see the
count, he's waiting for me, I'm late--Good-bye! Au revoir, prince!"--and
the general bolted at full speed.

"Oh, yes--I know what count you're going to see!" remarked his wife in
a cutting manner, as she turned her angry eyes on the prince. "Now
then, what's all this about?--What abbot--Who's Pafnute?" she added,
brusquely.

"Mamma!" said Alexandra, shocked at her rudeness.

Aglaya stamped her foot.

"Nonsense! Let me alone!" said the angry mother. "Now then, prince, sit
down here, no, nearer, come nearer the light! I want to have a good look
at you. So, now then, who is this abbot?"

"Abbot Pafnute," said our friend, seriously and with deference.

"Pafnute, yes. And who was he?"

Mrs. Epanchin put these questions hastily and brusquely, and when the
prince answered she nodded her head sagely at each word he said.

"The Abbot Pafnute lived in the fourteenth century," began the prince;
"he was in charge of one of the monasteries on the Volga, about where
our present Kostroma government lies. He went to Oreol and helped in the
great matters then going on in the religious world; he signed an edict
there, and I have seen a print of his signature; it struck me, so I
copied it. When the general asked me, in his study, to write something
for him, to show my handwriting, I wrote 'The Abbot Pafnute signed
this,' in the exact handwriting of the abbot. The general liked it very
much, and that's why he recalled it just now."

"Aglaya, make a note of 'Pafnute,' or we shall forget him. H'm! and
where is this signature?"

"I think it was left on the general's table."

"Let it be sent for at once!"

"Oh, I'll write you a new one in half a minute," said the prince, "if
you like!"

"Of course, mamma!" said Alexandra. "But let's have lunch now, we are
all hungry!"

"Yes; come along, prince," said the mother, "are you very hungry?"

"Yes; I must say that I am pretty hungry, thanks very much."

"H'm! I like to see that you know your manners; and you are by no means
such a person as the general thought fit to describe you. Come along;
you sit here, opposite to me," she continued, "I wish to be able to see
your face. Alexandra, Adelaida, look after the prince! He doesn't seem
so very ill, does he? I don't think he requires a napkin under his chin,
after all; are you accustomed to having one on, prince?"

"Formerly, when I was seven years old or so. I believe I wore one; but
now I usually hold my napkin on my knee