"Well, it was to have lasted three months, but it was extended to six; and when the princess returned she was an altered being; I do not mean in appearance, I refer to her character."
Light began to dawn upon Paul. The Princess Natalie had not returned to Czernova; instead there had come her living image—Barbara!
"What remarkable development had the princess's character undergone?"
"Beforetime she was a gay and vivacious maiden. She returned grave and sedate. This change was attributed to the earthquake."
"The earthquake?"
"Yes. Don't you remember the great upheaval on the Dalmatian littoral two years ago?"
"Ah! I remember something of the sort, now I come to think of it."
"Well, the terrible scenes witnessed by Princess Natalie, together with her own nearness to death, seem to have sobered her from girlhood into womanhood. From that time she began to take a keen interest in state affairs, which she had previously regarded as boredom."
"Barbara was keenly interested in politics," thought Paul.
"Beforetime her predilections, if she had any, were in favor of Russia. She returned divested of her Muscovite sympathies."