The little princess talked incessantly, her short, downy upper lip continually and rapidly touching her rosy nether lip when necessary and drawing up again next moment when her face broke into a smile of glittering teeth and sparkling eyes. She told of an accident they had had on the Spásski Hill which might have been serious for her in her condition, and immediately after that informed them that she had left all her clothes in Petersburg and that heaven knew what she would have to dress in here; and that Andréy had quite changed, and that Kitty Odýntsova had married an old man, and that there was a suitor for Márya, a real one, but that they would talk of that later. Princess Márya was still looking silently at her brother and her beautiful eyes were full of love and sadness. It was plain that she was following a train of thought independent of her sister-in-law’s words. In the midst of a description of the last Petersburg fête she addressed her brother:

“So you are really going to the war, André?” she said sighing.

Liza sighed too.