ffered for it. But the story of the duel, confirmed
by Pierre's rupture with his wife, was the talk of society. Pierre
who had been regarded with patronizing condescension when he was an
illegitimate son, and petted and extolled when he was the best match
in Russia, had sunk greatly in the esteem of society after his
marriage--when the marriageable daughters and their mothers had nothing
to hope from him--especially as he did not know how, and did not wish,
to court society's favor. Now he alone was blamed for what had happened,
he was said to be insanely jealous and subject like his father to fits
of bloodthirsty rage. And when after Pierre's departure Helene returned
to Petersburg, she was received by all her acquaintances not only
cordially, but even with a shade of deference due to her misfortune.
When conversation turned on her husband Helene assumed a dignified
expression, which with characteristic tact she had acquired though she
did not understand its significance. This expression suggested that she
had resolved to endure her troubles uncomplainingly and that her husband
was a cross laid upon her by God. Prince Vasili expressed his opinion
more openly. He shrugged his shoulders when Pierre was mentioned and,
pointing to his forehead, remarked:

"A bit touched--I always said so."

"I said from the first," declared Anna Pavlovna referring to Pierre, "I
said at the time and before anyone else" (she insisted on her priority)
"that that senseless young man was spoiled by the depraved ideas of
these days. I said so even at the time when everybody was in raptures
about him, when he had just returned from abroad, and when, if you
remember, he posed as a sort of Marat at one of my soirees. And how has
it ended? I was against this marriage even then and foretold all that
has happened."

Anna Pavlovna continued to give on free evenings the same kind of
soirees as before--such as she alone had the gift of arranging--at which
was to be found "the cream of really good society, the bloom of the
intellectual essence of Petersburg," as she herself put it. Besides
this refined selection of society Anna Pavlovna's receptions were
also distinguished by the fact that she always presented some new and
interesting person to the visitors and that nowhere else was the state
of the political thermometer of legitimate Petersburg court society so
dearly and distinctly indicated.

Toward the end of 1806, when all the sad details of Napo