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He was always hearing such words as: "With your remarkable

kindness," or, "With your excellent heart," "You are yourself so

honorable, Count," or, "Were he as clever as you," and so on,

till he began sincerely to believe in his own exceptional

kindness and extraordinary intelligence, the more so as in the

depth of his heart it had always seemed to him that he really was

very kind and intelligent. Even people who had formerly been

spiteful toward him and evidently unfriendly now became gentle

and affectionate. The angry eldest princess, with the long waist

and hair plastered down like a doll's, had come into Pierre's

room after the funeral. With drooping eyes and frequent blushes

she told him she was very sorry about their past

misunderstandings and did not now feel she had a right to ask him

for anything, except only for permission, after the blow she had

received, to remain for a few weeks longer in the house she so

loved and where she had sacrificed so much.