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was not the water had cured Kitty, but his splendid cookery, especially
his plum soup. The princess laughed at her husband for his Russian
ways, but she was more lively and good-humored than she had been
all the while she had been at the waters. The colonel smiled, as he
always did, at the prince’s jokes, but as far as regards Europe, of which
he believed himself to be making a careful study, he took the princess’s
side. The simple-hearted Marya Yevgenyevna simply roared with
laughter at everything absurd the prince said, and his jokes made
Varenka helpless with feeble but infectious laughter, which was some-
thing Kitty had never seen before.
Kitty was glad of all this, but she could not be light-hearted. she
could not solve the problem her father had unconsciously set her by his
goodhumored view of her friends, and of the life that had so attracted
her. To this doubt there was joined the change in her relations with the
Petrovs, which had been so conspicuously and unpleasantly marked
that morning. Everyone was good humored, but Kitty could not feel
good humored, and this increased her distress. She felt a feeling such
as she had known in childhood, when she had been shut in her room as
a punishment, and had heard her sisters’ merry laughter outside.
“Well, but what did you buy this mass of things for?” said the
princess, smiling, and handing her husband a cup of coffee.
“One goes for a walk, one looks in a shop, and they ask you to buy.
‘Erlaucht, Durchlaucht?’ Directly they say ‘Durchlaucht,’ I can’t hold
out. I lose ten thalers.”
“It’s simply from boredom,” said the princess.
“Of course it is. Such boredom, my dear, that one doesn’t know
what to do with oneself.”
“How can you be bored, prince? There’s so much that’s interesting
now in Germany,” said Marya Yevgenyevna.
“But I know everything that’s interesting: the plum soup I know,
and the pea sausages I know. I know everything.”
“No, you may say what you like, prince, there’s the interest of their
institutions,” said the colonel.
“But what is there interesting about it? They’re all as pleased as
brass halfpence. They’ve conquered everybody, and why am I to be
pleased at that? I haven’t conquered anyone; and I’m obliged to take
off my own boots, yes, and put them away too; in the morning, get up
and dress at once, and go to the dining room to drink bad tea! How
different it is at home! You get up in no haste, you get cross, grumble
a little, and come round again. You’ve time to think things over, and no
hurry.”
“But time’s money, you forget that,” said the colonel.
“Time, indeed, that depends! Why, there’s time one would give a
month of for sixpence, and time you wouldn’t give half an hour of for
any money. Isn’t that so, Katinka? What is it? why are you so de-
pressed?”
“I’m not depressed.”
“Where are you off to? Stay a little longer,” he said to Varenka.
“I must be going home,” said Varenka, getting up, and again she
went off into a giggle. When she had recovered, she said good-bye,
and went into the house to get her hat.
Kitty followed her. Even Varenka struck her as different. She was
not worse, but different from what she had fancied her before.
“Oh, dear! it’s a long while since I’ve laughed so much!” said Varenka,
gathering up her parasol and her bag. “How nice he is, your father!”
Kitty did not speak.
“When shall I see you again?” asked Varenka.
“Mamma meant to go and see the Petrovs. Won’t you be there?”