|
When Boris and Anna Pavlovna returned to the others Prince
Hippolyte had the ear of the company.
Bending forward in his armchair he said: "Le Roi de Prusse!"
and having said this laughed. Everyone turned toward him.
"Le Roi de Prusse?" Hippolyte said interrogatively,
again laughing, and then calmly and seriously sat back in his
chair. Anna Pavlovna waited for him to go on, but as he seemed
quite decided to say no more she began to tell of how at Potsdam
the impious Bonaparte had stolen the sword of Frederick the Great.
"It is the sword of Frederick the Great which I..."
she began, but Hippolyte interrupted her with the words: "Le
Roi de Prusse..." and again, as soon as soon as all turned
toward him, excused himself and said no more.
Anna Pavlovna frowned. Mortemart, Hippolyte's friend, addressed
him firmly.
"Come now, what about your Roi de Prusse?"
Hippolyte laughed as if ashamed of laughing.
"Oh, it's nothing. I only wished to say..." (he
wanted to repeat a joke he had heard in Vienna and which he had
been trying all that evening to get in) "I only wished to
say that we are wrong to fight pour le Roi de Prusse!"
Boris smiled circumspectly, so that it might be taken as ironical
or appreciative according to the way the joke was received. Everybody
laughed.
"Your joke is too bad, it's witty but unjust," said
Anna Pavlovna, shaking her little shriveled finger at him.
"We are not fighting pour le Roi de Prusse, but for right
principles. Oh, that wicked Prince Hippolyte!" she said.
The conversation did not flag all evening and turned chiefly
on the political news. It became particularly animated toward
the end of the evening when the rewards bestowed by the Emperor
were mentioned.
"You know N- N- received a snuffbox with the portrait
last year?" said "the man of profound intellect."
"Why shouldn't S- S- get the same distinction?"
"Pardon me! A snuffbox with the Emperor's portrait is
a reward but not a distinction," said the diplomatist- "a
gift, rather."
"There are precedents, I may mention Schwarzenberg."
"It's impossible," replied another.
"Will you bet? The ribbon of the order is a different
matter...."
When everybody rose to go, Helene who had spoken very little
all the evening again turned to Boris, asking him in a tone of
caressing significant command to come to her on Tuesday.
"It is of great importance to me," she said, turning
with a smile toward Anna Pavlovna, and Anna Pavlovna, with the
same sad smile with which she spoke of her exalted patroness,
supported Helene's wish.
It seemed as if from some words Boris had spoken that evening
about the Prussian army, Helene had suddenly found it necessary
to see him. She seemed to promise to explain that necessity to
him when he came on Tuesday.
But on Tuesday evening, having come to Helene's splendid salon,
Boris received no clear explanation of why it had been necessary
for him to come. There were other guests and the countess talked
little to him, and only as he kissed her hand on taking leave
said unexpectedly and in a whisper, with a strangely unsmiling
face: "Come to dinner tomorrow... in the evening. You must
come.... Come!"
During that stay in Petersburg, Boris became an intimate in
the countess' house.
|
