"Let us wait until evening.

The doctors are expecting a crisis." "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.