“The fact of the matter is,” said she significantly, and also in a half whisper, “everyone knows Count Kiríl Vladímirovich’s reputation.⁠ ⁠… He has lost count of his children, but this Pierre was his favorite.”

“How handsome the old man still was only a year ago!” remarked the countess. “I have never seen a handsomer man.”

“He is very much altered now,” said Anna Mikháylovna. “Well, as I was saying, Prince Vasíli is the next heir through his wife, but the count is very fond of Pierre, looked after his education, and wrote to the Emperor about him; so that in the case of his death⁠—and he is so ill that he may die at any moment, and Dr. Lorrain has come from Petersburg⁠—no one knows who will inherit his immense fortune, Pierre or Prince Vasíli. Forty thousand serfs and millions of rubles! I know it all very well for Prince Vasíli told me himself. Besides, Kiríl Vladímirovich is my mother’s second cousin. He’s also Borís’s godfather,” she added, as if she attached no importance at all to the fact.