fresh, rosy officer of the Guards,
irreproachably washed and brushed and buttoned. He held his pipe in the
middle of his mouth, and drawing in a little smoke, sent it coiling in
rings out of his fine red lips. He was Lieutenant Berg, an officer in
the Semenovsky regiment with whom Boris was to go away, and about whom
Natasha had taunted Vera, calling Berg her suitor. The count sat between
these two listening intently to them. The count's favourite
entertainment, next to playing boston, of which he was very fond, was
that of listening to conversation, especially when he had succeeded in
getting up a dispute between two talkative friends.“Come, how is it, mon
très honorable Alphonse Karlitch,” said Shinshin, chuckling, and using a
combination of the most popular Russian colloquialisms and the most
recherchès French expressions, which constituted the peculiarity of his
phraseology. cheap North Face Women Jacket
“You reckon you'll get an income from the government, and you want to
get a little something from your company too?”“No, Pyotr Nikolaitch, I
only want to show that in the cavalry the advantages are few as compared
with the infantry. Consider my position now, for instance, Pyotr
Nikolaitch.” Berg talked very precisely, serenely, and politely. All he
said was always concerning himself. He always maintained a serene
silence when any subject was discussed that had no direct bearing on
himself. And he could be silent in that way for several hours at a time,
neither experiencing nor causing in others the slightest embarrassment.
But as soon as the conversation concerned him personally, he began to
talk at length and with visible satisfaction.
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