Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty-Three

The gray-haired valet sat dozing and listened to the prince's snoring in the great study.At the far end of the house, behind a closed door, one can hear Dusek's sonatas, difficult phrases repeated twenty times. At that moment a carriage and a hansom drove up to the steps, and Prince Andrew stepped out of the carriage, helped his little wife out of the carriage, and let her go ahead.The gray-haired Tikhon, wearing a wig, poked his head out of the door of the waiter's anteroom, announced softly that the prince was sleeping, and hastily closed the door.Jihong knew that whether it was his son's return or an extraordinary accident, it was not appropriate to disrupt the work and rest system.Prince Andrew was as well acquainted with the matter as Tikhon.He looked at his watch, as if to confirm whether his father's habits had changed since he left him.When he was convinced that his father's habits had not changed, he turned to his wife and said:

"It will be twenty minutes before he gets up. Let us go to Princess Marya." he said. The little Duchess had grown fatter during this time, but when she spoke, her eyes lifted up, and her short, downy lips curled up in a smile, were delightful to look at. Fast and likable. "maiscestunpalais," she said to her husband, looking around, with the air of a master of a ball boasted, "Allons, vite, vite! . . . " Looking back, she turned to Tikhon, She smiled at her husband and at the waiter who accompanied her. "Cest mariequisexerce? Allons doucement, ilfautlasurprendre."③

① French: This is really a palace! ②French: Hey, hurry up, hurry up! ... ③French: Is Maria practicing the piano?We walked over quietly so she wouldn't see us. Prince Andrew followed her with a respectful and sad expression. "Tikhon, you are getting old," he said to the old man, who was kissing his hand, as he approached. In front of the room where the clavichord could be heard, a beautiful fair-haired Frenchwoman jumped out of a side door.Mademoiselle Bourienne was ecstatic. "Ah! quelbonheurpourlaprincesse," she said, "Enfin! Ilfautquejelaprevienne. "①

"Non, non, degrace . ① French: How happy the princess would be!After all, it is here!Should have told her beforehand. ②French: No, no, really...you are Miss Bourienne, my daughter-in-law is your good friend, I already know you.She didn't expect us to come. They made their way to the lounge door, through which riffs sounded.Prince Andrew stopped and frowned, as if expecting something unpleasant to happen. The princess came in, the music stopped in the middle of the phrase, shouts were heard, the heavy step of Princess Marya and the sound of kisses.When Prince Andrey came in, the princess and the princess embraced, their lips pressed against the place where they kissed at the first meeting, and they met only briefly during Prince Andrey's wedding. Have a face-to-face.Mademoiselle Bourienne stood beside them, with her hands on her breast, smiling reverently, and seemed quite ready to cry or laugh.Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders and frowned like a music lover when he hears an out-of-tune note.The two women let go of their hands, and then, as if afraid of delay, they took each other's hands again, kissed, let go of both hands and kissed each other's cheeks again.They began to cry, and cried and kissed again, which Prince Andrew thought was unexpected.Mademoiselle Bourienne wept in the same way.It seemed that Prince Andrew was embarrassed, but in the minds of the two women their crying was quite natural.Apparently, they didn't speculate that any other tricks would come out of this meeting.

"Ah! chere...Ah! marie..." the two women suddenly laughed and said, "Jairevecettenuit...Vousnenousattendiezdoncpas?...Ah! Marie, vousavezmaigri...Etvousavezrepris..."① "Jait out de suite re con num ad me lap princesse," put in Mademoiselle Bourienne. "Etmoiquinemedoutaispas! . . . " exclaimed Princess Maria, "Ah! Andre, jenevousvoyaispas."③ Prince Andrew and his sister kissed each other hand in hand, and he told her that she was still as pleurnicheuse as ever. ④Princess Marya turned her face to her eldest brother, when her large, beautiful, charming eyes, shining through tears, cast their caressing, soft, and docile glances on his face .

①French: Ah!Dear! ……what!Mary! . . . I dreamed that . . . - You didn't expect us to come, did you? ……what!Mary, you have grown thin--you were so fat before! ② French: I immediately recognized the Duchess. ③French: I didn't even think about it! ……what!Andre, I really didn't see you. ④French: Crying people. The Duchess babbled on and on.From time to time her short, downy upper lip dropped rapidly to touch a part of her crimson lower lip at will, and then she smiled, revealing her white teeth and sparkling eyes.The Duchess told of an encounter they had had at the Savior's Hill which was extremely dangerous to her pregnant body, and she immediately spoke of leaving all her clothes in Petersburg, and God knows what she would wear here, and of Ann Andre was completely changed, Kitty Odenseva was married to an old man, and Princess Marya had a fiance of pour out debon, we shall return to that later.Princess Marya still looked at her elder brother in silence, with love and sorrow in her beautiful eyes.It can be seen that the thoughts lingering in her heart are not diverted by sister-in-law's remarks at this time.The sister-in-law was talking about the recent festivities in Petersburg.In the middle of the conversation, she turned to her elder brother.

"Andre, are you determined to fight?" she sighed. Lisa sighed too. "And it's leaving tomorrow." The eldest brother replied. "Ilmabandonneici, et Dieusaitpourquoi, quandilauBraitpuavoirdelavancement..."② ①French: True. ② French: He left me here, God knows, for what purpose, and he is capable of promotion... Princess Marya was still thinking, and before she had heard what she had to say, she turned to her sister-in-law, and looked with gentle eyes at her stomach. "Is she really pregnant?" she said. The Duchess' face changed.She sighed.

"Yes, I'm pregnant," she said. "Oh! It's terrible..." Lisa's lips drooped.She moved her face closer to that of her sister-in-law, and unexpectedly began to cry again. "She must rest," said Prince Andrew, frowning. "Isn't it, Liza? Take her to her room, I went to papa's. How is he now? Is he the same? " "It's still the same, it's still the same, I don't know how he looks to you." The princess replied happily. "Still at that hour, are you walking along the boulevard as usual? Working at a lathe?" asked Prince Andrei, with a barely perceptible smile, which showed that, despite his great love and respect for his father, he also understood father's weakness.

"At the same time, working on the lathe, and mathematics, my geometry class," replied Princess Marya cheerfully, as if the geometry class had made a very pleasant impression on her life. After the old prince had spent twenty minutes getting up, Tikhon called the young prince to his father.In welcoming his son, the old man broke the conventions of life: he ordered his men to allow his son to enter his inner room while he dressed and hatted before lunch.The duke dressed in the old fashion: in a long jacket and a powdered wig.When Andrei walked towards his father's inner room, the old man did not have the expression and attitude of dissatisfaction that he deliberately pretended in his living room, but the expression of excitement that he had when he was talking to Pierre. In the dressing-room, in a wide goatskin-covered easy chair, with a powdering shawl draped over his head, Tikhon held his head for powdering.

"Ah! soldier! Do you want to conquer Bonaparte?" said the old man, shaking his powdered head as far as possible because Tikhon was braiding his hair. All right, or he'll soon see us as his subjects. Hello!" He stuck out his cheek. Older people feel better after going to bed before lunch. (Sleep after lunch is silver, sleep before lunch is gold, he says.) He squinted happily at his son from under his drooping bushy eyebrows.Prince Andrei went up to his father and kissed the spot his father pointed to him to kiss.He didn't answer his father's favorite topics--a little joke or two about the soldiers of the day, especially about Bonaparte.

"Father, I am the one who came to you and brought my pregnant wife," said Prince Andrei, following the expression on every line of his face with excited and respectful eyes. "You are well." Is it?" "Child, only fools and perverts are unhealthy. You know my situation: I am busy from morning to night, and I eat and drink in moderation. It is really healthy enough." "Thank goodness!" said the son with a smile on his face. "It has nothing to do with God! Well, tell me," he went on, returning to his favorite topic, "how the Germans taught you to fight Bonaparte with a new science called strategy." Prince Andrew smiled. "Come to my senses, Daddy," he said, smiling, showing that his father's weaknesses did not interfere with his respect for him. "I'm not settled yet." "Nonsense, nonsense," cried the old man, tossing his braids to see if they were securely braided, and clutching his son's arm. "Your wife's house is ready. Princess Marya will show her." room, and she'll talk about it. It's their women's business. I'm glad to see her. Sit down and talk. I know about Mitchelson's army, and Tolstoy . . . I understand... landing at the same time... What is the army in the south going to do? Prussia, neutrality... that's what I know. How is the situation in Austria?" He got up from the easy chair and walked around the room, Tikhon Running around after him, handing clothes to him, "What's going on in Sweden? How are they going to cross Melania?" Seeing his father's insistence, Prince Andrei was reluctant at first to talk about it, but then the more he talked, the more excited he was, and in the middle of the conversation, out of habit, he couldn't help changing from Russian to French, and he began to describe what was planned. The military plan of action for the campaign.He said that an army of 90,000 men would surely threaten Prussia, force it to abandon its neutrality and go to war, and a part of the army would be merged with the Swedish army at Stralsund; , must take military action in Italy and on the Rhine, 50,000 Russian troops and 50,000 English troops must land at Naples;The old prince showed no interest in what his son was telling, and, as if not listening, walked and dressed, interrupting his son unexpectedly three times in succession.On one occasion he stopped him and shouted: "White, white!" He meant that Tikhon hadn't sent him the suit and vest he wanted to wear.Another time, he stopped and asked: "Is she going to have a baby soon?" He shook his head reproachfully and said, "It's very bad! Go on, go on." For the third time, just as Prince Andrew was about to finish his narrative, the old man began to sing in his false voice: "Malbroug, senvo-t-enguerre. Dieusaitquandreviendra." The son just smiled slightly. ①French: Marbrull went on an expedition, God knows when he will come back. "I'm not saying that's the plan I admire," said the son, "I'm just telling you that there is such a plan. Napoleon has a better plan." "Well, you haven't told me anything new," mused the old man, and murmured to himself like a cannonball: "Dieusaitquandreviendra," adding: "Go to the dining-room."