“You can’t come in! You can’t!” said a terrified voice from within.

He began pacing the room. The screaming ceased, and a few more seconds went by. Then suddenly a terrible shriek⁠—it could not be hers, she could not scream like that⁠—came from the bedroom. Prince Andréy ran to the door; the scream ceased and he heard the wail of an infant.

“What have they taken a baby in there for?” thought Prince Andréy in the first second. “A baby? What baby⁠ ⁠… ? Why is there a baby there? Or is the baby born?”