and two other persons came , the brothers , i was soon to discover , pierre and andre , both of them besotted and full of dull slurred drunken humor , and four ladies , fancily dressed , two young and two old , cousins , it seemed , and permanent residents of this house , the old ones being silent except for occasional confused questions as they were both hard of hearing and a little decrepit , the young ones past their prime but lively of mind and well-bred .