The child moved slightly in his sleep, smiled, and rubbed his forehead against the pillow.

Prince Andréy looked at his sister. In the dim shadow of the curtain her luminous eyes shone more brightly than usual from the tears of joy that were in them. She leaned over to her brother and kissed him, slightly catching the curtain of the cot. Each made the other a warning gesture and stood still in the dim light beneath the curtain as if not wishing to leave that seclusion where they three were shut off from all the world. Prince Andréy was the first to move away, ruffling his hair against the muslin of the curtain.

“Yes, this is the one thing left me now,” he said with a sigh.

Soon after his admission to the Masonic Brotherhood, Pierre went to the Kiev province, where he had the greatest number of serfs, taking with him full directions which he had written down for his own guidance as to what he should do on his estates.