Anna Pavlovna received Pierre with a shade of melancholy, evidently relating to the young man's recent loss by the death of Count Bezukhov (everyone constantly considered it a duty to assure Pierre that he was greatly afflicted by the death of the father he had hardly known), and her melancholy was just like the august melancholy she showed at the mention of her most august Majesty the Empress Marya Fedorovna.

Pierre felt flattered by this.

Anna Pavlovna arranged the different groups in her drawing room with her habitual skill.

The large group, in which were Prince Vasili and the generals, had the benefit of the diplomat.