Chapter 10 chapter Ten

During the intermission, there was a chill in Helen's box. The door opened, and Anatole bent down, trying not to hang on to others, and walked in. "Please allow me to introduce my brother to you," Helen said, turning her gaze from Natasha to Anatole.Natasha turned her pretty head over her bare shoulders to the handsome man, and smiled.Anatoly, who was as handsome up close as he was from a distance, sat down next to her and said that he had wanted the honor of acquainting her a long time ago, and that he had had the honor of being at the Naryshkins' ball. Seeing her was something he would never forget.Kuragin was much wiser and more simple among women than among men with whom he was intimately associated.He was bold and generous in his speech, and Natasha was amazed and delighted that not only was there nothing terrible about this man whom everyone was talking about, but on the contrary, he was often the most innocent, cheerful, and gentle. smile.

Kuragin asked her about her impressions of theatrical performances and told how Semyonova fell to the floor the last time she acted. "Miss Countess, you need to know," he suddenly turned his face to her when he spoke, as if treating an old friend, "We are going to hold a costume contest. , "Yu Baijia Zhidao, you should participate, you must be very happy.Everyone met at Arharov's house.Come on in your car, seriously, please? ’ he said. He smiled as he said this, and looked intently at Natasha's face, neck, and bare arms.Natasha knew undoubtedly that he was complimenting her.It pleased her very much, but for some reason she was suffocated and miserable in his presence.When she wasn't looking at him, she felt that he was looking at her shoulder carefully, and she couldn't help catching his gaze, telling him to look into her eyes.But as she looked into his eyes, she felt with horror that there was no barrier of shame between him and her that she had always felt between other men.Even she herself didn't know what was going on, and after five minutes she felt that she was too close to this person.When she turned her face away, she was afraid that he would grab her bare arm from behind and kiss her neck.They were talking about the most mundane things, and she felt they were getting too close, which she never had with other men.Natasha looked back at Helen and her father, as if asking them what was going on, but Helen was talking to a certain general, and she didn't respond to her gaze. Her father's gaze was nothing more than expressing to her the phrase he often said Saying: "If you are happy, I will be happy too."

During that moment of awkward silence, Anatole looked at her calmly and without blinking with his protruding eyes.To break the silence, Natasha asked him if he really liked Moscow.After Natasha asked this sentence, she blushed.It often seemed to her that she was doing something unseemly by talking to him.Anatole smiled, as if to encourage her. "I didn't like Moscow very much at first because, I don't know what makes this city lovable? Cesontlesjoliesfemmes, don't you? But now I like it very much," he said. Realism". ① One of the schools of medieval scholasticism in Western Europe looked at her meaningfully. "Will you be at the masquerade, countess? Go," he said, stretching out his hand to pluck a bouquet she was wearing, and lowering his voice: "Vousserezlaplusjolie. Venez, cherecomtesse, etcommegagedonnezmoicettefleur."

-------- ① French: That is a beautiful woman. ② French: You will be the most beautiful.Go, dear countess, and give me this flower as a pledge. Natasha did not understand what he said, just as he did, but it seemed to her that there was an unseemly intention in his incomprehensible words.She didn't know what to say, so she turned away as if she didn't hear what he said.But as soon as she turned around, she thought that he was behind, very close to her. "What's the matter with him now? He feels shy? Are you angry with me? Do you want to save it?" she asked herself.Unable to restrain herself, she looked back.She looked him straight in the eyes, and his nearness, his confidence, his gentle, kind smile won her over.She looked him straight in the eyes and smiled as he did.Then she felt again, with horror, that there was no longer any barrier between him and her.

Opened again.Anatole came out of the box calm and cheerful.Natasha returned to her father's box, completely resigned to her circumstances.It seemed to her that everything that was happening before her eyes was quite natural, but not once did she think of anything she had thought of before—about her fiancé, about Princess Marya, about life in the country, as if it were all long, long ago. things. In the fourth act there is a grimacing figure singing and waving his hands until someone pulls the boards from his feet and he sinks.In the fourth act Natasha sees only this one scene.Something stirred him and tormented her, and Kuragin was the cause of her unrest, and she could not help looking at him.When they came out of the theatre, Anatole went up to them, called their carriage, and helped them into it.He held Natasha's arm above the elbow as he supported her.Natasha flushed with agitation, and looked back at him.He gazed at her with twinkling eyes and a gentle smile.

Natasha did not think soberly of all that had happened to her until she had returned home, and she suddenly thought of Prince Andrei, felt frightened, and when they were sitting down to tea on their return from the theater, she cried out in front of everyone. , blushing, and ran out of the room. "My God! I am ruined!" she said to herself. "How can I allow someone else to do that?" she thought.She sat there for a long time, covering her flushed face, trying to make herself aware of what had happened, but she could neither understand what had happened nor what she was aware of.It seemed to her that everything was dark, dim, and frightening.There, in a brightly lit theater hall, Dubord, in a glittering blouse and bare legs, danced to music on wet planks, be it girls, old folks, or bare-breasted Helen, with her proud and serene smile on her shoulders, applauded ecstatically,--there, where Helen's figure appeared, it was all simple and clear; It all became incredible. "What is it? He frightens me, what is it? Now I have a conscience, what is it?" she thought.

In the middle of the night, Natasha could only tell the old countess everything in her heart in her own bed.She knew Sonia had her strict opinions, and she either didn't understand anything or was afraid of her telling her.Alone, Natasha tried her best to explain the problem that was tormenting her. "Am I ruined for Prince Andrew's love? Or am I not?" she asked herself, and answered her own words with a consoling sneer: "What a fool I am, why should I ask such a thing? What? Nothing happened. I didn't do anything wrong, didn't cause this kind of trouble. No one will know. I'll never see him again," she said to herself. "Obviously nothing happened, nothing to regret, and Prince Andrew would love someone like me. But would he love someone like me? Oh, my God, my God! Why isn't he here? !” Natasha was silent for a moment, but then another instinct seemed to tell her that although all this was absolutely true, although nothing had happened, it was telling her that what she had done to Prince Andrey earlier The purity of love is completely lost.Again she repeated in her imagination the whole conversation with Kuragin, and she pictured in her mind the face, the gestures, the gentle smile of this handsome and bold man as he took her arm.