In the first place the marriage was not a brilliant one as regards birth, wealth, or rank. Secondly, Prince Andréy was no longer as young as he had been and his health was poor (the old man laid special stress on this), while she was very young. Thirdly, he had a son whom it would be a pity to entrust to a chit of a girl. “Fourthly and finally,” the father said, looking ironically at his son, “I beg you to put it off for a year: go abroad, take a cure, look out as you wanted to for a German tutor for Prince Nikoláy. Then if your love or passion or obstinacy—as you please—is still as great, marry! And that’s my last word on it. Mind, the last …” concluded the prince, in a tone which showed that nothing would make him alter his decision.
Prince Andréy saw clearly that the old man hoped that his feelings, or his fiancée’s, would not stand a year’s test, or that he (the old prince himself) would die before then, and he decided to conform to his father’s wish—to propose,