From the far side of the house through the closed doors came the sound of difficult passages--twenty times repeated--of a sonata by Dussek.

Just then a closed carriage and another with a hood drove up to the porch.

Prince Andrew got out of the carriage, helped his little wife to alight, and let her pass into the house before him.

Old Tikhon, wearing a wig, put his head out of the door of the antechamber, reported in a whisper that the prince was sleeping, and hastily closed the door.

Tikhon knew that neither the son's arrival nor any other unusual event must be allowed to disturb the appointed order of the day.