"What a nice girl!" said the princess.

"Not nice, maman; she's an exquisite girl; there's no one else like her.

" "So you are expecting Stepan Arkadyevitch today?" said Sergey Ivanovitch, evidently not disposed to pursue the conversation about Varenka.

" It would be difficult to find two sons-in-law more unlike than yours," he said with a subtle smile.

" One all movement, only living in society, like a fish in water; the other our Kostya, lively, alert, quick in everything, but as soon as he is in society, he either sinks into apathy, or struggles helplessly like a fish on land.