"Then I will bid her wait," and Agrippina Petrovna glided out of the
dining-room, first replacing the crumb-brush, which lay on the table,
in its holder.

Nekhludoff opened the perfumed letter and began to read:

"In fulfillment of the duty I assumed of being your memory,"
the letter ran, "I call to your mind that you have been
summoned to serve as juror to-day, the 28th of April, and
that, therefore, you cannot accompany us and Kolosoff to the
art exhibition, as you promised yesterday in your customary
forgetfulness; à moins que vous ne soyez disposé à payer à
la cour d'assises les 300 rubles d'amende que vous vous
refusez pour votre cheval, for your failure to appear in
time. I remembered it yesterday, when you had left. So keep
it in mind.

"PRINCESS M. KORCHAGIN."

On the other side was a postscript:

"Maman vous fait dire que votre couvert vous attendra jusqu'
à la nuit. Venez absolument à quelle heure que cela soit. M. K."

Nekhludoff knit his brows. The note was the continuation of a skillful
strategem whereby the Princess sought, for the last two months, to
fasten him with invisible bonds. But Nekhludoff, besides the usual
irresoluteness before marriage of people of his age, and who are not
passionately in love, had an important reason for withholding his
offer of marriage for the time being. The reason was not that ten