War and Peace: Original Version. Лев Толстой

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      Boris, thanks to his placid and reserved character, was never at a loss in difficult situations. But now this placidity and reserve were intensified still further by the cloud of happiness that had enveloped him since morning and through which he seemed to see people’s faces, so that observation of his mother’s behaviour and her character became less upsetting. He found the position of petitioner, in which his mother had placed him, painful, but he himself felt in no way to blame.

      Pierre had still not managed to choose a career for himself in St. Petersburg and had indeed been banished to Moscow for disorderly conduct. The story that had been recounted at Count Rostov’s house was correct: his presence had made Pierre a party to the tying of the policeman to the bear. He had arrived several days earlier and put up, as always, at his father’s house. Although he had assumed that his story was already known in Moscow and that the ladies surrounding his father, who were always hostile towards him, would use the opportunity to irritate the count, nonetheless on the day of his arrival he had gone to his father’s apartments. On entering the drawing room, the princesses’ usual haunt, he had greeted the ladies sitting there with their embroidery frames and a book, from which one of them was reading aloud. There were three of them. The eldest, a tidy, strict spinster with a long waist, the one who had come out to Anna Mikhailovna, was reading: the younger two, both rosy-cheeked and pretty, only distinguishable from each other by the fact that one had a mole above her lip which made her much prettier, were working at their embroidery frames. Pierre was received like a corpse or a carrier of plague. The eldest princess interrupted her reading and looked at him in silence with fearful eyes: the younger one with the mole, a cheerful and giggly individual, leaned over her embroidery frame to conceal the smile occasioned, no doubt, by the scene that was to come, which she foresaw would be amusing. She tugged at a strand of wool and bent her head close as though examining the stitchwork, scarcely able to restrain her laughter.

      “Hello, cousin,” said Pierre. “Do you not recognise me?”

      “I recognise you only too well, too well.”

      “How is the count’s health? May I see him?” Pierre asked awkwardly, as always, but without embarrassment.

      “The count is suffering both physically and morally, and you seem to have taken pains to inflict as much moral suffering on him as possible.”

      “May I see the count?” Pierre repeated.

      “Hmm! If you wish to kill him, to finish him completely, you may see him. Olga, go and see if the broth is ready for uncle, it will soon be time,” she added, thereby indicating to Pierre that they were busy and fully occupied with comforting his father, whereas he was obviously occupied only with causing him distress.

      Olga went out. Pierre stood for a moment, looked at the sisters, bowed and said:

      “Then I shall go to my room. When it is possible, you will let me know.”

      He went out and heard the quiet laughter of the sister with the mole ringing behind him.

      The following day Prince Vasily had arrived and installed himself in the count’s house. He summoned Pierre and told him, “My dear boy, if you behave here in the same way as in St. Petersburg, you will come to a very bad end: I have nothing more to say to you. The count is very, very ill, you should not see him at all.”

      Since then no one had bothered Pierre, who, wherever he happened to be, was content with his own thoughts and walked around his room, occasionally halting in the corners, making threatening gestures at the wall, as if he were running an invisible enemy through with a sword, and peering severely over the top of his spectacles, and then recommencing his stroll, repeating inaudible words to himself, shrugging his shoulders and throwing his hands up in the air.

      “England is done for!” he said, frowning and pointing at someone. “Pitt, as a traitor to the nation and the people’s law, is condemned to …” He had not yet finished pronouncing sentence on Pitt, imagining at that moment that he was Napoleon himself and having already completed, together with his beloved hero, the dangerous crossing via the Pas de Calais and conquered London, when he saw a young, well-proportioned, handsome officer entering his room. He halted. Pierre, who had seen Boris only rarely, had left him as a fourteen-year-old boy and did not remember him at all, but in spite of that, in his typical brisk and genial manner he took him by the hand and smiled amicably, displaying his bad teeth.

      “Do you remember me?” asked Boris. “Maman and I came to see the count, but it seems he is not quite well.”

      “Yes, it seems he is unwell. Everyone is bothering him,” replied Pierre, completely failing to notice that by saying this he appeared to be reproaching Boris and his mother.

      He was trying to recall who this young man was, but Boris thought he had caught some hint in Pierre’s words.

      He flushed and looked at Pierre boldly and sardonically, as much as to say: “I have nothing to be ashamed of.” Pierre could think of nothing to say.

      “Count Rostov has invited you to come for dinner today,” Boris continued after a silence that was rather long and awkward for Pierre.

      “Ah! Count Rostov!” Pierre said cheerfully. “So you are his son, Ilya. Can you imagine, for a moment I didn’t recognise you. Do you remember how we went to the Sparrow Hills with Madame Jacquot?”

      “You are mistaken,” Boris said unhurriedly, with a bold and rather sardonic smile. “I am Boris, Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya’s son. It is Rostov senior who is called Ilya, and his son is Nikolai. And I have never known any Madame Jacquot.”

      Pierre began waving his hands and his head about as though he had been attacked by a mosquito or bees.

      “Ah, this is terrible! I have confused everything. I have so many relatives in Moscow! You are Boris … yes. Right then, you and I have agreed on that. Well, what do you think of the Boulogne expedition? The English will really be in trouble if Napoleon crosses the Channel. I think an expedition is very likely. As long as Villeneuve does not blunder.”

      Boris knew nothing about any Boulogne expedition, he did not read the newspapers and this was the first time he had heard of Villeneuve.

      “Here in Moscow we are more concerned with dinners and gossip than politics,” he said in his calm, sardonic tone. “I know nothing about all this and have no thoughts on it. Moscow is concerned with gossip above all else,” he continued. “And what they are talking about now is you and the count.”

      Pierre smiled his kind smile, as though afraid that his interlocutor might say something that he would СКАЧАТЬ