One of the next arrivals was a stout,
heavily built young man with close-cropped hair,
spectacles,
the light-colored breeches fashionable
at that time, a very high ruffle,
and a brown dress coat. This stout
young man was an illegitimate son of Count Bezukhov,
a well-known grandee of Catherine's time
who now lay dying in Moscow.
The young man had not yet entered either the military
or civil service,
as he had only just returned from abroad
where he had been educated,
and this was his first appearance in society.
Anna Pavlovna greeted him with
the nod she accorded to the lowest hierarchy
in her drawing room.
But in spite of this lowest-grade greeting,
a look of anxiety andfear,
as at the sight of something too
large and unsuited to the place,
came over her face when she saw Pierre enter.
Though he was certainly rather bigger
than the other men in the room,
her anxiety could only have reference
to the clever though shy,
but observant and natural,
expression which distinguished him
from everyone else in that drawing room.