Pagina 282 de 3800

When the twenty minutes had elapsed and the time had come for the

old prince to get up, Tikhon came to call the young prince to his

father. The old man made a departure from his usual routine in

honor of his son's arrival: he gave orders to admit him to his

apartments while he dressed for dinner. The old prince always

dressed in old-fashioned style, wearing an antique coat and

powdered hair; and when Prince Andrew entered his father's

dressing room (not with the contemptuous look and manner he wore

in drawing rooms, but with the animated face with which he talked

to Pierre), the old man was sitting on a large leather-covered

chair, wrapped in a powdering mantle, entrusting his head to

Tikhon.

"Ah! here's the warrior! Wants to vanquish Buonaparte?" said the

old man, shaking his powdered head as much as the tail, which

Tikhon was holding fast to plait, would allow.