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Pierre drove to Marya Dmitrievna's to tell her of the fulfillment
of her wish that Kuragin should be banished from Moscow. The whole
house was in a state of alarm and commotion. Natasha was very
ill, having, as Marya Dmitrievna told him in secret, poisoned
herself the night after she had been told that Anatole was married,
with some arsenic she had stealthily procured. After swallowing
a little she had been so frightened that she woke Sonya and told
her what she had done. The necessary antidotes had been administered
in time and she was now out of danger, though still so weak that
it was out of the question to move her to the country, and so
the countess had been sent for. Pierre saw the distracted count,
and Sonya, who had a tear-stained face, but he could not see Natasha.
Pierre dined at the club that day and heard on all sides gossip
about the attempted abduction of Rostova. He resolutely denied
these rumors, assuring everyone that nothing had happened except
that his brother-in-law had proposed to her and been refused.
It seemed to Pierre that it was his duty to conceal the whole
affair and re-establish Natasha's reputation.
He was awaiting Prince Andrew's return with dread and went
every day to the old prince's for news of him.
Old Prince Bolkonski heard all the rumors current in the town
from Mademoiselle Bourienne and had read the note to Princess
Mary in which Natasha had broken off her engagement. He seemed
in better spirits than usual and awaited his son with great impatience.
Some days after Anatole's departure Pierre received a note
from Prince Andrew, informing him of his arrival and asking him
to come to see him.
As soon as he reached Moscow, Prince Andrew had received from
his father Natasha's note to Princess Mary breaking off her engagement
(Mademoiselle Bourienne had purloined it from Princess Mary and
given it to the old prince), and he heard from him the story of
Natasha's elopement, with additions.
Prince Andrew had arrived in the evening and Pierre came to
see him next morning. Pierre expected to find Prince Andrew in
almost the same state as Natasha and was therefore surprised on
entering the drawing room to hear him in the study talking in
a loud animated voice about some intrigue going on in Petersburg.
The old prince's voice and another now and then interrupted him.
Princess Mary came out to meet Pierre. She sighed, looking toward
the door of the room where Prince Andrew was, evidently intending
to express her sympathy with his sorrow, but Pierre saw by her
face that she was glad both at what had happened and at the way
her brother had taken the news of Natasha's faithlessness.
"He says he expected it," she remarked. "I
know his pride will not let him express his feelings, but still
he has taken it better, far better, 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 not
understand how he could ask such a question. Pierre went into
the study. Prince Andrew, greatly changed and plainly in better
health, but with a fresh horizontal wrinkle between his brows,
stood in civilian dress facing his father and Prince Meshcherski,
warmly disputing and vigorously gesticulating. The conversation
was about Speranski- the news of whose sudden exile and alleged
treachery had just reached Moscow.
"Now he is censured and accused by all who were enthusiastic
about him a month ago," Prince Andrew was saying, "and
by those who were unable to understand his aims. To judge a man
who is in disfavor and to 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 this reign it was done by him, by him
alone."
He paused at the sight of Pierre. His face quivered and immediately
assumed a vindictive expression.
"Posterity will do him justice," he concluded, and
at once turned to Pierre.
"Well, how are you? Still getting stouter?" he said
with animation, but the new wrinkle on his forehead deepened.
"Yes, I am well," he said in answer to Pierre's question,
and smiled.
To Pierre that smile said plainly: "I am well, but my
health is now of no use to anyone."
After a few words to Pierre about the awful roads from the
Polish frontier, about people he had met in Switzerland who knew
Pierre, and about M. Dessalles, whom he had brought from abroad
to be his son's tutor, Prince Andrew again joined warmly in the
conversation about 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. "I do not, and never did, like Speranski
personally, but I like justice!"
Pierre now recognized in his friend a need with which he was
only too familiar, to get excited and to have arguments about
extraneous matters in order to stifle thoughts that were too oppressive
and too intimate. When Prince Meshcherski had left, Prince Andrew
took Pierre's arm and asked him into the room that had been assigned
him. A bed had been made up there, and some open portmanteaus
and trunks stood 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 silently and very quickly. He stood up and coughed.
His face was gloomy and his lips compressed.
"Forgive me for troubling you..."
Pierre saw that Prince Andrew was going to speak of Natasha,
and his broad face expressed pity and sympathy. This expression
irritated Prince Andrew, and in a determined, ringing, and unpleasant
tone he continued:
"I have received a refusal from Countess Rostova and
have heard reports of your brother-in-law having sought her hand,
or something of that kind. Is that true?"
"Both true and untrue," Pierre began; but Prince
Andrew interrupted 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
Prince Kuragin?" he added quickly.
"He left long ago. She has been at death's door."
"I much regret her illness," said Prince Andrew;
and he smiled like his father, coldly, maliciously, and unpleasantly.
"So Monsieur Kuragin has not honored Countess Rostova
with his hand?" 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
his father.
"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
Countess Rostova that she was and is perfectly free and that I
wish her all that is good."
Pierre took the packet. Prince Andrew, as if trying to remember
whether he had something more to say, or waiting to see if Pierre
would 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 woman should 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 her hand again, be magnanimous, and so on?... Yes, that would
be very noble, but I am unable to follow in that gentleman's footsteps.
If you wish 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 same as always, but beneath her sympathy for her brother,
Pierre noticed her satisfaction that the engagement had been broken
off. Looking at them Pierre realized what contempt and animosity
they all felt for the Rostovs, and that it was impossible in their
presence even to mention the name of her who could give up Prince
Andrew for anyone else.
At dinner the talk turned on the war, the approach of which
was becoming evident. Prince Andrew talked incessantly, arguing
now with his father, now with the Swiss tutor Dessalles, and showing
an unnatural animation, the cause of which Pierre so well understood.
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