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Princess Mary as she sat listening to the old men's talk and
faultfinding, understood nothing of what she heard; she only wondered
whether the guests had all observed her father's hostile attitude
toward her. She did not even notice the special attentions and
amiabilities shown her during dinner by Boris Drubetskoy, who
was visiting them for the third time already.
Princess Mary turned with absent-minded questioning look to
Pierre, who hat in hand and with a smile on his face was the last
of the guests to approach her after the old prince had gone out
and they were left alone in the drawing room.
"May I stay a little longer?" he said, letting his
stout body sink into an armchair beside her.
"Oh yes," she answered. "You noticed nothing?"
her look asked.
Pierre was in an agreeable after-dinner mood. He looked straight
before him and smiled quietly.
"Have you known that young man long, Princess?"
he asked.
"Who?"
"Drubetskoy."
"No, not long..."
"Do you like him?"
"Yes, he is an agreeable young man.... Why do you ask
me that?" said Princess Mary, still thinking of that morning's
conversation with her father.
"Because I have noticed that when a young man comes on
leave from Petersburg to Moscow it is usually with the object
of marrying an heiress."
"You have observed that?" said Princess Mary.
"Yes," returned Pierre with a smile, "and this
young man now manages matters so that where there is a wealthy
heiress there he is too. I can read him like a book. At present
he is hesitating whom to lay siege to- you or Mademoiselle Julie
Karagina. He is very attentive to her."
"He visits them?"
"Yes, very often. And do you know the new way of courting?"
said Pierre with an amused smile, evidently in that cheerful mood
of good humored raillery for which he so often reproached himself
in his diary.
"No," replied Princess Mary.
"To please Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy.
He is very melancholy with Mademoiselle Karagina," said Pierre.
"Really?" asked Princess Mary, looking into Pierre's
kindly face and still thinking of her own sorrow. "It would
be a relief," thought she, "if I ventured to confide
what I am feeling to someone. I should like to tell everything
to Pierre. He is kind and generous. It would be a relief. He would
give me advice."
"Would you marry him?"
"Oh, my God, Count, there are moments when I would marry
anybody!" she cried suddenly to her own surprise and with
tears in her voice. "Ah, how bitter it is to love someone
near to you and to feel that..." she went on in a trembling
voice, "that you can do nothing for him but grieve him, and
to know that you cannot alter this. Then there is only one thing
left- to go away, but where could I go?"
"What is wrong? What is it, Princess?"
But without finishing what she was saying, Princess Mary burst
into tears.
"I don't know what is the matter with me today. Don't
take any notice- forget what I have said!"
Pierre's gaiety vanished completely. He anxiously questioned
the princess, asked her to speak out fully and confide her grief
to him; but she only repeated that she begged him to forget what
she had said, that she did not remember what she had said, and
that she had no trouble except the one he knew of- that Prince
Andrew's marriage threatened to cause a rupture between father
and son.
"Have you any news of the Rostovs?" she asked, to
change the subject. "I was told they are coming soon. I am
also expecting Andrew any day. I should like them to meet here."
"And how does he now regard the matter?" asked Pierre,
referring to the old prince.
Princess Mary shook her head.
"What is to be done? In a few months the year will be
up. The thing is impossible. I only wish I could spare my brother
the first moments. I wish they would come sooner. I hope to be
friends with her. You have known them a long time," said
Princess Mary. "Tell me honestly the whole truth: what sort
of girl is she, and what do you think of her?- The real truth,
because you know Andrew is risking so much doing this against
his father's will that I should like to know..."
An undefined instinct told Pierre that these explanations,
and repeated requests to be told the whole truth, expressed ill-will
on the princess' part toward her future sister-in-law and a wish
that he should disapprove of Andrew's choice; but in reply he
said what he felt rather than what he thought.
"I don't know how to answer your question," he said,
blushing without knowing why. "I really don't know what sort
of girl she is; I can't analyze her at all. She is enchanting,
but what makes her so I don't know. That is all one can say about
her."
Princess Mary sighed, and the expression on her face said:
"Yes, that's what I expected and feared."
"Is she clever?" she asked.
Pierre considered.
"I think not," he said, "and yet- yes. She
does not deign to be clever.... Oh no, she is simply enchanting,
and that is all."
Princess Mary again shook her head disapprovingly.
"Ah, I so long to like her! Tell her so if you see her
before I do."
"I hear they are expected very soon," said Pierre.
Princess Mary told Pierre of her plan to become intimate with
her future sister-in-law as soon as the Rostovs arrived and to
try to accustom the old prince to her.
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