BOOK FIVE: 1806 - 07
11. CHAPTER XI
(continued)
"Plans!" repeated Prince Andrew ironically. "My plans?" he said,
as if astonished at the word. "Well, you see, I'm building. I mean
to settle here altogether next year...."
Pierre looked silently and searchingly into Prince Andrew's face,
which had grown much older.
"No, I meant to ask..." Pierre began, but Prince Andrew
interrupted him.
"But why talk of me?... Talk to me, yes, tell me about your
travels and all you have been doing on your estates."
Pierre began describing what he had done on his estates, trying as
far as possible to conceal his own part in the improvements that had
been made. Prince Andrew several times prompted Pierre's story of what
he had been doing, as though it were all an old-time story, and he
listened not only without interest but even as if ashamed of what
Pierre was telling him.
Pierre felt uncomfortable and even depressed in his friend's company
and at last became silent.
"I'll tell you what, my dear fellow," said Prince Andrew, who
evidently also felt depressed and constrained with his visitor, "I
am only bivouacking here and have just come to look round. I am
going back to my sister today. I will introduce you to her. But of
course you know her already," he said, evidently trying to entertain a
visitor with whom he now found nothing in common. "We will go after
dinner. And would you now like to look round my place?"
They went out and walked about till dinnertime, talking of the
political news and common acquaintances like people who do not know
each other intimately. Prince Andrew spoke with some animation and
interest only of the new homestead he was constructing and its
buildings, but even here, while on the scaffolding, in the midst of
a talk explaining the future arrangements of the house, he interrupted
himself:
"However, this is not at all interesting. Let us have dinner, and
then we'll set off."
At dinner, conversation turned on Pierre's marriage.
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