Chapter 23 Chapter Twenty-Three

Father's consent was necessary for the marriage, and Prince Andrew went to see his father the next day for this reason. The father appeared calm on the surface, but his heart was full of resentment. With such an attitude, he received his son and listened to his report.He found it incomprehensible that, at the end of his life, anyone should try to change his life and introduce anything new into it. "However, let me live as long as I want, and you can do whatever you want in the future." The old man said to himself.But in his dealings with his son, he still used the same diplomacy he used in emergencies.With a calm tone, he considered the issue comprehensively.

First, in terms of life experience, property and fame, this marriage is not happy.Secondly, Prince Andrew was past middle age and weak (the old man emphasized this with particular emphasis), while she was very young.Third, he couldn't bear to betroth his son to this little girl.Fourth, and the last point, the father looked at his son sarcastically and said, "Please postpone this marriage for a year, go abroad for a while, recuperate for a while, and seek a German tutor for Duke Nicholas, This is in line with your wishes. Then, if love, lust, and stubborn temper are really big, you can marry. This is my last order, remember, the last..." The Duke ended his speech with The tone said that nothing could force him to change his decision.

Prince Andrei saw clearly that the old man expected that his feelings, or those of his future fiancée, would not stand the test of a year, or that the old prince himself would die before then, and he resolved to carry out his father's will: After the proposal, the marriage is postponed for one year. Three weeks after Prince Andrew spent the last night at the Rostovs' house, he returned to Petersburg. The next day Natasha, having spoken her heart to her mother, waited all day for Bolkonski, but he did not come.The next day, the third day was still the same, no one was there.Pierre did not come either, because Natasha did not know that Prince Andrey had gone to his father, so she could not explain why he did not come.

Three weeks passed like this.Natasha didn't want to go anywhere, she was like a ghost, she was bored and unhappy, she walked around the houses, and at night she cried quietly behind everyone's back, and she didn't see her mother. There went.She often blushed and was very excited.She seemed to feel that everyone understood her disappointment, laughed at her, and pitied her.The anguish of her heart was severe, and her misery was compounded by the vanity and suffering. Once she came to the countess and wanted to say something to her, but suddenly burst into tears.She had tears in her eyes, like a child who has been wronged and punished for no reason.

The countess began to comfort Natasha.At the beginning, Natasha listened to her mother, and suddenly she interrupted her: "Mom, stop talking. I haven't even thought about it. I don't want to think about it! Once I come by chance, I won't come again, I won't come again..." Her voice trembled, she was on the verge of crying, but she regained her composure, and went on calmly: "I don't want to marry at all. I'm afraid of him, and now I'm completely, completely at ease..." The day after this conversation Natasha put on an old dress which she loved so much because it brought her joy every morning, and from that morning she began to Adopt the old way of life that has been interrupted since the last prom.After drinking enough tea, she went into a very sound-focused hall that she particularly liked, where she began to practice sight-singing.After the first lesson, she stopped in the middle of the hall to repeat a phrase she liked so much.Her voice, melodious and melodious, filled the hall, and slowly faded away, and she listened with pleasure to the melodious tone (as if it had not been expected by her), and she was suddenly at ease.

"Why think too much, it's all very well," she said to herself, and began to walk up and down the hall, not with ordinary steps, but with each step She shifted her weight from her heels to her toes (she was wearing a new pair of leather shoes she liked), and she listened with delight to the rhythmic thump of the heels and the rub of the toes as she listened to her own singing. Creaking.She looked in the mirror as she passed by the mirror, and, "Look, that's me!" Her face seemed to say so when she saw herself. "Ah, not too bad. I don't need anyone yet."

The servant wanted to come in and pack up the things in the hall, but she wouldn't let him in, so she closed the door behind her and continued to walk around.This morning she was in a state of self-admiration again: she loved herself, praised herself. "How handsome this Natasha is!" she said of herself in third-person masculine again, "she's pretty, very young, and has a silver voice, and she won't get in anyone's way, but don't bother her either. ’” But even though they left her alone, she couldn’t be at peace, and she knew it right away. The door of the reception room opened, and someone asked, "Are you home?" Then there was the sound of someone's footsteps.Natasha was looking in the mirror, but she couldn't see herself in the mirror.She listened to the noises in the reception room.When she saw herself in the mirror, she looked very pale.it's him.Although she could barely hear his voice through the closed door, she still knew with certainty that it was him.

Natasha, pale and bewildered, ran into the drawing room. "Mother, here comes Bolkonski!" she said. "Mother, it's terrible, it's disgusting! I don't want to . Before the countess could answer her, Prince Andrei entered the drawing-room with an unusually disturbed and serious air.He smiled when he saw Natasha.He kissed the hands of the countess and Natasha, and sat down by the sofa. ... "We haven't had the chance for a long time..." the countess began, but Prince Andrew interrupted her, and when he answered her question he was evidently in a hurry to say what he had to say.

"I didn't pay a visit these days because I went to my father and I needed to discuss a very important matter with him. I came back late last night." He glanced at Natasha and said, "I need to talk to him You have a business to discuss, Countess." After a moment of silence, he added. The countess took a heavy breath and lowered her eyes. "I am at your service," she said. Natasha knew she had to go away, but she could not do so, as if something was choking her throat, and she opened her eyes freely and looked directly at Andrey. Duke. "Now? At this very moment! . . . No, it's impossible!" she thought.

He glanced at her again, and this glance convinced her that she was right, "Yes, now, it is at this moment that her fate will be decided." "Go, Natasha, I will call you," whispered the countess. Natasha looked at Prince Andrew and her mother with bewildered and beseeching eyes, and went out. "Countess, I have come to propose to your daughter," said Prince Andrew. The Countess blushed, but she said nothing. "Your proposal..." began the countess, solemnly.He looked into her eyes and was silent. "Your proposal... (she feels embarrassed) we are both delighted, and... I am delighted to accept your proposal. My husband is also... I hope...but it will be up to her... "

"As soon as I have your consent, I will tell her... Do you agree to my proposal?" said Prince Andrew. "Agreed," said the countess, holding out her hand to him, and when he bent over hers she kissed his forehead with a mixture of distant and tender affection.She wanted to love him as she loved her son, but she felt that he was an outsider, someone she thought terrible. "I am sure my husband will agree," said the countess, "but your lord..." "I told my father about my plans, but he postponed the marriage for a year as a condition of consent to the marriage. I want to tell you about that," said Prince Andrew. "It is true that Natasha is still very young, but—how long it has been!" "If it doesn't work, it won't do," said Prince Andrew with a sigh. "I will send her to you," said the countess, and came out of the room. "God, spare us," she said repeatedly as she searched for her daughter.Natasha was in the bedroom, Sonia said.Natasha was pale and sat on her bed, staring at the statue with indifferent eyes. She made the sign of the sign of the sign of the sign of the sign of the cross quickly, and said something in a low voice.Seeing her mother, she jumped up and threw herself into her arms. "Mom, what's the matter? ... What's the matter?" "Go, go to him. He proposes to you," said the countess, it seemed to Natasha, coldly. ... "You go... you go," said the mother with a sad, reproachful look behind the running daughter, and she sighed heavily. Natasha did not remember how she came into the drawing room.She came in and stopped when she saw him. "Has this stranger become everything to me now?" she asked herself, and then replied, "Yes, he is everything. To me, he alone is the most precious thing in this world." Ann Prince Andrey lowered his eyes and went up to her. "I have fallen in love with you from the moment I first saw you. Can I have hope?" He looks at her.He was taken aback by her dignified and passionate facial expression.Her face seemed to say, "Why ask? Why doubt what you have to know? Why express your feelings beyond words." She walked towards him and stopped.He took her hand tightly and kissed it. "Do you love me?" "Love, love," said Natasha in chagrin, and she gasped loudly, then again, more and more often, and suddenly burst into tears. "Why are you crying? What's the matter?" "Oh, I'm so happy," she answered, smiling through her tears, and she leaned over him, thought for a moment, as if asking herself if she could do this, and then kissed him. Prince Andrei took her both hands, looked into her eyes, and did not find in his soul his former love for her.Suddenly something changed in his heart: the previous poetic, mysterious, lustful temptation no longer exists, only his pity for her feminine and childish weakness, his loyalty and trust in her The dread and the heavy, pleasant sense of responsibility that comes from his permanent union with her.Though the emotion is not as clear and poetic as it once was, it is more serious and more intense. "Did mother tell you that the wedding must be postponed for a year?" said Prince Andrew, looking her in the eyes. "Could it be me, that little girl (that's what everyone says about me)," thought Natasha, "could I be the wife from this very moment, with this strange, lovely, intelligent, even Is my father also respecting people as equals? Is this true? Now I can no longer treat life as a joke, now I am a big boss, and now I really have to be responsible for all my words and deeds. Is this true? Yes? Yes, what did he ask me?" "No." She answered, but she did not understand what he was asking. "Forgive me," said Prince Andrei, "but you are so young, and I have had a rough life. I worry about you. You have no self-knowledge." Natasha listened to him with all her attention, and tried to grasp the meaning of his words, but she could not understand them. "No matter how hard this year has been for me, I cannot help postponing my happiness," continued Prince Andrew, "at this period you have to trust in yourself. I beg you to grant me happiness after a year, but you can do it now." Be free, our engagement is a secret, and if you really think that you don't love me, or that you do..." said Prince Andrew with an unnatural smile. "Why do you say that?" Natasha interrupted him. "You know I've loved you from the day you first came to Otradnoe," she said, convinced she was telling the truth. "In a year you'll know your..." "For a whole year!" Natasha said suddenly, and now she understood that the wedding would be postponed for a year. "But why put it off for a year? Why put it off for a year? . . . " Prince Andrew began to explain to her the reason for the delay, but Natasha would not listen to him. "Isn't that okay?" she asked.Prince Andrey said nothing, but his face expressed an inability to change the decision. "It's terrible! No, it's too terrible, it's too terrible!" Natasha began suddenly, and then burst into tears again. "Waiting for a year is really killing me. It's impossible, it's terrible." She looked at her fiancé's face, and saw the expression of pity and embarrassment on his face. "No, no, I've got everything done," she said suddenly, holding back tears, "I'm very happy!" Both father and mother came into the room to bless the fiancé and the married couple. From that day on Prince Andrei visited the Rostovs' house frequently as his betrothed.