Out of delicacy I pretended to notice nothing and turned aside, but the
other footmen present gathered round and looked approvingly at the old
servant.

"Hm--well, I DID tear it in pieces," at length confessed Etienne,
shrinking from further explanations. "However, I will pay for it. Did
you ever hear anything so absurd?" he added to me as he drew me towards
the drawing-room.

"But excuse me, sir; HOW are you going to pay for it? I know your ways
of paying. You have owed Maria Valericana twenty copecks these eight
months now, and you have owed me something for two years, and Peter
for--"

"Hold your tongue, will you!" shouted the young fellow, pale with rage,
"I shall report you for this."

"Oh, you may do so," said the footman. "Yet it is not fair, your
highness," he added, with a peculiar stress on the title, as he departed
with the ladies' wraps to the cloak-room. We ourselves entered the
salon.

"Quite right, footman," remarked someone approvingly from the ball
behind us.

Grandmamma had a peculiar way of employing, now the second person
singular, now the second person plural, in order to indicate her opinion
of people. When the young Prince Etienne went up to her she addressed
him as "YOU," and altogether looked at him with such an expression