“How are you, Márya? How did you manage to get here?” said he in a voice as calm and aloof as his look.

Had he screamed in agony, that scream would not have struck such horror into Princess Márya’s heart as the tone of his voice.

“And have you brought Nikolúshka?” he asked in the same slow, quiet manner and with an obvious effort to remember.

“How are you now?” said Princess Márya, herself surprised at what she was saying.

“That, my dear, you must ask the doctor,” he replied, and again making an evident effort to be affectionate, he said with his lips only (his words clearly did not correspond to his thoughts):

“ Merci, chère amie, d’être venue. ” 113