He's not there himself, so you'll have to go in and ask the princesses; and from there go on to the Rasgulyay--the coachman Ipatka knows--and look up the gypsy Ilyushka, the one who danced at Count Orlov's, you remember, in a white Cossack coat, and bring him along to me.

" "And am I to bring the gypsy girls along with him?" asked Nicholas, laughing.

" Dear, dear!..." At that moment, with noiseless footsteps and with the businesslike, preoccupied, yet meekly Christian look which never left her face, Anna Mikhaylovna entered the hall.

Though she came upon the count in his dressing gown every day, he invariably became confused and begged her to excuse his costume.