]

BARON RAFF. Yes.[5] What a mistake it is to be sincere!

PRINCE PETRO. The only folly you have never committed, Baron.

BARON RAFF. One has only one head, you know, Prince.

PRINCE PAUL. My dear Baron, your head is the last thing any one would
wish to take from you. (_Pulls out snuffbox and offers it to PRINCE
PETROVITCH._)

PRINCE PETRO. Thanks, Prince! Thanks!

PRINCE PAUL. Very delicate, isn't it? I get it direct from Paris. But
under this vulgar Republic everything has degenerated over there.
"Cotelettes a l'imperiale" vanished, of course, with the Bourbon, and
omelettes went out with the Orleanists. La belle France is entirely
ruined, Prince, through bad morals and worse cookery. (_Enter the
MARQUIS DE POIVRARD._) Ah! Marquis. I trust Madame la Marquise is well.

MARQUIS DE P. You ought to know better than I do, Prince Paul; you see
more _of_ her.

PRINCE PAUL (_bowing_). Perhaps I see more _in_ her, Marquis. Your wife
is really a charming woman, so full of _esprit_, and so satirical too;
she talks continually of you when we are together.

PRINCE PETRO. (_looking at the clock_). His Majesty is a little late
to-day, is he not?

PRINCE PAUL. What has happened to you, my dear Petrovitch? you seem
quite out of sorts. You haven't quarrelled with your cook, I hope? What
a tragedy that would be for you; you would lose all your friends.

PRINCE PETRO. I fear I wouldn't be so fortunate as that. You forget I
would still have my purse.[6] But you are wrong for once; my chef and I
are on excellent[7] terms.

PRINCE PAUL. Then your creditors or Mademoiselle Vera Sabouroff have
been writing to you? I find both of them such excellent correspondents.
But really you needn't be alarmed. I find the most violent proclamations
from the Executive Committee, as they call it, left all over my house. I
never read them; they are so badly spelt as a rule.

PRINCE PETRO. Wrong again, Prince; the Nihilists leave me alone for some
reason or other.

PRINCE PAUL (_aside_). Ah! true. I forgot. Indifference is the revenge
the world takes on mediocrities.

PRINCE PETRO. I am bored with life,[8] Prince. Since the opera season
ended I have been a perpetual martyr to ennui.

PRINCE PAUL. The maladie du siecle! You want a new excitement, Prince.
Let me see--you have been married twice already; suppose you
try--falling in love, for once.

BARON R. Prince, I have been thinking a good deal lately--

PRINCE PAUL (_interrupting_). Y