“I expect he has told you of his childish love for Natásha?”

“Oh, there was childish love?” suddenly asked Prince Andréy, blushing unexpectedly.

“Yes, you know between cousins intimacy often leads to love. Le cousinage est un dangereux voisinage. 68 Don’t you think so?”

“Oh, undoubtedly!” said Prince Andréy, and with sudden and unnatural liveliness he began chaffing Pierre about the need to be very careful with his fifty-year-old Moscow cousins, and in the midst of these jesting remarks he rose, taking Pierre by the arm, and drew him aside.

“Well?” asked Pierre, seeing his friend’s strange animation with surprise, and noticing the glance he turned on Natásha as he rose.