“I’ve guessed it, I’ve guessed it,” cried Felisata, in a rapture of joy. “Well, prince, say what you like, but it’s your _plain_ duty to tell us the name of your beauty; come now, _isn’t_ it?” “Of course, of course, prince.” “Is she in this town?” “Dear prince, _do_ tell us.” “_Darling_ prince, do, _do_ tell us; you positively _must_,” was heard on all sides. “_Mesdames, mes—dames_; if you must know, I will go so far as to say that it is the most charming, and be—witching, and vir—tuous lady I know,” said the prince, unctuously. “The most bewitching? and belonging to this place? Who _can_ it be?” cried the ladies, interchanging looks and signs. “Why, of course, the young lady who is considered the reigning beauty here,” remarked Natalia Dimitrievna, rubbing her hands and looking hard at Zina with those cat’s-eyes of hers. All joined her in staring at Zina. “But, prince, if you dream those sort of things, why should not you marry somebody _bona fide_?” asked Felisata, looking around her with a significant expression. “We would marry you off beautifully, prince!” said somebody else. “Oh, dear prince, _do_ marry!” chirped another. “Marry, marry, _do_ marry!” was now the cry on all sides. “Ye—yes. Why should I not ma—arry!” said the old man, confused and bewildered with all the cries and exclamations around him. “Uncle!” cried Mosgliakoff. “Ye—yes, my boy, quite so; I un—derstand what you mean. I may as well tell you, ladies, that I am not in a position to marry again; and having passed one most delightful evening with our fascinating hostess, I must start away to-morrow to the Hermitage, and then I shall go straight off abroad, and study the question of the enlightenment of Europe.” Zina shuddered, and looked over at her mother with an expression of unspeakable anguish. But Maria Alexandrovna had now made up her mind how to act; all this while she had played a mere waiting game, observing closely and carefully all that was said or done, although she could see only too clearly that her plans were undermined, and that her foes had come about her in numbers which were too great to be altogether pleasant. At last, however, she comprehended the situation, she thought, completely. She had gauged how the matter stood in all its branches, and she determined to slay the hundred-headed hydra at one fell blow! With great majesty, then, she rose from her seat, and approached the tea-table, stalking across the room with firm and dignified tread, as she looked around upon her pigmy foes. The fire of inspiration blazed in her eyes. She resolved to smite once, and annihilate this vile nest of poisonous scandal-adders: to destroy the miserable Mosgliakoff, as though he were a blackbeetle, and with one triumphant blow to reassert all her influence over this miserable old idiot-prince!