Chapter 19 - Page 2

mother was Barbara Dimitrievna, daughter of Dimitri
Nicolaevitch, and your grandmother was Natalia Nicolaevna."

"Then he is our THIRD cousin, Mamma," said the eldest girl.

"Oh, how you always confuse me!" was her mother's angry reply.
"Not third cousin, but COUSIN GERMAN--that is your relationship
to Etienne. He is an officer now. Did you know it? It is not well
that he should have his own way too much. You young men need
keeping in hand, or--! Well, you are not vexed because your old
aunt tells you the plain truth? I always kept Etienne strictly in
hand, for I found it necessary to do so."

"Yes, that is how our relationship stands," she went on. "Prince
Ivan Ivanovitch is my uncle, and your late mother's uncle also.
Consequently I must have been your mother's first cousin--no,
second cousin. Yes, that is it. Tell me, have you been to call on
Prince Ivan yet?"

I said no, but that I was just going to.

"Ah, is it possible?" she cried. "Why, you ought to have paid him
the first call of all! Surely you know that he stands to you in
the position of a father? He has no children of his own, and his
only heirs are yourself and my children. You ought to pay him all
possible deference, both because of his age, and because of his
position in the world, and because of everything else. I know
that you young fellows of the present day think nothing of
relationships and are not fond of old men, yet do you listen to
me, your old aunt, for I am fond of you, and was fond of your
mother, and had a great--a very great-liking and respect for your
grandmother. You must not fail to call upon him on any account."

I said that I would certainly go, and since my present call
seemed to me to have lasted long enough, I rose, and was about to
depart, but she restrained me.

"No, wait a minute," she cried. "Where is your father, Lise? Go
and tell him to come here. He will be so glad to see you," she
added, turning to me.

Two minutes later Prince Michael entered. He was a short, thick-
set gentleman, very slovenly dressed and ill-shaven, yet wearing
such an air of indifference that he looked almost a fool. He was
not in the least glad to see me--at all events he did not intimate
that he was; but the Princess (who appeared to stand in
considerable awe of him) hastened to say:

"Is not Woldemar here" (she seemed to have forgotten my name)
"exactly like his mother?" and she gave her husband a glance
which forced him to guess what she wanted. Accordingly he
approached me with his usual passionless, half-discontented
expression, and held out to me an unshaven cheek to kiss.