Chapter 3 third chapter

In December, 1805, old Prince Nikolai Andreich Bolkonsky received a letter from Prince Vasily informing him that he would be visiting with his son. "I went on a tour to see you, my esteemed benefactor, and I think it is not wrong to walk a hundred versts," he wrote. "My Anatoly accompanied me, he Enlistment is imminent. I hope you will allow him to personally pay you the deepest respect. Because he imitated his father, he has the deepest respect for you." "There is no need to send Mary (that is, Maria) out the door, the man who proposed will come to our house himself," said the little princess boldly when she heard this.

Prince Nikolai Andreitch frowned, but said nothing. Two weeks after receiving the letter, Prince Vasili's servant arrived first one evening, and the next day he himself arrived with his son. Don Bolkonski always gave a very low opinion of Prince Vasili's character, especially recently, when Prince Vasili held important positions and made his family famous under the new dynasties of Paul and Alexander. belittled him.And now, seeing what it was all about from the letter and from the hints of the little princess, his inner disapproval of Prince Vasily turned into malicious contempt.He often sniffs when talking about him.On the day of Prince Vasily's coming, Prince Nikolai Andreitch was particularly displeased and out of sorts.Whether he was in a bad mood because Prince Vasily was coming, or whether he was particularly displeased with Prince Vasili's coming because he was in a bad mood, but he was not in a good mood.Early in the morning Tikhon had advised the architect not to bring his report to the prince.

"You always hear him walking up and down," said Tikhon, calling the architect's attention to the prince's steps. "He walked on tiptoe on his entire heel, we just knew..." But the prince, as usual, went out for a walk at eight o'clock in a velvet jacket with a sable collar and a sable cap.It had snowed the night before.The path leading to the conservatory, which Nikolay Andreitch used to walk, was cleanly swept, the traces of the broom could be seen in the swept snow, and a shovel was stuck in the loose snow bank on either side of the path. .The old prince went to the conservatory, and then to the servants and the log cabin, where he frowned and remained silent.

"Is the sleigh passable?" he asked the esteemed butler who bore him home with his master's looks and manners. "My lord, the snow is very deep. I have ordered the servants to clear the main road." The Duke bowed his head and went up to the steps. "Thank goodness," the butler thought for a while, "the dark clouds have passed!" "My lord, it is difficult to pass," the butler added. "My lord, I heard that a minister is coming to visit your lord, is that right?" The duke turned his face to the butler, and fixed him with those dark eyes.

"What? There is a minister? What kind of minister? Who ordered it?" He said in a harsh and harsh voice. "Not for the princess—my daughter, but for this minister! I don't have any ministers here!" "My lord, I thought..." "What do you think!" cried the Duke, speaking more and more quickly, and the preamble was more and more out of place. "You think... a bandit! A liar! I'll teach you how to think." He swung his stick and was about to hit Alpatych, and if the butler didn't instinctively dodge, he would have hit him. "You think!... a liar!" he shouted hastily.Surprised at how he dared to dodge the blow that was thrown at him, Alpatych walked up to the prince, bowing his bald head submissively, and perhaps that was why the prince continued to cry: "Liar! . . . Fill out the road!" Nevertheless, he never swung his cane again, and ran into the house.

Before dinner, the princess and Mademoiselle Bourienne, knowing that the prince was in a bad mood, stood waiting for him.Mademoiselle Bourienne was radiant and beaming, as if to say: "As usual, I don't know anything." Princess Marya was pale and frightened, and her eyes were downcast.What troubled Princess Marya the most was that she knew she had to act like Mademoiselle Bourienne on such occasions, but he couldn't do it.She seemed to think, "If I put on a look of indifference, he will think I have no sympathy for him, and if I feel bored and in a bad mood, he will say (as it used to be), I Depressed." The rest can be deduced from this.

The Duke looked at his daughter's terrified expression, and said angrily: "Scrap...or a fool!..." he said. "That one didn't come! They really slandered her." He thought of the little duchess who hadn't come to the dining room. "Where is the Duchess?" he asked. "Hiding?..." "She's not well," said Mademoiselle Bourienne, smiling pleasantly. "She won't come out. That's understandable in her circumstances." "Mm! Mm! Mm! Mm!" said the prince, sitting down at the table. He felt that the plate was not clean, pointed to the stain on the plate, and threw it away.Tikhon took the plate and handed it to the waiter in the side dish.The little duchess was not feeling ill, but she was so afraid of the duke that she couldn't overcome it. As soon as she heard that the duke was in a bad mood, she decided to stay behind closed doors.

"I'm afraid for the child," she said to Mademoiselle Bourienne, "I'm afraid, and God knows what will happen." Generally speaking, the little duchess, who lived in Bald Hills, was constantly frightened, and harbored a distaste for the old duke which she was unconscious of, but which she did not feel because fear had the upper hand.As far as the old prince was concerned, he too harbored a feeling of disgust, but it was watered down by a sense of contempt.The little princess, who was accustomed to living in Bald Hills, was very fond of Mademoiselle Bourienne, spent her days with her, asked her to spend nights with her, and often talked to her about her husband and commented on him.

"Ilnousarrivedumonde, monprince," said Miss Busan, opening the white napkin with her little rosy white hand, "SonexcellenceleprinceHenKouraguineavecavecsonfils, acequej'aientenBdudire." She said in a questioning tone. -------- ① French: Duke, guests are coming to us. ②French: According to what I heard, it was the Duke of Kuragin and his son. "Well... this excellence is a child... I put him on the committee," said the old prince with a humiliated look. "What the son is here for, I simply don't know. Lizaveta Karlovna (that is, the little princess) and Princess Marya may know. I don't know why he brought his son here. I No need." He looked at his flushed daughter.

"You're not feeling well, are you? As the fool Alpatych said today, you're frightened by the Minister." "No, monpere."① However inappropriate the subject may be, Mademoiselle Bourienne did not stop, and went on talking about the conservatory and the beauty of a freshly opened flower, and the duke softened after the soup. After lunch, he went for a walk with his daughter-in-law.The little duchess sat at the small coffee table and chatted with the maid Martha.When she saw her husband, her face turned pale. The little duchess turned out to be formidable.Now it's better to say she's ugly than to say she's pretty.Her cheeks were sagging, her lips were pursed, and her eyelids were drooping.

"Yes, it's hard," she replied, when the Duke asked her how she felt. "Do you need anything?" "Merci, monpere, ② don't need anything." -------- ①French: Dad. ②French: Dad, thank you. "Well, good, good." He came out and went to the waiter's lounge.Alpatych bowed his head and stood in the waiters' lounge. "Did you fill in the road?" "Your Excellency, fill it out. For God's sake, forgive me for being a fool." The Duke interrupted him with an unnatural laugh. "Well, good, good." He held out his hand, Alpatych kissed it, and he went into the study. In the evening Prince Vasili arrived.Coachmen and waiters met him on the avenue (the avenue was called the avenue).They yelled and pulled his carriage and sledge in front of the pente on the deliberately snowed road. They allocated Prince Vasily and Anatole two separate rooms. Anatole took off his sleeveless blouse, and sat at the table with his hands on his hips, smiling, staring into his large, beautiful eyes, and staring absently at the corner of the table.He regarded his whole life as an endless orgy that someone should arrange for him without knowing why.So did he see his visits to this fierce old man and rich ugly heiress.All this, as he surmised, would lead to a smooth and extremely interesting end. "If she's rich, why not marry her? That will never be an obstacle," thought Anatole. He shaved, perfumed himself with the care and delicacy of his old custom, and with the kindly and self-satisfied air he was born with, with his pretty head held high, entered his father's apartment.Two old servants dressed Prince Vasily and were busy at work beside him.He looked around with great interest, and nodded cheerfully to his son as he entered, as if to say, "Yes, you are exactly what I need!" "Father, no, really, is she ugly? Huh?" he asked in French, as if continuing a subject he had brought up more than once during his travels. "That's enough, stop talking nonsense! The main thing is, do your best to respect the old prince, and be careful in your words and deeds." "If he starts swearing, I'll go away," said Anatole. "I can't stand these old men. Huh?" "You have to remember that for you, everything is based on this." At this time, the room where the maid lived not only learned that the minister and his son had come, but also described their appearance in detail.Princess Marya sat alone in her room, trying in vain to restrain her agitation. "Why did they write, why did Lisa tell me about it? It's impossible!" she said to herself, looking in the mirror. "How am I going to get into the living room? If I really like him, I can't be alone with him right now." The thought of her father's gaze made her shudder. The little Duchess and Mademoiselle Bourienne had all sorts of useful information from Martha, the maid, about a handsome man with rosy cheeks and black eyebrows who was the minister's son, whose father dragged himself up the stairs with difficulty, And he was like a goshawk, climbing the third step of the ladder with one step, and walking behind him. The little Duchess and Mademoiselle Bourienne heard their lively conversation from the corridor, and after obtaining this information, and went into the princess's room. "Ilsson tarrives, Marie, do you know?" said the little Duchess, stumbling, shaking her big belly, and sinking heavily into the easy chair. -------- ①French: Mary, they are here. She had given up the jacket she had worn in the morning and was wearing a nice dress.Her head was carefully groomed to give it a radiant look, but it still couldn't hide a disheveled and lifeless appearance.It was all the more ugly in view of the dress she was wearing, which was customary in Petersburg society.Mademoiselle Bourienne's dress also changed imperceptibly, adding a certain charm to her beautiful and fresh face. "Ehbien, etvousrestezcommevousetes, chere privcesse? said she, "Onvavenivannoncer, quecesmessieurssontausalon, ilfaudradescendre, etvousnefaitespasunpetitbrindetoilette!" ①" The little princess got up from her easy chair, rang for the maid, and hurriedly and cheerfully suggested Princess Marya's dress, and proceeded to dress her.Princess Marya felt wronged and hurt her self-esteem, and the arrival of the betrothed to her made her excited, and she was even more wronged when her two friends predicted that the matter could only be done in this way, To tell them that she was ashamed of herself and of them was to betray her own excitement, and to refuse them to dress her was bound to lead to prolonged teasing and chatter.Flushed, her beautiful eyes dulled, her face blotched with erythema, and with the ugly expression of the victim that was so often on her face, she was at the mercy of Mademoiselle Bourienne and Lisa.These two women were very sincere in trying to make her beautiful.She was very ugly, and none of them would have thought of competing with her, so they did so out of sincerity, and with that naive and firm belief of women that clothes make a countenance beautiful. she was beautiful, so they proceeded to dress her. "Malonneamie, tell the truth, no, the dress is not pretty," said Lisa, looking sideways at the princess from a distance, "you have a fuchsia dress, order it! Well, you know , maybe this can determine the fate of a lifetime. But this dress is too light in color, it’s not beautiful, no, it’s not beautiful!” -------- ①French: Hey, why are you still wearing the same clothes you wore before?Immediately someone came to talk and they came out.If you have to go downstairs, you might as well dress up a little bit. ②French: my friend. It was not the dress that was ugly, but the princess's face and figure, but Mademoiselle Bourienne and the little princess were not aware of this.They always thought that everything would look pretty if they tied a sky-blue ribbon in their upturned hair, and draped a sky-blue scarf over a brown dress, and so on.They forget that her frightened face and body cannot be changed.So, no matter how much they changed their appearance and modified it, her face still looked ugly and unattractive.Princess Marya obeyed meekly as they changed her clothes again and again, then brushed her hair up (this hairstyle completely changed and affected the shape of her face), put on a sky-blue scarf, and put on a gorgeous dress. A fuchsia dress, and now the little duchess circled around her twice, smoothing out the folds of the dress with a small hand, tugging at the scarf, now sideways, now sideways. look up. "No, it still won't work," she said resolutely, clapping her hands up. "Non, Marie, decision canevous vapas. Jevousaimemieux dans votrepetiterobegrvisedetouslesjours. Non, degrace, faitescelapourmoi. Katya," she said to the maid. "Bring the light gray dress for the princess, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and see how I arrange it," she said, with an actor's smile of foreboding joy. -------- ①French: Marie, no, this dress doesn't fit you at all.I like you even more in that light gray dress you wear every day.Please do it for me. But when Katya brought the necessary dress, Princess Marya sat motionless before the mirror, looking at her own face, which Katya saw with tears in her eyes, Her mouth trembled, and she was about to cry. "Voyons, chere princesse," said Mademoiselle Bourienne. "encore unpetite effort."① The little princess took the dress from the maid and went to Princess Marya. "That won't do, now we're going to look simple and pretty," she said. Her voice, Mademoiselle Bourienne's, and Katya's, laughing at something, merged into a merry murmur like a bird's song. "Non, laissez-moi," said the princess. Her voice sounded so serious and distressing that the whispering of the bird stopped suddenly.They looked into her large, beautiful eyes, filled with tears, looking at them thoughtfully, brightly, imploringly, and they knew that it would be cruel rather than useless to persist. "Aumoins changez de coiffure," said the little Duchess, "Jeousdissais," she said reproachfully, turning her face to Mademoiselle Bourienne, "Marieaune deces figures, auxquellesgenredecoffurenevapasdutout, Maisdutout, dutout. Changezdegrace." Laissez-moi, laissez-moi, toutcam'est parfaitementegal. "④ The voice of the person who barely held back the tears can be heard answering. -------- ①French: Oh, princess, restrain yourself again. ②French: No, please leave me alone. ③French: "At least change your hair style. I told you." "This hair style doesn't suit the face shape of someone like Marie at all. Please change your hair style." ④French: Leave me alone, I am the same anyway. Mademoiselle Bourienne and the little princess should admit to themselves that Princess Marya looked ugly, uglier than usual, but it was too late.She kept watching them with that familiar, independent, sad expression on her face.This expression did not make them afraid of Princess Maria. (She didn't make anyone feel that way.) But they knew that when she had that look on her face, she was silent, and when she made up her mind, she never wavered. "Vouschangerez, n'est-ce Pas?" said Lisa, who came out of the room when Princess Mary made no answer. -------- ①French: You will definitely change your hairstyle, won't you? Princess Marya remained alone.Not only did she not do what Lisa wanted, not only did she not change her hairstyle, but she did not take a look at herself in the mirror.With eyes and arms lowered limply, she sat in silence, thinking to herself.She pictured in her mind a husband, a powerful man, a man of high position and uncanny charm, who suddenly took her into a whole different world of happiness.She imagined in her mind that she was carrying a child of her own, the same one she had seen yesterday at the nurse's daughter.The husband stood before her, looking tenderly at her and the child. "But I'm wrong, it's impossible, I'm too ugly," she thought to herself. "Please go drink tea. The Duke will come out to meet guests soon." The voice of the maid can be heard from behind the door. She was sober, and she was taken aback by what had come to her mind.Before going downstairs, she got up and went into the worship room where the idol was kept. She focused her eyes on the dark face of the large idol illuminated by the ever-burning lamp, and stood with her hands folded before the idol for a few minutes.Princess Marya was filled with painful doubts.Would she be able to enjoy the joys of love, the joys of loving a man in the world?When Princess Mary conceived the idea of ​​marriage, what she wanted in her heart was the happiness of the family and children, but the main and most powerful longing was love in the world.The more she concealed it from others, even from herself, the stronger it became. "My God," she said, "how can I suppress these diabolical thoughts in my heart? How can I abandon this bad idea forever, so that I can carry out your wishes with peace of mind?" She had just offered God answered this question in her heart: "Don't dream of anything for yourself, don't search, don't need to be excited, and don't be jealous. For you, neither the future of people nor your destiny should be known. , in order to give everything, you have to go on like this. If God wants to test your sense of responsibility in marriage, you have to be willing to do his will." Princess Maria had this kind of complacency (but still expecting her to fulfill her long-cherished wish of forbidden earthly love), she sighed, crossed herself, and went downstairs.She didn't think about dresses, or hairdos, or how she got in the door, or what she said.Because without God's will, not even a hair will fall from a person's head. What does all this mean compared to God's pre-determination.