"The prince, the prince!" cried all the guests at once.

"Oh, oh, here he is-the dear, dear prince!"

"Well, thank goodness, we shall hear all the particulars now!" murmured Felisata Michaelovna to her neighbour.

CHAPTER XIII.

The prince entered and smiled benignly around.

All the agitation which his conversation with Mosgliakoff, a quarter of an hour since, had aroused in his chicken-heart vanished at the sight of the ladies.

Those gentle creatures received him with chirps and exclamations of joy.

Ladies always petted our old friend the prince, and were-as a rule-wonderfully familiar with him. He had a way of amusing them with his own individuality which was astonishing! Only this morning Felisata Michaelovna had announced that she would sit on his knee with the greatest pleasure, if he liked; "because he was such a dear old pet of an old man!"

Maria Alexandrovna fastened her eyes on him, to read-if she could-if it were but the slightest indication of his state of mind, and to get a possible idea for a way out of this horribly critical position. But there was nothing to be made of _his_ face; it was just as before-just as ever it was!

"Ah-h! here's the prince at last!" cried several voices. "Oh, Prince, how we have waited and waited for you!"

"With impatience, Prince, with impatience!" another chorus took up the strain.

"Dear me, how very flat-tering!" said the old man, settling himself near the tea-table.

The ladies immediately surrounded him. There only remained Natalia Dimitrievna and Mrs. Antipova with the hostess. Afana.s.sy stood and smiled with great courtesy.

Mosgliakoff also smiled as he gazed defiantly at Zina, who, without taking the slightest notice of him, took a chair near her father, and sat down at the fireside.

"Prince, do tell us-is it true that you are about to leave us so soon?"

asked Felisata Michaelovna.

"Yes, yes, _mesdames_; I am going abroad almost im-mediately!"

"Abroad, Prince, abroad? Why, what can have caused you to take such a step as that?" cried several ladies at once.

"Yes-yes, abroad," said the prince; "and do you know it is princ.i.p.ally for the sake of the new i-deas--"

"How, new ideas? what new ideas-what does he mean?" the astonished ladies asked of one another.

"Ye-yes. Quite so-new ideas!" repeated the prince with an air of deep conviction, "everybody goes abroad now for new ideas, and I'm going too, to see if I can pick any up."

Up to this moment Maria Alexandrovna had listened to the conversation observantly; but it now struck her that the prince had entirely forgotten her existence-which would not do!

"Allow me, Prince, to introduce my husband, Afana.s.sy Matveyevitch. He hastened up from our country seat so soon as ever he heard of your arrival in our house."

Afana.s.sy, under the impression that he was being praised, smiled amiably and beamed all over.

"Very happy, very happy-Afana.s.sy Mat-veyevitch!" said the prince. "Wait a moment: your name reminds me of something, Afana.s.sy Mat-veyevitch; ye-yes, you are the man down at the village! Charming, charm-ing! Very glad, I'm sure. Do you remember, my boy," (to Paul) "the nice little rhyme we fitted out to him? What was it?"

"Oh, I know, prince," said Felisata Michaelovna-

" 'When the husband's away The wife will play!"

"Wasn't that it? We had it last year at the theatre."

"Yes, yes, quite so, ye-yes, 'the wife will play!' That's it: charming, charming. So you are that ve-ry man? Dear me, I'm _very_ glad, I'm sure,"

said the prince, stretching out his hand, but not rising from his chair.

"Dear me, and how is your health, my dear sir?"

"H'm!"

"Oh, he's quite well, thank you, prince, _quite_ well," answered Maria Alexandrovna quickly.

"Ye-yes, I see he is-he looks it! And are you still at the vill-age? Dear me, very pleased, I'm sure; why, how red he looks, and he's always laugh-ing."

Afana.s.sy smiled and bowed, and even "sc.r.a.ped," as the prince spoke, but at the last observation he suddenly, and without warning or apparent reason, burst into loud fits of laughter.

The ladies were delighted. Zina flushed up, and with flashing eyes darted a look at her mother, who, in her turn, was boiling over with rage.

It was time to change the conversation.

"Did you have a nice nap, prince?" she inquired in honied accents; but at the same time giving Afana.s.sy to understand, with very un-honied looks that he might go-well, anywhere!

"Oh, I slept won-derfully, wonderfully? And do you know, I had such a most fascinating, be-witching dream!"

"A dream? how delightful! I do so love to hear people tell their dreams,"

cried Felisata.

"Oh, a fas-cinating dream," stammered the old man again, "quite be-witching, but all the more a dead secret for that very reas-on."

"Oh, Prince, you don't mean to say you can't tell us?" said Mrs. Antipova.

"I suppose it's an _extraordinary_ dream, isn't it?"

"A dead secret!" repeated the prince, purposely whetting the curiosity of the ladies, and enjoying the fun.

"Then it _must_ be interesting, oh, _dreadfully_ interesting," cried other ladies.

"I don't mind taking a bet that the prince dreamed that he was kneeling at some lovely woman's feet and making a declaration of love," said Felisata Michaelovna. "Confess, now, prince, that it was so? confess, dear prince, confess."

"Yes, Prince, confess!" the chorus took up the cry. The old man listened solemnly until the last voice was hushed. The ladies' guesswork flattered his vanity wonderfully; he was as pleased as he could be. "Though I did say that my dream was a dead se-cret," he replied at last, "still I am obliged to confess, dear lady, that to my great as-tonishment you have almost exactly guessed it."

"I've guessed it, I've guessed it," cried Felisata, in a rapture of joy.

"Well, prince, say what you like, but it's your _plain_ duty to tell us the name of your beauty; come now, _isn't_ it?"

"Of course, of course, prince."