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"But one cannot delay, Prince, at such a moment! Consider that

the welfare of his soul is at stake. Ah, it is awful: the duties

of a Christian..."

A door of one of the inner rooms opened and one of the

princesses, the count's niece, entered with a cold, stern face.

The length of her body was strikingly out of proportion to her

short legs. Prince Vasili turned to her.

"Well, how is he?"

"Still the same; but what can you expect, this noise..." said the

princess, looking at Anna Mikhaylovna as at a stranger.

"Ah, my dear, I hardly knew you," said Anna Mikhaylovna with a

happy smile, ambling lightly up to the count's niece. "I have

come, and am at your service to help you nurse my uncle. I

imagine what you have gone through," and she sympathetically

turned up her eyes.