“Oh! I didn’t say it because I doubt the fact, you know. (Ha, ha.) How could I doubt such a thing? (Ha, ha, ha.) I made the remark because⁠—because Nicolai Andreevitch Pavlicheff was such a splendid man, don’t you see! Such a high-souled man, he really was, I assure you.”

The prince did not exactly pant for breath, but he “seemed almost to choke out of pure simplicity and goodness of heart,” as Adelaida expressed it, on talking the party over with her fiancé, the Prince S⁠⸺, next morning.

“But, my goodness me,” laughed Ivan Petrovitch, “why can’t I be cousin to even a splendid man?”

“Oh, dear!” cried the prince, confused, trying to hurry his words out, and growing more and more eager every moment: “I’ve gone and said another stupid thing. I don’t know what to say. I⁠—I didn’t mean that, you know⁠—I⁠—I⁠—he really was such a splendid man, wasn’t he?”