Two portraits in oval frames were fastened to the wall on each side of the bed.

Mademoiselle Baptistine's ambition had been to be able to purchase a set of drawing-room furniture in yellow Utrecht velvet, stamped with a rose pattern, and with mahogany in swan's neck style, with a sofa.

　　But this would have cost five hundred francs at least, and in view of the fact that she had only been able to lay by forty-two francs and ten sous for this purpose in the course of five years, she had ended by renouncing the idea.

　　However, who is there who has attained his ideal?

　　Nothing is more easy to present to the imagination than the Bishop's bedchamber.

　　A glazed door opened on the garden; opposite this was the bed,--a hospital bed of iron, with a canopy of green serge; in the shadow of the bed, behind a curtain, were the utensils of the toilet, which still betrayed the elegant habits of the man of the world: there were two doors, one near the chimney, opening into the oratory; the other near the bookcase, opening into the dining-room. The bookcase was a large cupboard with glass doors filled with books; the chimney was of wood painted to represent marble, and habitually without fire. In the chimney stood a pair of firedogs of iron, ornamented above with two garlanded vases, and flutings which had formerly been silvered with silver leaf, which was a sort of episcopal luxury; above the chimney-piece hung a crucifix of copper, with the silver worn off, fixed on a background of threadbare velvet in a wooden frame from which the gilding had fallen; near the glass door a large table with an inkstand, loaded with a confusion of papers and with huge volumes; before the table an arm-chair of straw; in front of the bed a prie-Dieu, borrowed from the oratory.

　　Two portraits in oval frames were fastened to the wall on each side of the bed.

　　Small gilt inscriptions on the plain surface of the cloth at the side of these figures indicated that the portraits represented, one the Abbe of Chaliot, bishop of Saint Claude; the other, the Abbe Tourteau, vicar-general of Agde, abbe of Grand-Champ, order of Citeaux, diocese of Chartres.

　　When the Bishop succeeded to this apartment, after the hospital patients, he had found these portraits there, and had left them.

　　They were priests, and probably donors--two reasons for respecting them.

　　All that he knew about these two persons was, that they had been appointed by the king, the one to his bishopric, the other to his benefice, on the same day, the 27th of April, 1785.

“It just was a delicious ham,”

“A million, all but one!” said a cheerful soldier in a torn coat, winking, as he passed out of sight; after him came another soldier, an older man.

“If he” (he meant the enemy) “starts popping at the bridge just now,” said the old soldier dismally, addressing his companion, “you’ll forget to scratch yourself.” And he passed on. After him came another soldier riding on a waggon.

“Where the devil did you put the leg-wrappers?” said an orderly, running after the waggon and fumbling in the back part of it. And he too passed on with the waggon.

Then came some hilarious soldiers, who had unmistakably been drinking.

“And didn’t he up with the butt end of his gun and give him one right in the teeth,” one soldier was saying gleefully with a wide sweep of his arm.

“It just was a delicious ham,” answered the other with a chuckle. And they passed on, so that Nesvitsky never knew who had received the blow in his teeth, and what the ham had to do with it.

“Yes, they’re in a hurry now! When he let fly a bit of cold lead, one would have thought they were all being killed,” said an under officer, angrily and reproachfully.

“When it whizzed by me, uncle, the bullet,” said a young soldier with a huge mouth, scarcely able to keep from laughing, “I turned fairly numb. Upon my soul, wasn’t I in a fright, to be sure!” said the soldier, making a sort of boast of his terror.

He, too, passed on. After him came a waggon unlike all that had passed over before. It was a German Vorspann with two horses, loaded, it seemed, with the goods of a whole household. The horses were led by a German, and behind was fastened a handsome, brindled cow with an immense udder. On piled-up feather-beds sat a woman with a small baby, an old woman, and a good-looking, rosy-cheeked German girl. They were evidently country people, moving, who had been allowed through by special permit. The eyes of all the soldiers were turned upon the women, and, while the waggon moved by, a step at a time, all the soldiers’ remarks related to the two women. Every face wore almost the same smile, reflecting indecent ideas about the women.

“Hey, the sausage, he’s moving away!”

“Sell us your missis,” said another soldier, addressing the German, who strode along with downcast eyes, looking wrathful and alarmed.

“See how she’s dressed herself up! Ah, you devils!”

WHO GUARDED HIS HOUSE FOR HIM

"Ecclesiastes calls you the All-powerful; the Maccabees call you the Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians calls you liberty; Baruch calls you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; John calls you Light; the Books of Kings call you Lord; Exodus calls you Providence; Leviticus, Sanctity; Esdras, Justice; the creation calls you God; man calls you Father; but Solomon calls you Compassion, and that is the most beautiful of all your names."

　　Toward nine o'clock in the evening the two women retired and betook themselves to their chambers on the first floor, leaving him alone until morning on the ground floor.

　　It is necessary that we should, in this place, give an exact idea of the dwelling of the Bishop of D----

BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN

CHAPTER VI

　　WHO GUARDED HIS HOUSE FOR HIM

　　 The house in which he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground floor, and one story above; three rooms on the ground floor, three chambers on the first, and an attic above.

　　Behind the house was a garden, a quarter of an acre in extent.

　　The two women occupied the first floor; the Bishop was lodged below.

　　The first room, opening on the street, served him as dining-room, the second was his bedroom, and the third his oratory.

　　There was no exit possible from this oratory, except by passing through the bedroom, nor from the bedroom, without passing through the dining-room. At the end of the suite, in the oratory, there was a detached alcove with a bed, for use in cases of hospitality.

　　The Bishop offered this bed to country curates whom business or the requirements of their parishes brought to D----

　　The pharmacy of the hospital, a small building which had been added to the house, and abutted on the garden, had been transformed into a kitchen and cellar.

　　In addition to this, there was in the garden a stable, which had formerly been the kitchen of the hospital, and in which the Bishop kept two cows.

　　No matter what the quantity of milk they gave, he invariably sent half of it every morning to the sick people in the hospital.

"Oh, you who are!

At half-past eight in the evening he supped with his sister, Madame Magloire standing behind them and serving them at table. Nothing could be more frugal than this repast.

　　If, however, the Bishop had one of his cures to supper, Madame Magloire took advantage of the opportunity to serve Monseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake, or with some fine game from the mountains.

　　Every cure furnished the pretext for a good meal:

　　the Bishop did not interfere. With that exception, his ordinary diet consisted only of vegetables boiled in water, and oil soup.

　　Thus it was said in the town, when the Bishop does not indulge in the cheer of a cure, he indulges in the cheer of a trappist.

　　After supper he conversed for half an hour with Mademoiselle Baptistine and Madame Magloire; then he retired to his own room and set to writing, sometimes on loose sheets, and again on the margin of some folio. He was a man of letters and rather learned.

　　He left behind him five or six very curious manuscripts; among others, a dissertation on this verse in Genesis, In the beginning, the spirit of God floated upon the waters.

　　With this verse he compares three texts: the Arabic verse which says, The winds of God blew; Flavius Josephus who says, A wind from above was precipitated upon the earth; and finally, the Chaldaic paraphrase of Onkelos, which renders it, A wind coming from God blew upon the face of the waters. In another dissertation, he examines the theological works of Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemais, great-grand-uncle to the writer of this book, and establishes the fact, that to this bishop must be attributed the divers little works published during the last century, under the pseudonym of Barleycourt.

　　Sometimes, in the midst of his reading, no matter what the book might be which he had in his hand, he would suddenly fall into a profound meditation, whence he only emerged to write a few lines on the pages of the volume itself.

　　These lines have often no connection whatever with the book which contains them.

　　We now have under our eyes a note written by him on the margin of a quarto entitled Correspondence of Lord Germain with Generals Clinton, Cornwallis, and the Admirals on the American station.

　　Versailles, Poincot, book-seller; and Paris, Pissot, bookseller, Quai des Augustins.

　　Here is the note:--

　　"Oh, you who are!

-A JUST MAN

BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN

CHAPTER V

　　 MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU MADE HIS CASSOCKS LAST TOO LONG

　　 The private life of M. Myriel was filled with the same thoughts as his public life.

　　The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, would have been a solemn and charming sight for any one who could have viewed it close at hand.

　　Like all old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he slept little. This brief slumber was profound.

　　In the morning he meditated for an hour, then he said his mass, either at the cathedral or in his own house. His mass said, he broke his fast on rye bread dipped in the milk of his own cows.

　　Then he set to work.

　　A Bishop is a very busy man:

　　he must every day receive the secretary of the bishopric, who is generally a canon, and nearly every day his vicars-general. He has congregations to reprove, privileges to grant, a whole ecclesiastical library to examine,-- prayer-books, diocesan catechisms, books of hours, etc.,--charges to write, sermons to authorize, cures and mayors to reconcile, a clerical correspondence, an administrative correspondence; on one side the State, on the other the Holy See; and a thousand matters of business.

　　What time was left to him, after these thousand details of business, and his offices and his breviary, he bestowed first on the necessitous, the sick, and the afflicted; the time which was left to him from the afflicted, the sick, and the necessitous, he devoted to work. Sometimes he dug in his garden; again, he read or wrote.

　　He had but one word for both these kinds of toil; he called them gardening. "The mind is a garden," said he.

　　Towards mid-day, when the weather was fine, he went forth and took a stroll in the country or in town, often entering lowly dwellings. He was seen walking alone, buried in his own thoughts, his eyes cast down, supporting himself on his long cane, clad in his wadded purple garment of silk, which was very warm, wearing purple stockings inside his coarse shoes, and surmounted by a flat hat which allowed three golden tassels of large bullion to droop from its three points.

　　It was a perfect festival wherever he appeared.

　　One would have said that his presence had something warming and luminous about it. The children and the old people came out to the doorsteps for the Bishop as for the sun.

　　He bestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out his house to any one who was in need of anything.

　　Here and there he halted, accosted the little boys and girls, and smiled upon the mothers.

　　He visited the poor so long as he had any money; when he no longer had any, he visited the rich.

　　As he made his cassocks last a long while, and did not wish to have it noticed, he never went out in the town without his wadded purple cloak.

　　This inconvenienced him somewhat in summer.

　　On his return, he dined.

　　The dinner resembled his breakfast.

Oh, admirable consoler!

Therefore, the impression was terrible and profound; on the day following the execution, and on many succeeding days, the Bishop appeared to be crushed.

　　The almost violent serenity of the funereal moment had disappeared; the phantom of social justice tormented him.

　　He, who generally returned from all his deeds with a radiant satisfaction, seemed to be reproaching himself. At times he talked to himself, and stammered lugubrious monologues in a low voice.

　　This is one which his sister overheard one evening and preserved:

　　"I did not think that it was so monstrous. It is wrong to become absorbed in the divine law to such a degree as not to perceive human law.

　　Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that unknown thing?"

　　In course of time these impressions weakened and probably vanished. Nevertheless, it was observed that the Bishop thenceforth avoided passing the place of execution.

　　M. Myriel could be summoned at any hour to the bedside of the sick and dying.

　　He did not ignore the fact that therein lay his greatest duty and his greatest labor.

　　Widowed and orphaned families had no need to summon him; he came of his own accord.

　　He understood how to sit down and hold his peace for long hours beside the man who had lost the wife of his love, of the mother who had lost her child.

　　As he knew the moment for silence he knew also the moment for speech.

　　Oh, admirable consoler!

　　He sought not to efface sorrow by forgetfulness, but to magnify and dignify it by hope.

　　He said:--

　　"Have a care of the manner in which you turn towards the dead. Think not of that which perishes.

　　Gaze steadily.

　　You will perceive the living light of your well-beloved dead in the depths of heaven." He knew that faith is wholesome.

　　He sought to counsel and calm the despairing man, by pointing out to him the resigned man, and to transform the grief which gazes upon a grave by showing him the grief which fixes its gaze upon a star.

`Really? Well; but don't cry,' said the gentle Mr. Lorry.

Nine Days

THE marriage-day was shining brightly, and they were ready outside the closed door of the Doctor's room, where he was speaking with Charles Darnay. They were ready to go to church; the beautiful bride, Mr. Lorry, and Miss Pross--to whom the event, through a gradual process of reconcilement to the inevitable, would have been one of absolute bliss, but for the yet lingering consideration that her brother Solomon should have been the bridegroom.

`And so,' said Mr. Lorry, who could not sufficiently admire the bride, and who had been moving round her to take in every point of her quiet, pretty dress; `and so it was for this, my sweet Lucie, that I brought you across the Channel, such a baby! Lord bless me! How little I thought what I was doing! How lightly I valued the obligation I was conferring on my friend Mr. Charles!'

`You didn't mean it,' remarked the matter-of-fact Miss Pross, `and therefore how could you know it? Nonsense!'

`Really? Well; but don't cry,' said the gentle Mr. Lorry.

`I am not crying,' said Miss Pross; `you are.

`I, my Pross?' (By this time, Mr. Lorry dared to be pleasant with her, on occasion.)

`You were, just now; I saw you do it, and I don't wonder at it. Such a present of plate as you have made `em, is enough to bring tears into anybody's eyes. There's not a fork or a spoon in the collection,' said Miss Pross, `that I didn't cry over, last night after the box came, till I couldn't see it.'

`I am highly gratified,' said Mr. Lorry, `though, upon my honour, I had no intention of rendering those trifling articles of remembrance invisible to any one. Dear me! This is an occasion that makes a man speculate on all he has lost. Dear, dear, dear! To think that there might have been a Mrs. Lorry, any time these fifty years almost!'

`Not at all!' From Miss Pross.

CHAPTER XVIII

There was no one hidden to the marriage but Mr. Lorry; there was even to be no bridesmaid but the gaunt Miss Pross. The marriage was to make no change in their place of residence; they had been able to extend it, by taking to themselves the upper rooms formerly belonging to the apocryphal invisible lodger, and they desired nothing more.

Doctor Manette was very cheerful at the little supper. They were only three at table, and Miss Pross made the third. He regretted that Charles was not there; was more than half disposed to object to the loving little plot that kept him away; and drank to him affectionately.

So, the time came for him to bid Lucie good night, and they separated. But, in the stillness of the third hour of the morning, Lucie came down stairs again, and stole into his room; not free from unshaped fears, beforehand.

All things, however, were in their places; all was quiet; and he lay asleep, his white hair picturesque on the untroubled pillow, and his hands lying quiet on the coverlet. She put her needless candle in the shadow at a distance, crept up to his bed, and put her lips to his; then, leaned over him, and looked at him.

Into his handsome face, the bitter waters of captivity had worn; but, he covered up their tracks with a determination so strong, that he held the mastery of them even in his sleep. A more remarkable face in its quiet, resolute, and guarded struggle with an unseen assailant, was not to be beheld in all the wide dominions of sleep, that night.

She timidly laid her hand on his dear breast, and put up a prayer that she might ever be as true to him as her love aspired to be, and as his sorrows deserved. Then, she withdrew her hand, and kissed his lips once more, and went away. So, the sunrise came, and the shadows of the leaves of the plane-tree moved upon his face, as softly as her lips had moved in praying for him.

In that more peaceful state, I have imagined her, in the moonlight

`No. That was another thing. It stood before my disturbed sense of sight, but it never moved. The phantom that my mind pursued, was another and more real child. Of her outward appearance I know no more than that she was like her mother. The other had that likeness too--as you have--but was not the same. Can you follow me, Lucie? Hardly, I think I `doubt you must have beer, a solitary prisoner to understand these prisoner perplexed distinctions.

His collected and calm manner could not prevent her blood from running cold, as he thus tried to anatomise his old condition.

`In that more peaceful state, I have imagined her, in the moonlight, coming to me and taking me out to show me that the home of her married life was lull of her loving remembrance of her lost father. My picture was in her room, and I was in her prayers. Her life was active, cheerful, useful; hut my poor history pervaded it all.'

`I was that child,my father. I was not half so good, but in my love that was I.'

`And she showed me her children,' said the Doctor of Beauvais, `and they had heard of me, and had been taught to pity me. When they passed a prison of the State, they kept far from its frowning walls, and looked up at its bars, and spoke in whispers. She could never deliver me; I imagined that she always brought me back after showing me such things. But then, blessed with the relief of tears, I fell upon my knees, and blessed her.'

`I am that child, I hope, my father. O my dear, my dear, will you bless me as fervently to-morrow?'

`Lucie, I recall these old troubles in the reason that I have to-night for loving you better than words can tell, and thanking God for my great happiness. My thoughts, when they were wildest, never rose near the happiness that I have known with you, and that we have before us.

He embraced her, solemnly commended her to Heaven, and humbly thanked Heaven for having bestowed her on him. By-and-by, they went into the house.

what did I say just now?

The strange thrill with which she heard him go back to that time, deepened as he dwelt upon it; but, there was nothing to shock her in the manner of his reference. He only seemed to contrast his present cheerfulness and felicity with the dire endurance that was over.

`I have looked at her, speculating thousands of times upon the unborn child from whom I had been rent. Whether it was alive. Whether it had been born alive, or the poor mother's shock had killed it. Whether it was a son who would some day avenge his father. (There was a time in my imprisonment, when my desire for vengeance was unbearable.) Whether it was a son who would never know his father's story; who might even live to weigh the possibility of his father's having disappeared of his own will and act. Whether it was a daughter who would grow to be a woman.'

She drew closer to him, and kissed his cheek and his hand. `I have pictured my daughter, to myself, as perfectly forgetful of me--rather, altogether ignorant of me, and unconscious of me. I have cast up the years of her age, year after year. I have seen her married to a man who knew nothing of my fate. I have altogether perished from the remembrance of the living, and in the next generation my place was a blank.'

`My father! Even to hear that you had such thoughts of a daughter who never existed, strikes to my heart as if I had been that child.'

`You, Lucie? It is out of the consolation and restoration you have brought to me, that these remembrances arise, and pass between us and the moon on this last night.--what did I say just now?'

She knew nothing of you. She cared nothing for you.'

`So! But on other moonlight nights, when the sadness and the silence have touched me in a different way--have affected me with something as like a sorrowful sense of peace, as any emotion that had pain for its foundations could--I have imagined her as coming to me in my cell, and leading me out into the freedom beyond the fortress. I have seen her image in the moonlight often, as I now see you; except that I never held her in my arms; it stood between the little grated window and the door. But, you understand that that was not the child I am speaking of?'

`The figure was not; the--the--image; the fancy?'

I should have been quite happy with you.'

Believe it, love! Indeed it is so. Consider how natural and how plain it is, my dear, that it should be so. You, devoted and young, cannot fully appreciate the anxiety I have felt that your life should not be wasted'

She moved her hand towards his lips, but he took it in his, and repeated the word.

`--wasted, my child--should not be wasted, struck aside from the natural order of things--for my sake. Your unselfishness cannot entirely comprehend how much my mind has gone on this; but, only ask yourself how could my happiness be perfect, while yours was incomplete?'

`If I had never seen Charles, my father, I should have been quite happy with you.'

He smiled at her unconscious admission that she would have been unhappy without Charles, having seen him; and replied:

`My child, you did see him, and it is Charles. If it had not been Charles, it would have been another. Or, if it had been no other, I should have been the cause, and then the dark part of my life would have cast its shadow beyond myself and would have fallen on you.'

It was the first time, except at the trial, of her ever hearing him refer to the period of his suffering. It gave her a strange and new sensation while his words were in her ears; and she remembered it long afterwards.

`See!' said the Doctor of Beauvais, raising his hand towards the moon. `I have looked at her from my prison-window, when I could not bear her light. I have looked at her when it has been such torture to me to think of her shining upon what I had lost, that I have beaten my head against my prison-walls. I have looked at her, in a state so dull and lethargic, that I have thought of nothing but the number of horizontal lines `I could draw across her at the full, and the number of perpendicular lines with which I could intersect them.' He added in his inward and pondering manner, as he looked at the moon, `It was twenty either way, I remember, and the twentieth was difficult to squeeze in.'

`But, consider. Is he fit for the journey?' asked Mr. Lorry.

When the quiet of the garret had been long undisturbed, and his heaving breast and shaken form had long yielded to the calm that must follow all storms--emblem to humanity, of the rest and silence into which the storm called Life must hush at last--they came forward to raise the father and daughter from the ground. He had gradually dropped to the floor, and lay there in a lethargy, worn out. She had nestled down with him, that his head might lie upon her arm; and her hair drooping over him curtained him from the light.

`If, without disturbing him,' she said, raising her hand to Mr. Lorry as he stooped over them, after repeated blowings of his nose, `all could be arranged for our leaving Paris at once, so that, from the very door, he could be taken away---'

`But, consider. Is he fit for the journey?' asked Mr. Lorry.

`More fit for that, I think, than to remain in this city, so dreadful to him.'

`It is true,' said Defarge, who was kneeling to look on and hear. `More than that; Monsieur Manette is, for all reasons, best out of France. Say, shall I hire a carriage and post-horses?'

`That's business,' said Mr. Lorry, resuming on the shortest notice his methodical manners; `and if business is to be dune, I had better do it.'

`Then be so kind,' urged Miss Manette, `as to leave us here. You see how composed he has become, and you cannot be afraid to leave him with me now. Why should you be? If you will lock the door to secure us from interruption, I do not doubt that you will find him, when you come back, as quiet as you leave him. In any case, I will take care of him until you return, and then we will remove him straight.'

Both Mr. Lorry and Defarge were rather disinclined to this course, and in favour of one of them remaining. But, as there were not only carriage and horses to be seen to, but travelling papers; and as time pressed, for the day was drawing to an end, it came at last to their hastily dividing the business that was necessary to be done, and hurrying away to do it.

Then, as the darkness closed in, the daughter laid her head down on the hard ground close at the father's side, and watched him. The darkness deepened and deepened, and they both lay quiet, until a light gleamed through the chinks in the wall.

His cold white head mingled with her radiant hair, which warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of Freedom shining on him.

His hands released her as he uttered this cry, and went up to his white hair, which they tore in a frenzy. It died out, as everything but his shoemaking did die out of him, and he refolded his little packet and tried to secure it in his breast; but he still looked at her, and gloomily shook his head.

`No, no, no; you are too young, too blooming. It can't be. See what the prisoner is. These are not the hands she knew, this is not the face she knew, this is not a voice she ever heard. No, no. She was--and He was--before the slow years of the North Tower--ages ago. What is your name, my gentle angel?'

Hailing his softened tone and manner, his daughter fell upon her knees before him, with her appealing hands upon his breast.

`O, sir, at another time you shall know my name, and who my mother was, and who my father, and how I never knew their hard, hard history. But I cannot tell you at this time, and I cannot tell you here. All that I may tell you, here and now, is, that I pray to you to touch me and to bless me. Kiss me, kiss me! O my dear, my dear!'

His cold white head mingled with her radiant hair, which warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of Freedom shining on him.

`If you hear in my voice--I don't know that it is so, but I hope it is--if you hear in my voice any resemblance to a voice that once was sweet music in your ears, weep for it, weep for it! If you touch, in touching my hair, anything that recalls a beloved head that lay on your breast when you were young and free, weep for it, weep for it! If, when I hint to you of a Home that is before us, where I will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service, I bring back the remembrance of a Home long desolate, while your poor heart pined away, weep for it, weep for it!'

She held him closer round the neck, and rocked him on her breast like a child.

`If' when I tell you, dearest dear, that your agony is over, and that I have come here to take you from it, and that we go to England to be at peace and at rest, I cause you to think of your useful life laid waste, and of our native France so wicked to you, weep for it, weep for it! And if' when I shall tell you of my name, and of my father who is living, and of my mother who is dead, you learn that I have to kneel to my honoured father, and implore his pardon for having never for his sake striven all day and lain awake and wept all night, because the love of my poor mother hid his torture from me, weep for it, weep for it! Weep for her, then, and for me! Good gentlemen, thank God! I feel his sacred tears upon my face, and his sobs strike against my heart. O, see Thank God for us, thank God!'

He had sunk in her arms, and his face dropped on her breast: a sight so touching, yet so terrible in the tremendous wrong and suffering which had gone before it, that the two beholders covered their faces.

The sick and the stragglers left behind only numbered two hundred and seventeen, and everything was in good order except the soldiers’ boots.

A high, blue Vienna coach with several horses was driving at a smart trot, rumbling on its springs, along the broad unpaved high-road, with trees planted on each side of it. The general’s suite and an escort of Croats galloped after the coach. Beside Kutuzov sat an Austrian general in a white uniform, that looked strange among the black Russian ones. The coach drew up on reaching the regiment. Kutuzov and the Austrian general were talking of something in low voices, and Kutuzov smiled slightly as, treading heavily, he put his foot on the carriage step, exactly as though those two thousand men gazing breathlessly at him and at their general, did not exist at all.

The word of command rang out, again the regiment quivered with a clanking sound as it presented arms. In the deathly silence the weak voice of the commander-in-chief was audible. The regiment roared: “Good health to your Ex .. lency .. lency .. lency!” And again all was still. At first Kutuzov stood in one spot, while the regiment moved; then Kutuzov began walking on foot among the ranks, the white general beside him, followed by his suite.

From the way that the general in command of the regiment saluted the commander-in-chief, fixing his eyes intently on him, rigidly respectful and obsequious, from the way in which, craning forward, he followed the generals through the ranks, with an effort restraining his quivering strut, and darted up at every word and every gesture of the commander-in-chief,—it was evident that he performed his duties as a subordinate with even greater zest than his duties as a commanding officer. Thanks to the strictness and assiduity of its commander, the regiment was in excellent form as compared with the others that had arrived at Braunau at the same time. The sick and the stragglers left behind only numbered two hundred and seventeen, and everything was in good order except the soldiers’ boots.

How was this?--Was it you?'

It happened, at length, that he had occasion to change the instrument in his hand, for his shoemaker's knife. It lay on that side of him which was not the side on which she stood. He had taken it up, and was stooping to work again, when his eyes caught the skirt of her dress. He raised them, and saw her face. The two spectators started forward, hut she stayed them with a motion of her hand. She had no fear of his striking at her with the knife, though they had.

He stared at her with a fearful look, and after a while his lips began to form some words, though no sound proceeded from them. By degrees, in the pauses of his quick and laboured breathing, he was heard to say:

`What is this?'

With the tears streaming down her face, she put her two hands to her lips, and kissed them to him; then clasped them on her breast, as if she laid his ruined head there.

`You are not the gaoler's daughter?'

She sighed `No.'

`Who are you?'

Not yet trusting the tones of her voice, she sat down on the bench beside him. He recoiled, but she laid her hand upon his arm. A strange thrill struck him when she did so, and visibly passed over his frame; he laid the knife down softly, as he sat staring at her.

Her golden hair, which she wore in long curls, had been hurriedly pushed aside, and fell down over her neck. Advancing his hand by little and little, he took it up and looked at it. In the midst of the action he went astray, and, with another deep sigh, fell to work at his shoemaking.

But not for long. Releasing his arm, she laid her hand upon his shoulder. After looking doubtfully at it, two or three times, as if to be sure that it was really there, he laid down his work, put his hand to his neck, and took off a blackened string with a scrap of folded rag attached to it. He opened this, carefully, on his knee, and it contained a very little quantity of hair: not more than one or two long golden hairs, which he had, in some old day, wound on upon his finger.

He took her hair into his hand again, and looked closely at it. `It is the same. How can it be! When was it! How was it!'

As the concentrating expression returned to his forehead, he seemed to become conscious that it was in hers too. He turned her full to the light, and looked at her.

`She had laid her head upon my shoulder, that night when I was summoned out--she had a fear of my going, though I had none--and when I was brought to the North Tower they found these upon my sleeve. "You will leave me them? They can never help me to escape in the body, though they may in the spirit." Those were the words I said. I remember them very well.'

He formed this speech with his lips many times before he could utter it. But when he did find spoken words for it, they came to him coherently, though slowly.

`How was this?--Was it you?'

Once more, the two spectators started, as he turned upon her with a frightful suddenness. But she sat perfectly still in his grasp, and only said, in a low voice, `I entreat you, good gentlemen, do not come near us, do not speak, do not move!'

`Hark!' he exclaimed. `Whose voice was that?'

`Have you recognised him, monsieur?' asked Defarge in a whisper.

He had put up a hand between his eyes and the light, and the very bones of it seemed transparent. So he sat, with a steadfastly vacant gaze, pausing in his work. He never looked at the figure before him, without first looking down on this side of himself, then on that, as if he had lost the habit of associating place with sound; he never spoke, without first pandering in this manner, and forgetting to speak.

`Are you going to finish that pair of shoes to-day?' asked Defarge, motioning to Mr. Lorry to come forward.

`What did you say?'

`Do you mean to finish that pair of shoes to-day?' `I can't say that I mean to. I suppose so. I don't know.'

`And the maker's name?' said Defarge.

Now that he had no work to hold, he laid the knuckles of the right hand in the hollow of the left, and then the knuckles of the left hand in the hollow of the right, and then passed a hand across his bearded chin, and so on in regular changes, without a moment's intermission. The task of recalling him from the vacancy into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.

As the captive of many years sat looking fixedly, by turns, at Mr. Lorry and at Defarge, some long obliterated marks of an actively intent intelligence in the middle of the fore-head, gradually forced themselves through the black mist that had fallen on him. They were overclouded again, they were fainter, they were gone; but they had been there. And so exactly was the expression repeated on the fair young face of her who had crept along the wall to a point where she could see him, and where she now stood looking at him, with hands which at first had been only raised in frightened compassion, if not even to keep him off and shut out the sight of him, but which were now extending towards him, trembling with eagerness to lay the spectral face upon her warm young breast, and love it back to life and hope--so exactly was the expression repeated (though in stronger characters) on her fair young face, that it looked as though it had passed like a moving light, from him to her.

Darkness had fallen on him in its place. He looked at the two, less and less attentively, and his eyes in gloomy abstraction sought the ground and looked about him in the old way. Finally, with a deep long sigh, he took the shoe up, and resumed his work.

`Have you recognised him, monsieur?' asked Defarge in a whisper.

`Yes; for a moment. At first I thought it quite hope-less, but I have unquestionably seen, for a single moment, the face that I once knew so well. Hush! Let us draw further back. Hush!'

She had moved from the wall of the garret, very near to the bench on which he sat. There was something awful in his unconsciousness of the figure that could have put out its hand and touched him as lie stooped over his labour.

Not a word was spoken, not a sound was made. She stood, like a spirit, beside him, and he bent over his work.

Affiliate Marketing - The Step-child Of Online Marketing_61040

Affiliate marketing is a way for you to create sales with advertising online. You抣l find that there are a lot of businesses now moving towards the internet as a way of advertising and even doing their business online. You抣l find that when it comes to sites like Amazon.com. It is a site that really gets the meaning of affiliate marketing. This is one of the ways that you can create awareness and also make some business happen.

With affiliate marketing you will find that it is a way to encourage a business to sell or even advertise products online and they will get their share of commission. You抣l find that back in the day; it was a really bad way of generating business because there were so many people making fake sites. Today, it is not uncommon for someone to look at a product online or to even purchase a product online. You抣l find that these sites are making a lot of money in profit and in commission. It is very important that you consider using affiliate marketing strategies now that the world evolves around E-commerce.

Affiliate marketing is also done with blogs too. You抣l find that these are becoming very common and also there are some sites that will use affiliate marketing as a way for them to do comparison shopping. With situations like that, you抣l be able to hold on to your sales, but also gain commission from mention of other products.

Keep in mind that this type of marketing is the best way to do business, because when you target those who are online, you are able to hit many of your target audiences without having to pay for each market. You will be able to get everyone抯 attention with this type of business.  

Affiliate Marketing - Make Money At Home_61854

Many of us dream of being our own bosses. The lure of massive money and flexible work hours is quite attractive. However, many are afraid to venture elsewhere on their own. They panic that they would not have the capital necessary to purchase a company. Otherwise they don't desire to lose the protection of their day job.

The solution could be opening a home enterprise. The facts of this are you can start your home business without much capital at all. Ask yourself this, do you have an additional room or room in your house. Do you have a working laptop or computer along with a web connection? Do you have a phone line? For those who have these three things you possess the fundamentals of an office from which home-based businesses are usually started.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way for you to get started at your home-based small business. Affiliate marketing will provide you with the opportunity to sell either a product or a benefit. With low capital and little space you may want to concentrate on services.

Once you have made the commitment, you need to judge your skills. What services can you recommend and what skills will you be able to bring. Lots of people start off with affiliate marketing programs from services like ClickBank and PayDotCom. If you're good at web page design, you could record your page with someone such as Yahoo publisher. By doing this your site position will develop traffic with assistance from the search engines like Yahoo. But if yours can be described as a sales internet site, your traffic could translate into increased gross sales. The more exposure to your site gets the better.

The additional factor you can attempt to do is draw traffic toward additional sites. Retail sites along the lines of Amazon as well as EBay have affiliate marketing programs. If you can generate traffic and increase sales, then you definitely make capital. Both companies offer ways to improve revenues by way of links and blogs. These are usually free and worth using. Remember, the more you make the more they make.

Finally, your location can generate income in another manner. When it can be posted on sites along the lines of Yahoo Publisher or Google AdSense, there will be adverts positioned. Every time a visitor clicks on an advertisement you are making cash. The more clicks the more cash. The operators look after all the marketing expenses in addition to placement. Additionally they try to place appropriate ads to your page. If you're selling unusual publications, ads for fish food are not likely going to get clicked.

If you would like to begin working for yourself but suspect you do not have the money, then you're mistaken. If you have a computer and space to put it, then you have all you require. It's also possible to begin you home business plus work it around your job. It is possible to gradually commit more time as your home business grows.

If you're tired of your job and really want to work for yourself, then cease making excuses and do it. However, with affiliate marketing programs and advertising services, you will find that owning your work from home business is easier than you imagine. All it takes is time plus a dedication to succeed. By taking advantage of the affiliate marketing online opportunities that are currently available, you can also make money plus improve your own personal internet marketing skills. Remember you can constantly expand into other areas and venture out completely by yourself later. Start now, begin marketing and get clicking.  

Affiliate Marketing - Jumpstart Your Internet Business_69027

Where does a new internet marketer start? That is a very good question indeed. That is one thing all marketers must know - spot the right business opportunities. It is not easy to acquire this ability. Patience and perseverance is required to spot the lucrative opportunities.

You can use affiliate marketing techniques to help you spot opportunities on the Internet. Use affiliate marketing to promote other people's products and services. When a sale is completed, you earn a percentage of sale amount. If you can't convert the traffic into paying customers, you don't earn a single cent.

There is very little risk involved in affiliate marketing. You start off by driving traffic to the sales page. After about a hundred or a couple of hundred visitors or so, you get a good feel of whether the offer is converting well enough or not.

This is the perfect way to test a market. There is no need to spend money to develop a product, only to realize that nobody wants to buy it. When you find an offer that converts well, simply develop your own products - but do it better.

You see, it all starts from affiliate marketing. If you like, you may even test different markets at one go. Very soon, you will be able to see for yourself, some concrete results - which market is lucrative with rapid buyers, and which market appears to be just luke warm.

Once that is over, just keep your eye on the profitable opportunities. If you want to make more money, just rinse and repeat what you have done.

Here is a business model that has been proven to work - build a list of prospects or customers, and sell them products over and over again. Even though it sounds simple, some marketers are still not building a list.

Without a list, you can't really grow your business. For instance, you may have a $100 product. To make $1000, you have to sell 10 copies of that product. That means having to acquire more new customers. As we all know, acquiring new customers can be costly.

Assume that you don't acquire any more new customers (which is unlikely). Can you still grow your affiliate business? You can work on developing more products to sell to your customers. That means making more sales from your customer database. That greatly increases the customer lifetime value.

The lifetime value of a customer is the amount of money that he spends with you. If you make $2,000 profits just be selling to this same customer, that customer's lifetime value would be $2,000.

Here is where it gets interesting. Now if you know that for every customer you acquire, you will earn an average of $2,000 during a customer's lifetime, how much would you spend to acquire that customer?

This is what many affiliate marketers are not doing enough of. They make one sale, then forget all about the customer. Think of ways to serve the same customer several times over. It's much easier to sell to an existing customer than to sell to a completely new customer.

Setup a simple squeeze page to capture the contact information and keep in contact with your customers. You will be making 3-4 times more than what you are earning now.  

Affiliate Marketing - And The Studying Curve_60930

Once you put up your first website - it's a must to admit that you're pretty inexperienced to the ways of the Web World. You assume that when your web site is up, and you have put your hyperlinks in place, you can be within the money. I, and I am certain many, would love that to be true. Just think how many Super Associates we'd have. I provides you with a small sampling of what to really expect.

The Begin of the Begin

You will be excited at first, and you ought to have a sense of delight in your accomplishment. Granted, it is no small feat to getting an internet site up and online. However this is just the start of your Internet Marketing experience.

After getting your website up, you have to be asking your self -- the place do I begin, or, what do I do now? In case you are wanting cash, which, in most cases people at first are -- you may begin by:

1. Writing articles
2. Optimizing your site for the search engines
3. Placing Adsense in your web site

All this takes time and work. But, while you first begin, you do have time to optimize, to write articles, and to place adsense ads on your site. Why? It has been said that for the subsequent six months or nine months, Google, and probably, the other search engines like google and yahoo, might put you in the Sandbox. Some say the Sandbox exists, some says it does not. No matter it's referred to as, you will see a level of dormancy in your site.

My own pondering is that there could additionally be a pre-set time of six months before you see a rise in your distinctive clicks - I know I did. I really feel that there may be a number of reasons for this:

1. It�s an effective way to guard the Internet neighborhood towards unscrupulous websites - I determine that these websites have a lifespan of six months earlier than individuals give them the boot. It solely takes one particular person to really feel the blunt of a rip-off, before talk within the online forums begins.
2. Websites go up and go down daily. The numerous search engines are taking a glance at saving themselves time and money. If you are still on line after six months or nine months, you�re paying your dues, and so they may figure you may be serious about sustaining a business online.

What Do I Do During That Six or Nine Month Interval

First, and foremost - since I have equipped you with this info - do not get pissed off and throw in the towel. Granted, at first the one clicks you may even see is your personal, but that may change.

Second, start positioning yourself, so when your dormancy with the search engines ends, you've got the quality content, and the quality products to start to fly. Which means, writing articles, getting your title out to the masses, and learning to make probably the most of Adsense.
And when you might have spare change, try your hand at advertising on Adwords.

At first your studying curve is simply out of the beginning gate - take this time to read, buy applicable ebooks, experiment and research. All are important to shifting your studying curve to the professional level.

To conclude, an web site is only a small part, however an essential half, of turning into an Affiliate Marketer. The other vital parts, is persistence, hard work, and marketing. And eventually, for these who still have the fervour after the initial exhilaration of changing into a web based entrepreneur wanes - then you�ll make it.  

Affiliate Marketing - A Lot Of Ways To Earn Money_66400

A lot of people are now getting into online businesses and online marketing either to supplement their 搑eal world?income or for it to become their primary source of income. Why? Because online marketing just provides them a lot of benefits!

First, you can reach just about anybody in the world who has Internet access if you market your products online. That means a wider market for you, which can translate to larger profits. Second, setting up an online business requires only a fraction of the cost required to set up an actual business establishment, which means a lot of savings for the business owner.

Another aspect that has attracted a lot of people towards online marketing is the fact that one doesn抰 have to have his own products to get started. In online marketing, one can start making a lot of money just by selling, or even by just trying to sell, other people抯 products. And getting started with this kind of marketing strategy is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to set up an agreement with an online retailer or merchant, and after everything is settled, one can immediately start making money by selling the merchant抯 or the retailer抯 products.

Incidentally, the most popular and the fastest growing method of selling other people抯 products online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in its simplest definition, is a relationship between an online merchant or retailer, who has products to sell, and his affiliates, who are willing to promote the merchant抯 product on their website.

In a typical affiliate marketing set up, the merchant provides his affiliates with banners and text ads that links to his site. The affiliates will then get these ads posted on their website and they get paid whenever traffic or sales is directed to the merchant抯 website. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other online merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee for the affiliate抯 compensation.

Starting to make money online with affiliate marketing is relatively quick and easy. All that one has to do is to sign up as an affiliate for an online company that offers affiliate programs. An alternative method, and usually an easier one, is to sign up as a member of an affiliate network梐 network that hosts a variety of affiliate programs for different online merchants or retailers. Signing up is usually free, although other companies and networks may require you to pay a particular fee. Such fees, however, are made as payment for additional services that the company may render, like providing you with tools and assistance to jumpstart your online business.

When you sign up with an affiliate marketing program, you are usually required to fill out a form containing information about yourself. Some affiliate programs may also require you to present the URL of your website and describe its contents. This will allow the retailers to verify that you actually have a website with contents that are relevant to their products. Some affiliate programs, however, won抰 require you to have a website. After filling out the form and all, you are then allowed to choose the affiliate programs you want to promote.

After signing up with an affiliate program and being an actual affiliate, you are now ready to start making a lot of money by selling other people抯 product online. How do you make money? There are actually a number of ways for you to earn money as an affiliate, and most of these ways depends on the type of affiliate marketing program you抳e gotten into.

Many affiliate marketing programs compensate their affiliates in either of three ways: pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-sale (PPS), or pay-per-lead (PPL). In pay-per-click affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever he directs traffic to the merchant抯 site. PPS and PPL affiliate marketing programs work rather differently. In PPS, the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into an actual sale. In typical PPS affiliate programs, the affiliate would usually get 15 commission for each conversion. PPL affiliate programs work the same way, although affiliates are paid a fixed fee whenever his referral converts into a lead for the company.

Some affiliate marketing programs are two-tier programs, wherein the affiliate is also allowed to recommend other affiliates to the merchant. In such affiliate programs, the affiliate would not only be paid for the traffic or sales that he would direct to the merchant抯 site but also for the traffic or sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his recommendation.

Yet another way of earning more profits with affiliate marketing is through residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets paid a number of times for as long as the merchant keeps the customer the affiliate has referred to his site. One form of residual program gets the affiliate paid a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the merchant抯 site. Another form of residual affiliate program gets the affiliate paid a percentage every month for as long as the company keeps the referred customer.

With a lot of options available and a lot of ways to earn money, affiliate marketing is undoubtedly the most popular and the easiest way to make money by selling other people抯 products online. As to how much money one can get from affiliate marketing actually depends on the affiliate. A dedicated and hardworking affiliate would certainly get more from the program compared to those affiliates who would simply sign up and forget about the program later.  

charpter 13

The countenance of Anna Mihalovna showed a consciousness that the crucial moment had arrived. With the air of a Petersburg lady of experience, she walked into the room even more boldly than in the morning, keeping Pierre at her side. She felt that as she was bringing the person the dying man wanted to see, she might feel secure as to her reception. With a rapid glance, scanning all the persons in the room, and observing the count’s spiritual adviser, she did not precisely bow down, but seemed somehow suddenly to shrink in stature, and with a tripping amble swam up to the priest and reverentially received a blessing first from one and then from another ecclesiastic.

“Thank God that we are in time,” she said to the priest; “all of us, his kinsfolk, have been in such alarm. This young man is the count’s son,” she added more softly, “It is a terrible moment.”

Having uttered these words she approached the doctor.

“Dear doctor,” she said to him, “this young man is the count’s son. Is there any hope?”

The doctor did not speak but rapidly shrugged his shoulders and turned up his eyes. With precisely the same gesture Anna Mihalovna moved her shoulders and eyes, almost closing her eyelids, sighed and went away from the doctor to Pierre. She addressed Pierre with peculiar deference and tender melancholy.

“Have faith in His mercy,” she said to him, and indicating a sofa for him to sit down and wait for her, she went herself with inaudible steps towards the door, at which every one was looking, and after almost noiselessly opening it, she vanished behind it.

Pierre, having decided to obey his monitress in everything, moved towards the sofa she had pointed out to him. As soon as Anna Mihalovna had disappeared, he noticed that the eyes of all the persons in the room were fixed upon him with something more than curiosity and sympathy in their gaze. He noticed that they were all whispering together, looking towards him with something like awe and even obsequious deference. They showed him a respect such as had never been shown him before. A lady, a stranger to him, the one who had been talking to the priest, got up and offered him her place. An adjutant picked up the glove Pierre had dropped and handed it to him. The doctors respectfully paused in their talk when he passed by them and moved aside to make way for him. Pierre wanted at first to sit somewhere else, so as not to trouble the lady; he would have liked to pick up the glove himself and to walk round the doctors, who were really not at all in the way. But he felt all at once that to do so would be improper; he felt that he was that night a person who had to go through a terrible ceremony which every one expected of him, and that for that reason he was bound to accept service from every one. He took the glove from the adjutant in silence, sat down in the lady’s place, laying his big hands on his knees, sitting in the na?vely symmetrical pose of an Egyptian statue, and decided mentally that it must all inevitably be like this, and that to avoid losing his head and doing something stupid, he must for that evening not act on his own ideas, but abandon himself wholly to the will of those who were guiding him.

Two minutes had not elapsed before Prince Vassily came majestically into the room, wearing his coat with three stars on it, and carrying his head high. He looked as though he had grown thinner since the morning. His eyes seemed larger than usual as he glanced round the room, and caught sight of Pierre. He went up to him, took his hand (a thing he had never done before), and drew it downwards, as though he wanted to try its strength.

charpter12

“Ah, mon ami,” she said, touching his hand with just the same gesture as she had used in the morning with her son. “Believe me, I am suffering as much as you; but be a man.”

“Really, had I not better go?” Pierre asked affectionately, looking at her over his spectacles.

“Ah, mon ami, forget the wrong that may have been done you, think that it is your father … and perhaps in his death agony,” she sighed. “I have loved you like a son from the first. Trust in me, Pierre. I shall not forget your interests.”

Pierre did not understand a word. Again he felt more strongly than before that all this had to be so, and he obediently followed Anna Mihalovna, who was already opening the door. The door led into the vestibule of the back stairs. In the corner sat the princess’s old man-servant knitting stockings. Pierre had never been in this part of the house, and had not even suspected the existence of these apartments. A maid-servant carrying a tray with a decanter overtook them, and Anna Mihalovna (calling her “my dear” and “my good girl”) asked her after the princesses’ health, and drew Pierre further along the stone corridor. The first door to the left led out of the corridor into the princesses’ living rooms. The maid with the decanter was in a hurry (everything seemed to be done in a hurry at that moment in the house), and she did not close the door after her. Pierre and Anna Mihalovna, as they passed by, glanced unconsciously into the room where the eldest princess and Prince Vassily were sitting close together talking. On catching sight of their passing figures, Prince Vassily made an impatient movement and drew back, the princess jumped up, and with a despairing gesture she closed the door, slamming it with all her might. This action was so unlike the princess’s habitual composure, the dismay depicted on the countenance of Prince Vassily was so out of keeping with his dignity, that Pierre stopped short and looked inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide. Anna Mihalovna manifested no surprise; she simply smiled a little and sighed, as though to show that she had anticipated all that.

“Be a man, mon ami, I am looking after your interests,” she said in response to his look of inquiry, and she walked more quickly along the corridor.

Pierre had no notion what was going on, and no inkling of what was meant by watching over his interests. But he felt that all this had had to be so. From the corridor they went into the half-lighted hall adjoining the count’s reception-room. This was one of the cold, sumptuously furnished rooms which Pierre knew, leading from the visitors’ staircase. But even in this apartment there was an empty bath standing in the middle of the floor, and water had been spilt on the carpet. They were met here by a servant and a church attendant with a censer, who walked on tiptoe and took no notice of them. They went into the reception-room opening into the winter garden, a room Pierre knew well, with its two Italian windows, its big bust and full-length portrait of Catherine. The same persons were all sitting almost in the same positions exchanging whispers in the reception-room. All ceased speaking and looked round at Anna Mihalovna, as she came in with her pale, tear-stained face, and at the big, stout figure of Pierre, as with downcast head he followed her submissively.

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

AT THE TIME that these conversations were taking place in the reception-room and the princess’s room, a carriage with Pierre (who had been sent for) and Anna Mihalovna (who had thought fit to come with him) in it was driving into the court of Count Bezuhov’s mansion. When the sound of the carriage wheels was muffled by the straw in the street, Anna Mihalovna turned with words of consolation to her companion, discovered that he was asleep in his corner of the carriage, and waked him up. Rousing himself, Pierre followed Anna Mihalovna out of the carriage, and only then began to think of the interview with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they had driven not up to the visitors’ approach, but to the back entrance. As he got down from the carriage step, two men in the dress of tradesmen hastily scurried away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pierre, as he stood waiting, noticed several other similar persons standing in the shadow of the house on both sides. But neither Anna Mihalovna nor the footman and coachman, who must have seen these people, took any notice of them. So it must be all right, Pierre decided, and he followed Anna Mihalovna. With hurrying footsteps Anna Mihalovna walked up the dimly lighted, narrow stone staircase, urging on Pierre, who lagged behind. Though Pierre had no notion why he had to go to the count at all, and still less why he had to go by the back stairs, yet, impressed by Anna Mihalovna’s assurance and haste, he made up his mind that it was undoubtedly necessary for him to do so. Half-way up the stairs they were almost knocked over by some men with pails, who ran down towards them, tramping loudly with their big boots. These men huddled up against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mihalovna pass, and showed not the slightest surprise at seeing them.

“Is this the princess’s side of the house?” Anna Mihalovna asked of one of them …

“Yes, it is,” answered the footman in a bold, loud voice, as though anything were permissible at such a time; “the door on the left, ma’am.”

“Perhaps the count has not asked for me,” said Pierre, as he reached the landing. “I had better go to my own room.” Anna Mihalovna stopped for Pierre to catch her up.

“I know your heart,” repeated the prince.

“I know your heart,” repeated the prince. “I value your affection, and I could wish you had the same opinion of me. Calm yourself and let us talk sensibly while there is time—perhaps twenty-four hours, perhaps one. Tell me all you know about the will, and what’s of most consequence, where it is; you must know. We will take it now at once and show it to the count. He has no doubt forgotten about it and would wish to destroy it. You understand that my desire is to carry out his wishes religiously. That is what I came here for. I am only here to be of use to him and to you.”

“Now I see it all. I know whose plotting this is. I know,” the princess was saying.

“That’s not the point, my dear.”

“It’s all your precious Anna Mihalovna, your protégée whom I wouldn’t take as a housemaid, the nasty creature.”

“Do not let us waste time.”

“Oh, don’t talk to me! Last winter she forced her way in here and told such a pack of vile, mean tales to the count about all of us, especially Sophie—I can’t repeat them—that it made the count ill, and he wouldn’t see us for a fortnight. It was at that time, I know, he wrote that hateful, infamous document, but I thought it was of no consequence.”

“There we are. Why didn’t you tell us about it before?”

“It’s in the inlaid portfolio that he keeps under his pillow. Now I know,” said the princess, making no reply. “Yes, if I have a sin to my account, a great sin, it’s my hatred of that infamous woman,” almost shrieked the princess, utterly transformed. “And why does she force herself in here? But I’ll have it out with her. The time will come!”

“My dear princess, Katerina Semyonovna!”

“My dear princess, Katerina Semyonovna!” Prince Vassily began impatiently, “I have come to you not to provoke you, but to talk to you as a kinswoman, a good, kind-hearted, true kinswoman, of your own interests. I tell you for the tenth time that if the letter to the Emperor and the will in Pierre’s favour are among the count’s papers, you, my dear girl, and your sisters are not heiresses. If you don’t believe me, believe people who know; I have just been talking to Dmitry Onufritch” (this was the family solicitor); “he said the same.”

There was obviously some sudden change in the princess’s ideas; her thin lips turned white (her eyes did not change), and when she began to speak, her voice passed through transitions, which she clearly did not herself anticipate.

“That would be a pretty thing,” she said. “I wanted nothing, and I want nothing.” She flung her dog off her lap and smoothed out the folds of her skirt.

“That’s the gratitude, that’s the recognition people get who have sacrificed everything for him,” she said. “Very nice! Excellent! I don’t want anything, prince.”

“Yes, but you are not alone, you have sisters,” answered Prince Vassily. But the princess did not heed him.

“Yes, I knew it long ago, but I’d forgotten that I could expect nothing in this house but baseness, deceit, envy, scheming, nothing but ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude …”

“Do you or do you not know where that will is?” asked Prince Vassily, the twitching of his cheeks more marked than ever.

“Yes, I have been foolish; I still kept faith in people, and cared for them and sacrificed myself. But no one succeeds except those who are base and vile. I know whose plotting this is.”

The princess would have risen, but the prince held her by the arm. The princess had the air of a person who has suddenly lost faith in the whole human race. She looked viciously at her companion.

“There is still time, my dear. Remember, Katish, that all this was done heedlessly, in a moment of anger, of illness, and then forgotten. Our duty, my dear girl, is to correct his mistake, to soften his last moments by not letting him commit this injustice, not letting him die with the thought that he has made miserable those …”

“Those who have sacrificed everything for him,” the princess caught him up; and she made an impulsive effort again to stand up, but the prince would not let her, “a sacrifice he has never known how to appreciate. No, mon cousin,” she added, with a sigh, “I will remember that one can expect no reward in this world, that in this world there is no honour, no justice. Cunning and wickedness is what one wants in this world.”

“Come, voyons, calm yourself; I know your noble heart.”

“No, I have a wicked heart.”