Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen

Morning comes with toil and rush.Everyone got up, moved, chatted, the dressmaker came again, and Marya Dmitrievna came out again and called everyone to morning tea.Natasha's eyes were wide open, as if she were about to catch the first gaze that looked at her, and she looked around everyone anxiously, trying to assume her usual air. After breakfast Marya Dmitrievna (who was at her best) sat down in her easy chair and called Natasha and the old count to her. "Here, my friends, now that I have thought of everything, I have this idea for you," she began. "You know, I was at Prince Nicholas's yesterday, and I talked to him for a while... He suddenly wanted to cry out, but he couldn't suppress my shouting! I gave everything to him Straight up!"

"How is he?" asked the count. "What about him? Crazy... He won't listen, well, what's there to say, we've tortured a poor girl to the bone," said Marya Dmitrievna, "I advise you Finish your work and go home to Otradnoe... and wait there..." "Oh, no!" cried Natasha suddenly. "No, you are going," said Mary Dmitrievna, "and wait there. If the fiancé comes here later, it must be noisy, and then he and the old man will discuss everything face to face, and then come to the You go there." Ilya Andreitch immediately saw the validity of the proposal, and agreed.It would be better if the old man relented and he would come to see him later in Moscow or Bald Hills, and if that didn't work, then there would be no choice but to marry at Otradnoe against his will.

"That's true," said he; "I went to him once, and took her, and I'm sorry," said the old count. "No, why regret it? Since one is here, one cannot but show respect. Come on, he doesn't want to, it's his business," said Marya Dmitrievna, looking for something in her handbag . "But the dowry is ready, what are you waiting for? I will send you the things that are not ready. Even if I miss you, it's better to go." She found what she was looking for in her handbag After that, he gave it to Natasha.Here is a letter from Princess Marya, "She writes to you. She is tormented, poor creature! She is afraid that you will think she does not like you."

"She really doesn't like me," said Natasha. "Nonsense, don't talk," cried Marya Dmitrievna. "I don't believe anyone, I know she doesn't like it," said Natasha boldly, taking the letter in her hand, with a cold, resentful, determined expression on her face, which made Maria Demy Trievna glanced at her more intently, and frowned. "My dear, don't answer me like that," she said. "Everything I say is true. Write back." Natasha did not answer, but went into her room to read Princess Marya's letter. Princess Maria wrote in her letter that she was disappointed at the misunderstanding that had occurred between them, and Princess Maria wrote in her letter that whatever her father's feelings, she asked Natasha to believe that she would not dislike her , because she is the spouse chosen by her brother, and she is willing to sacrifice everything for her brother's happiness.

"However," she wrote, "you must not think that my father has any malice against you. He is a sick old man who should be forgiven, but he is kind and magnanimous, and he will bring love to his son. Happy people." Princess Maria then mentioned in the letter, asking Natasha to set a time so that she and she could meet again. After reading the letter, Natasha sat down at the desk and wrote a reply: "Chereprincesse," ① she wrote two words quickly and mechanically and then stopped.What could she write after all that had happened yesterday? "Yes, yes, all this has happened, and now everything is different," she thought to herself, facing the letter which began at the beginning, "should he be rejected? Should it be? This is terrible! . . . " In order not to think about these terrible thoughts, she walked up to Sonia and chose embroidery patterns with Sonia.

-------- ①French: Dear princess. After dinner Natasha went to her room and picked up the letter from Princess Marya again. "Is it all over?" she thought. "Could it all happen so quickly and destroy everything before?" She was as absorbed in her memory of her love for Prince Andrey, and at the same time felt that she had loved Kuragin.She described herself perfectly as Prince Andrew's wife, and thought of the scene of her happiness with him that had repeatedly recurred in her mind, and at the same time recalled the details of her meeting with Anatole the day before. , flushed with excitement.

"Why can't these two be taken care of at the same time?" She sometimes wondered darkly. "Only then will I be completely happy, and now I have to choose. I can't be happy without either. Either," she thought, "tell Prince Andrew what happened. It is equally impossible to hide it from him, or to conceal it from him. But the man has not been harmed in the slightest. Shall I ever abandon the happiness of love that Prince Andrew and I have shared for so long?" "Miss," whispered a maid with a mysterious air as she came into the room, "someone asked me to give it to you," and the maid handed over a letter. "It's just for the sake of Christ..." When Natasha mechanically opened the envelope without hesitation and was reading Anatole's love letter, the maid said so again, and Natasha didn't understand a word , she only knew this: it was a letter from the one she loved. "Yes, she loves him, otherwise how could what has happened? How could she have his love letter in her hand?"

Natasha held in trembling hands Dolokhov's passionate love letter to Anatole, and as she read it, she felt that she found in it the meaning of everything she had experienced. echo. "Since last night, my fate has been decided: either I will have your love, or I will die. There is no other way for me," began the letter.Then he wrote that he knew in his heart that her parents would not marry her to him—Anatole.There must be a hidden reason, and he can tell her sincerely, but if she loves him, she only needs to say "yes", and no power in the world can hinder their supreme happiness.Love conquers all.He will secretly carry her to the ends of the earth.

"Yes, yes, I love him!" thought Natasha, rereading the letter twenty times, looking for some special deep meaning in each word. Marya Dmitrievna was going to the Arharovs that evening, and had ordered the ladies to go with her, so Natasha stayed at home, pleading that she had a headache.