"i’ll tell you what, my friend," cried mrs. epanchin, of a sudden, "here are we all sitting here and imagining we are very clever, and perhaps laughing at the prince, some of us, and meanwhile he has received a letter this very day in which that same claimant renounces his claim, and begs the prince’s pardon. there! we don’t often get that sort of letter; and yet we are not ashamed to walk with our noses in the air before him."