Having reached the Patriarch’s Ponds Pierre found the Bazdéevs’ house, where he had not been for a long time past. He went up to the gate. Gerásim, that sallow beardless old man Pierre had seen at Torzhók five years before with Osip Alexéevich, came out in answer to his knock.

“At home?” asked Pierre.

“Owing to the present state of things Sófya Danílovna has gone to the Torzhók estate with the children, your excellency.”

“I will come in all the same, I have to look through the books,” said Pierre.

“Be so good as to step in. Makár Alexéevich, the brother of my late master⁠—may the kingdom of heaven be his⁠—has remained here, but he is in a weak state as you know,” said the old servant.

Pierre knew that Makár Alexéevich was Osip Alexéevich’s half-insane brother and a hard drinker.