" "How handsome the old man still was only a year ago!" remarked the countess.

" I have never seen a handsomer man.

" "He is very much altered now," said Anna Mikhaylovna.

" Well, as I was saying, Prince Vasili is the next heir through his wife, but the count is very fond of Pierre, looked after his education, and wrote to the Emperor about him; so that in the case of his death--and he is so ill that he may die at any moment, and Dr.