Nor did she cry when he was gone; but for several days she sat in her room dry-eyed, taking no interest in anything and only saying now and then, "Oh, why did he go away?" But a fortnight after his departure, to the surprise of those around her, she recovered from her mental sickness just as suddenly and became her old self again, but with a change in her moral physiognomy, as a child gets up after a long illness with a changed expression of face.

During that year after his son's departure, Prince Nicholas Bolkonski's health and temper became much worse.

He grew still more irritable, and it was Princess Mary who generally bore the brunt of his frequent fits of unprovoked anger.