“But the worst of it, gentlemen⁠—I am giving Kurágin away to you⁠—is that that man suffers, and this Don Juan, wicked fellow, is taking advantage of it!”

Prince Ippolit was lolling in a lounge chair with his legs over its arm. He began to laugh.

“Tell me about that!” he said.

“Oh, you Don Juan! You serpent!” cried several voices.

“You, Bolkónski, don’t know,” said Bilíbin turning to Prince Andréy, “that all the atrocities of the French army (I nearly said of the Russian army) are nothing compared to what this man has been doing among the women!”

“ La femme est la compagne de l’homme ,” 29 announced Prince Ippolit, and began looking through a lorgnette at his elevated legs.