Chapter 85 Chapter nine

The stage had a smooth floor, trees of colored cardboard on either side, and behind it a large piece of sackcloth stretched over a plank.In the middle of the stage sat several girls in red sashes and white skirts.A very fat girl in a white silk dress was sitting alone on a low stool with a piece of green cardboard taped to the back.The girls are singing.After they finished singing, the girl in white went to the prompter's room.Then a man with thick legs and tight silk trousers came up to her with a feathered hat and a short sword, and began to sing with his arms outstretched. The man in leggings sang by himself first, and then the girl in white sang.After the two finished singing, the music started, the band started to play, and the man stroked the hand of the girl in white with his fingers, obviously waiting for the beat to sing with her.They sang a chorus, and the audience applauded; the couple posing as lovers on the stage smiled, spread their hands, and bowed to the audience.

Natasha had lived in the country for a long time, and now she was in a bad mood, and everything in the theater seemed to her wild and queer.She couldn't pay attention to the development of the plot, and couldn't even listen to the music.She saw only colored cardboard sets and strangely dressed men and women moving and talking and singing in bright lights.She knew that she had to do this in acting, but she felt that all this was too artificial and unnatural, which made her feel ashamed for the actors at times, and amused at other times.She looked around at the faces of the audience, trying to find the same look of mockery and bewilderment on their faces, but each face was watching the performance on stage with what Natasha thought was false admiration. "Perhaps it must be so!" thought Natasha.She sometimes looked at the cleanly combed heads in the pool seat, and sometimes looked at the women with bare breasts and arms in the box, especially Helen in the next room.Helen was almost naked, with a peaceful smile on her face, her eyes fixed on the stage.Bathed in the brilliant lights illuminating the venue and the air warmed by the heat of the audience, Natasha gradually entered a state of intoxication she had not experienced for a long time.She couldn't figure out what was going on, where she was, what was going on before her eyes.She watched, thought, and strange incoherent thoughts flitted through her mind.She suddenly wanted to jump to the edge of the box and sing the aria sung by the actress, and wanted to touch the little old man sitting nearby with her fan, and wanted to get close to Helen to heal her itch.

While the stage was silent, waiting for the aria to begin, a door near the Rostovs' box slammed, and the footsteps of a belated man were heard on the rug of the pit. "Oh, here he is, Anatole!" Shen Xing whispered.Helen turned to the person who came in with a smile.Natasha followed Helen's gaze and saw a very handsome adjutant approaching their box arrogantly and respectfully.This was Anatole whom she had seen and had drawn her attention to at the Petersburg ball.Anatole now wears an aide-de-camp uniform with epaulets and epaulets.He walked with a restrained, springy gait that would have been ridiculous had it not been for his good looks and the kind, contented, and happy look on his face.Although there was a performance on the stage, he held up his fragrant and handsome head contentedly, and walked along the aisle carpet with a slight rattle of his spurs and saber leisurely.He glanced at Natasha, went up to his sister, put his gloved hand on the edge of her box, nodded to her, then bent down and asked Natasha something.

"It's charming!" said Anatole, obviously referring to Natasha, but Natasha did not hear it so much as she read it from the movement of his lips.Then he went to the first row, sat next to Dolokhov, and elbowed Dolokhov affectionately and casually, while several people were courting him.Anatole winked at him cheerfully, smiled, and put one foot on the edge of the orchestra. "Brother and sister are so alike!" said Count Rostov. "Both are beautiful." Shenxing whispered to Count Anatole about an affair in Moscow, and Natasha listened attentively because he had just called her charming.

The first act was over, and the audience in the pool stands up one after another, walking in and out in a panic. Boris went to the Rostovs' box, accepted their congratulations nonchalantly, raised his eyebrows, and with a nonchalant smile conveyed to Natasha and Sonnya his fiancée's invitation to the wedding, and went out.Natasha talked to Boris cheerfully and smilingly, congratulating the man she had once loved.Natasha herself was intoxicated with love, and everything seemed simple and natural. Helen, who was naked, sat next to Natasha, showing the same smile to everyone.Natasha also smiled at Boris.

Helen's box was full of people, and the side by the pool was crowded with some of the most prominent and intelligent men, and these men seemed to be vying to show others that they knew her. During the intermission Anatole and Dolokhov stood in front of the orchestra, looking at the Rostovs' box.Natasha was flattered to know they were talking about her.She even turned her back so that Anatole could see what she thought was her most beautiful profile.Before the second act began, Pierre came to the pit.The Rostovs had not seen him since their visit to Moscow.Pierre looked sad and even fatter than when Natasha last saw him.He went to the front row, not paying attention to anyone.Anatole went up to Pierre, looked and pointed to the Rostovs' box, and talked to him.Pierre cheered up at the sight of Natasha, and hurried across the rows of seats to their box.He came up to them, leaned his elbows on the edge of the box, and talked with Natasha for a while, smiling.While Natasha was talking to Pierre, she heard a man's voice in Helene's box, and for some reason she recognized at once that it was Anatole.Natasha turned her head and met his gaze.Anatole looked into her eyes with ecstasy and smiled, it was too strange that he was so near and she looked at him with such passion and believed that he liked her, and yet she did not know him. It's awkward.

The set of the second act is a lot of tombstones, a hole in the sky to represent the moon, and the footlights have lost their lampshades.Trumpets and double basses played a low tune, and many people in black cloaks came out from the left and right.They waved their arms, holding something like short swords; then some others ran out and grabbed the girl who was dressed in white but now in blue.They didn't drag her away all at once, they sang with her for a long time, and then dragged her away.Then there were three metal raps backstage, and everyone knelt down and sang prayers.Several times these performances were interrupted by applause from the audience.

During this scene, Natasha looked around at the pit from time to time, and each time saw Anatole with his arm resting on the back of the chair, looking straight at her.Natasha was delighted to see him so infatuated with her, and it never occurred to her that there was anything wrong with it. At the end of the second act, Countess Helen stood up, turned her body (her breasts were completely exposed) to the Rostovs' box, beckoned the old count with a gloved finger, and ignored her. The people in the house talked to the count with a friendly smile on their faces. "Please tell me about your two lovely daughters," said Helen, "the whole town is admiring them, but I don't know them yet!"

Natasha stood up and curtseyed to the gorgeous countess.Natasha blushed with joy when she heard the praise of this stunning beauty. "I want to be a Muscovite now," said Helen. "Will you have the nerve to bury such a pearl in the country?" Countess Helen really lived up to her reputation and was a charming woman.She spoke without thinking, blurted out, and was especially good at flattering. "No, my dear count, please allow me to accompany your two daughters. I will not be here long, and you will not be long, but I will try to please them. I have heard many times in Petersburg I have heard about you, and I would like to know you," she said to Natasha with her invariable charming smile, "I have heard about you from my page Boris. Do you know? Boris is going to be married. I have also heard about you from my husband's friend, Prince Andrew." Helen spoke of Prince Andrew with emphasis, implying that she knew about his relationship with Natasha.In order to get to know them better, she asked a young lady of the Rostov family to watch the remaining scenes with her.Natasha then sat down beside her.

In the third act, a royal palace appeared on the stage, with many candles burning in it, and many paintings hanging on it, depicting a group of bearded warriors.In front of the stage stood two figures, presumably the emperor and empress.The emperor waved his right arm, sang a few words timidly and harshly, and then sat on the big red throne.The girl who was originally dressed in white but later changed to blue was standing next to the throne wearing only a shirt and disheveled hair.She sang something sadly to the queen, but the emperor waved her sternly.At this time, a large number of barefoot men and women came out from both sides of the stage, and they danced together.Then the violin made a shrill and happy sound.One of the girls, with thick bare legs and thin arms, went behind the scenes alone, adjusted her belt, went to the center of the stage, and began to jump, one foot touching the other.The audience in the pool applauded together.Then a man stood in the corner.The dulcimer and trumpet played louder, and the barefoot man jumped high and touched his feet.This man was Dibor, who earned sixty thousand rubles a year by this trick.The audience in the pool seats, boxes and balcony seats applauded desperately.Di Boer stopped, bowed in all directions with a smile on his face.Then another group of barefoot men and women danced, then another emperor shouted to the music, and the whole group sang again.But suddenly, the wind blew up, and the orchestra blew chromatic scales and dropped sevenths, and everyone ran away, pulling one of them behind the curtain again, and the curtain fell, and there was another deafening noise and crackling in the audience, and everyone cried out emotionally:

"Dybol! Dubold! Dubold!" Natasha no longer finds it strange.With a happy smile, she looked around triumphantly. "Die Boer is charming, isn't he?" said Helen to Natasha. "Oh, yes!" Natasha answered.