sort of an education could they have got in the country? The eldest boy
will soon be thirteen, and the second one eleven. As yet, my cousin,
they are quite untaught, and do not know even how to enter a room."

"Nevertheless" said the Prince, "I cannot understand these complaints
of ruined fortunes. He has a very handsome income, and Natalia has
Chabarovska, where we used to act plays, and which I know as well as
I do my own hand. It is a splendid property, and ought to bring in an
excellent return."

"Well," said Grandmamma with a sad expression on her face, "I do not
mind telling you, as my most intimate friend, that all this seems to me
a mere pretext on his part for living alone, for strolling about from
club to club, for attending dinner-parties, and for resorting to--well,
who knows what? She suspects nothing; you know her angelic sweetness and
her implicit trust of him in everything. He had only to tell her that
the children must go to Moscow and that she must be left behind in the
country with a stupid governess for company, for her to believe him! I
almost think that if he were to say that the children must be whipped
just as the Princess Barbara whips hers, she would believe even that!"
and Grandmamma leant back in her arm-chair with an expression of
contempt. Then, after a moment of silence, during which she took her
handkerchief out of her pocket to wipe away a few tears which had stolen
down her cheeks, she went, on:

"Yes, my friend, I often think that he cannot value and understand
her properly, and that, for all her goodness and love of him and her
endeavours to conceal her grief (which, however as I know only too well,
exists). She cannot really he happy with him. Mark my words if he does
not--" Here Grandmamma buried her face in the handkerchief.