Book Eight: 1811-12 - Chapter XXI

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Pierre drove to Marya Dmitrievna's to tell her of the fulfillment ofher wish that Kuragin should be banished from Moscow. The wholehouse was in a state of alarm and commotion. Natasha was very ill,having, as Marya Dmitrievna told him in secret, poisoned herself thenight after she had been told that Anatole was married, with somearsenic she had stealthily procured. After swallowing a little she hadbeen so frightened that she woke Sonya and told her what she had done.The necessary antidotes had been administered in time and she wasnow out of danger, though still so weak that it was out of thequestion to move her to the country, and so the countess had been sentfor. Pierre saw the distracted count, and Sonya, who had atear-stained face, but he could not see Natasha.

　　Pierre dined at the club that day and heard on all sides gossipabout the attempted abduction of Rostova. He resolutely denied theserumors, assuring everyone that nothing had happened except that hisbrother-in-law had proposed to her and been refused. It seemed toPierre that it was his duty to conceal the whole affair andre-establish Natasha's reputation.

　　He was awaiting Prince Andrew's return with dread and went every dayto the old prince's for news of him.

　　Old Prince Bolkonski heard all the rumors current in the town fromMademoiselle Bourienne and had read the note to Princess Mary in whichNatasha had broken off her engagement. He seemed in better spiritsthan usual and awaited his son with great impatience.

　　Some days after Anatole's departure Pierre received a note fromPrince Andrew, informing him of his arrival and asking him to cometo see him.

　　As soon as he reached Moscow, Prince Andrew had received from hisfather Natasha's note to Princess Mary breaking off her engagement(Mademoiselle Bourienne had purloined it from Princess Mary andgiven it to the old prince), and he heard from him the story ofNatasha's elopement, with additions.

　　Prince Andrew had arrived in the evening and Pierre came to seehim next morning. Pierre expected to find Prince Andrew in almostthe same state as Natasha and was therefore surprised on enteringthe drawing room to hear him in the study talking in a loud animatedvoice about some intrigue going on in Petersburg. The old prince'svoice and another now and then interrupted him. Princess Mary came outto meet Pierre. She sighed, looking toward the door of the roomwhere Prince Andrew was, evidently intending to express her sympathywith his sorrow, but Pierre saw by her face that she was glad bothat what had happened and at the way her brother had taken the newsof Natasha's faithlessness.

　　"He says he expected it," she remarked. "I know his pride will notlet him express his feelings, but still he has taken it better, farbetter, than I expected. Evidently it had to be...."

　　"But is it possible that all is really ended?" asked Pierre.

　　Princess Mary looked at him with astonishment. She did notunderstand how he could ask such a question. Pierre went into thestudy. Prince Andrew, greatly changed and plainly in better health,but with a fresh horizontal wrinkle between his brows, stood incivilian dress facing his father and Prince Meshcherski, warmlydisputing and vigorously gesticulating. The conversation was aboutSperanski- the news of whose sudden exile and alleged treachery hadjust reached Moscow.

　　"Now he is censured and accused by all who were enthusiastic abouthim a month ago," Prince Andrew was saying, "and by those who wereunable to understand his aims. To judge a man who is in disfavor andto throw on him all the blame of other men's mistakes is very easy,but I maintain that if anything good has been accomplished in thisreign it was done by him, by him alone."

　　He paused at the sight of Pierre. His face quivered andimmediately assumed a vindictive expression.

　　"Posterity will do him justice," he concluded, and at once turned toPierre.

　　"Well, how are you? Still getting stouter?" he said withanimation, but the new wrinkle on his forehead deepened. "Yes, I amwell," he said in answer to Pierre's question, and smiled.

　　To Pierre that smile said plainly: "I am well, but my health isnow of no use to anyone."

　　After a few words to Pierre about the awful roads from the Polishfrontier, about people he had met in Switzerland who knew Pierre,and about M. Dessalles, whom he had brought from abroad to be hisson's tutor, Prince Andrew again joined warmly in the conversationabout Speranski which was still going on between the two old men.

　　"If there were treason, or proofs of secret relations with Napoleon,they would have been made public," he said with warmth and haste. "Ido not, and never did, like Speranski personally, but I like justice!"

　　Pierre now recognized in his friend a need with which he was onlytoo familiar, to get excited and to have arguments about extraneousmatters in order to stifle thoughts that were too oppressive and toointimate. When Prince Meshcherski had left, Prince Andrew tookPierre's arm and asked him into the room that had been assigned him. Abed had been made up there, and some open portmanteaus and trunksstood about. Prince Andrew went to one and took out a small casket,from which he drew a packet wrapped in paper. He did it all silentlyand very quickly. He stood up and coughed. His face was gloomy and hislips compressed.

　　"Forgive me for troubling you..."

　　Pierre saw that Prince Andrew was going to speak of Natasha, and hisbroad face expressed pity and sympathy. This expression irritatedPrince Andrew, and in a determined, ringing, and unpleasant tone hecontinued:

　　"I have received a refusal from Countess Rostova and have heardreports of your brother-in-law having sought her hand, or something ofthat kind. Is that true?"

　　"Both true and untrue," Pierre began; but Prince Andrewinterrupted him.

　　"Here are her letters and her portrait," said he.

　　He took the packet from the table and handed it to Pierre.

　　"Give this to the countess... if you see her."

　　"She is very ill," said Pierre.

　　"Then she is here still?" said Prince Andrew. "And PrinceKuragin?" he added quickly.

　　"He left long ago. She has been at death's door."

　　"I much regret her illness," said Prince Andrew; and he smiledlike his father, coldly, maliciously, and unpleasantly.

　　"So Monsieur Kuragin has not honored Countess Rostova with hishand?" said Prince Andrew, and he snorted several times.

　　"He could not marry, for he was married already," said Pierre.

　　Prince Andrew laughed disagreeably, again reminding one of hisfather.

　　"And where is your brother-in-law now, if I may ask?" he said.

　　"He has gone to Peters... But I don't know," said Pierre.

　　"Well, it doesn't matter," said Prince Andrew. "Tell CountessRostova that she was and is perfectly free and that I wish her allthat is good."

　　Pierre took the packet. Prince Andrew, as if trying to rememberwhether he had something more to say, or waiting to see if Pierrewould say anything, looked fixedly at him.

　　"I say, do you remember our discussion in Petersburg?" asked Pierre,"about..."

　　"Yes," returned Prince Andrew hastily. "I said that a fallen womanshould be forgiven, but I didn't say I could forgive her. I can't."

　　"But can this be compared...?" said Pierre.

　　Prince Andrew interrupted him and cried sharply: "Yes, ask herhand again, be magnanimous, and so on?... Yes, that would be verynoble, but I am unable to follow in that gentleman's footsteps. If youwish to be my friend never speak to me of that... of all that! Well,good-by. So you'll give her the packet?"

　　Pierre left the room and went to the old prince and Princess Mary.

　　The old man seemed livelier than usual. Princess Mary was the sameas always, but beneath her sympathy for her brother, Pierre noticedher satisfaction that the engagement had been broken off. Looking atthem Pierre realized what contempt and animosity they all felt for theRostovs, and that it was impossible in their presence even tomention the name of her who could give up Prince Andrew for anyoneelse.

　　At dinner the talk turned on the war, the approach of which wasbecoming evident. Prince Andrew talked incessantly, arguing now withhis father, now with the Swiss tutor Dessalles, and showing anunnatural animation, the cause of which Pierre so well understood.