You see how he's been with her all day... Natasha, what have I done to deserve it?..." And again she began to sob, more bitterly than before.

Natasha lifted her up, hugged her, and, smiling through her tears, began comforting her.

"Sonya, don't believe her, darling! Don't believe her! Do you remember how we and Nicholas, all three of us, talked in the sitting room after supper? Why, we settled how everything was to be.