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There was now no one in the reception room except Prince Vasili
and the eldest princess, who were sitting under the portrait of
Catherine the Great and talking eagerly. As soon as they saw Pierre
and his companion they became silent, and Pierre thought he saw
the princess hide something as she whispered:
"I can't bear the sight of that woman."
"Catiche has had tea served in the small drawing room,"
said Prince Vasili to Anna Mikhaylovna. "Go and take something,
my poor Anna Mikhaylovna, or you will not hold out."
To Pierre he said nothing, merely giving his arm a sympathetic
squeeze below the shoulder. Pierre went with Anna Mikhaylovna
into the small drawing room.
"There is nothing so refreshing after a sleepless night
as a cup of this delicious Russian tea," Lorrain was saying
with an air of restrained animation as he stood sipping tea from
a delicate Chinese handleless cup before a table on which tea
and a cold supper were laid in the small circular room. Around
the table all who were at Count Bezukhov's house that night had
gathered to fortify themselves. Pierre well remembered this small
circular drawing room with its mirrors and little tables. During
balls given at the house Pierre, who did not know how to dance,
had liked sitting in this room to watch the ladies who, as they
passed through in their ball dresses with diamonds and pearls
on their bare shoulders, looked at themselves in the brilliantly
lighted mirrors which repeated their reflections several times.
Now this same room was dimly lighted by two candles. On one small
table tea things and supper dishes stood in disorder, and in the
middle of the night a motley throng of people sat there, not merrymaking,
but somberly whispering, and betraying by every word and movement
that they none of them forgot what was happening and what was
about to happen in the bedroom. Pierre did not eat anything though
he would very much have liked to. He looked inquiringly at his
monitress and saw that she was again going on tiptoe to the reception
room where they had left Prince Vasili and the eldest princess.
Pierre concluded that this also was essential, and after a short
interval followed her. Anna Mikhaylovna was standing beside the
princess, and they were both speaking in excited whispers.
"Permit me, Princess, to know what is necessary and what
is not necessary," said the younger of the two speakers,
evidently in the same state of excitement as when she had slammed
the door of her room.
"But, my dear princess," answered Anna Mikhaylovna
blandly but impressively, blocking the way to the bedroom and
preventing the other from passing, "won't this be too much
for poor Uncle at a moment when he needs repose? Worldly conversation
at a moment when his soul is already prepared..."
Prince Vasili was seated in an easy chair in his familiar
attitude, with one leg crossed high above the other. His cheeks,
which were so flabby that they looked heavier below, were twitching
violently; but he wore the air of a man little concerned in what
the two ladies were saying.
"Come, my dear Anna Mikhaylovna, let Catiche do as she
pleases. You know how fond the count is of her."
"I don't even know what is in this paper," said
the younger of the two ladies, addressing Prince Vasili and pointing
to an inlaid portfolio she held in her hand. "All I know
is that his real will is in his writing table, and this is a paper
he has forgotten...."
She tried to pass Anna Mikhaylovna, but the latter sprang
so as to bar her path.
"I know, my dear, kind princess," said Anna Mikhaylovna,
seizing the portfolio so firmly that it was plain she would not
let go easily. "Dear princess, I beg and implore you, have
some pity on him! Je vous en conjure..."
The princess did not reply. Their efforts in the struggle
for the portfolio were the only sounds audible, but it was evident
that if the princess did speak, her words would not be flattering
to Anna Mikhaylovna. Though the latter held on tenaciously, her
voice lost none of its honeyed firmness and softness.
"Pierre, my dear, come here. I think he will not be out
of place in a family consultation; is it not so, Prince?"
"Why don't you speak, cousin?" suddenly shrieked
the princess so loud that those in the drawing room heard her
and were startled. "Why do you remain silent when heaven
knows who permits herself to interfere, making a scene on the
very threshold of a dying man's room? Intriguer!" she hissed
viciously, and tugged with all her might at the portfolio.
But Anna Mikhaylovna went forward a step or two to keep her
hold on the portfolio, and changed her grip.
Prince Vasili rose. "Oh!" said he with reproach
and surprise, "this is absurd! Come, let go I tell you."
The princess let go.
"And you too!"
But Anna Mikhaylovna did not obey him.
"Let go, I tell you! I will take the responsibility.
I myself will go and ask him, I!... does that satisfy you?"
"But, Prince," said Anna Mikhaylovna, "after
such a solemn sacrament, allow him a moment's peace! Here, Pierre,
tell them your opinion," said she, turning to the young man
who, having come quite close, was gazing with astonishment at
the angry face of the princess which had lost all dignity, and
at the twitching cheeks of Prince Vasili.
"Remember that you will answer for the consequences,"
said Prince Vasili severely. "You don't know what you are
doing."
"Vile woman!" shouted the princess, darting unexpectedly
at Anna Mikhaylovna and snatching the portfolio from her.
Prince Vasili bent his head and spread out his hands.
At this moment that terrible door, which Pierre had watched
so long and which had always opened so quietly, burst noisily
open and banged against the wall, and the second of the three
sisters rushed out wringing her hands.
"What are you doing!" she cried vehemently. "He
is dying and you leave me alone with him!"
Her sister dropped the portfolio. Anna Mikhaylovna, stooping,
quickly caught up the object of contention and ran into the bedroom.
The eldest princess and Prince Vasili, recovering themselves,
followed her. A few minutes later the eldest sister came out with
a pale hard face, again biting her underlip. At sight of Pierre
her expression showed an irrepressible hatred.
"Yes, now you may be glad!" said she; "this
is what you have been waiting for." And bursting into tears
she hid her face in her handkerchief and rushed from the room.
Prince Vasili came next. He staggered to the sofa on which
Pierre was sitting and dropped onto it, covering his face with
his hand. Pierre noticed that he was pale and that his jaw quivered
and shook as if in an ague.
"Ah, my friend!" said he, taking Pierre by the elbow;
and there was in his voice a sincerity and weakness Pierre had
never observed in it before. "How often we sin, how much
we deceive, and all for what? I am near sixty, dear friend...
I too... All will end in death, all! Death is awful..." and
he burst into tears.
Anna Mikhaylovna came out last. She approached Pierre with
slow, quiet steps.
"Pierre!" she said.
Pierre gave her an inquiring look. She kissed the young man
on his forehead, wetting him with her tears. Then after a pause
she said:
"He is no more...."
Pierre looked at her over his spectacles.
"Come, I will go with you. Try to weep, nothing gives
such relief as tears."
She led him into the dark drawing room and Pierre was glad
no one could see his face. Anna Mikhaylovna left him, and when
she returned he was fast asleep with his head on his arm.
In the morning Anna Mikhaylovna said to Pierre:
"Yes, my dear, this is a great loss for us all, not to
speak of you. But God will support you: you are young, and are
now, I hope, in command of an immense fortune. The will has not
yet been opened. I know you well enough to be sure that this will
not turn your head, but it imposes duties on you, and you must
be a man."
Pierre was silent.
"Perhaps later on I may tell you, my dear boy, that if
I had not been there, God only knows what would have happened!
You know, Uncle promised me only the day before yesterday not
to forget Boris. But he had no time. I hope, my dear friend, you
will carry out your father's wish?"
Pierre understood nothing of all this and coloring shyly looked
in silence at Princess Anna Mikhaylovna. After her talk with Pierre,
Anna Mikhaylovna returned to the Rostovs' and went to bed. On
waking in the morning she told the Rostovs and all her acquaintances
the details of Count Bezukhov's death. She said the count had
died as she would herself wish to die, that his end was not only
touching but edifying. As to the last meeting between father and
son, it was so touching that she could not think of it without
tears, and did not know which had behaved better during those
awful moments- the father who so remembered everything and everybody
at last and last and had spoken such pathetic words to the son,
or Pierre, whom it had been pitiful to see, so stricken was he
with grief, though he tried hard to hide it in order not to sadden
his dying father. "It is painful, but it does one good. It
uplifts the soul to see such men as the old count and his worthy
son," said she. Of the behavior of the eldest princess and
Prince Vasili she spoke disapprovingly, but in whispers and as
a great secret.
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