Chapter 2 Chapter two

The day after his son's departure, Prince Nikolai Andreitch called Princess Marya to himself. "Well, are you satisfied now?" he said to her. "You've made me and my son quarrel! Satisfied? That's all you need! Satisfied? . . . It hurts and hurts me! I'm old and dying, and that's what you want. Then be happy, be proud..." After that, Princess Marya didn't see her father for a week.Because he was ill, he never left his study. Princess Marya was surprised when she noticed that the old prince did not allow Mademoiselle Bourienne to come to him during his illness.Tikhon alone waited on him.

A week later, the Duke came out and started his old life again.He was particularly active in architecture and gardening, and had severed all past relations with Mademoiselle Bourienne.His demeanor and his indifferent tone to Princess Marya seemed to say to her: "You have to know the price, to establish an "open workers' party" operating within the legal scope, hence the name. I quarreled with Prince Andrew by talking nonsense about my relationship with the Frenchwoman, and you know I don't need you or the Frenchwoman." Princess Marya spent half the day with Nikolushka, helping him with his homework, teaching him Russian and music, and talking to Dessalle; And while away time with the gods who came in to see her through the back door.

Princess Marya thought of war as women do in general.She worried about her brother who was at war, and she was horrified by the cruelty of the world that forced people to kill each other, but she didn't understand the meaning of this war, thinking that it was the same as all the wars in the past.Although Desalle, who was very concerned about the battle situation, often talked to her and tried his best to explain his own thoughts to her, although the priests who came to see her always told their own opinions about the invasion of Christ's enemies According to folklore, although it is now Princess Drubetskaya - Julie has resumed correspondence with her and wrote her many patriotic letters from Moscow, but she still does not understand the meaning of the war .

"My good friend! I am writing to you now in Russian,"—Julie writes—"because I hate all the French, as well as their language, and I can't hear it spoken ..., due to the enthusiasm for the emperor we admire, there are "necessary truths" and "accidental truths". The main works are "Humanity, and we are all very excited in Moscow." "My poor husband is now living and starving in a Jewish hotel, but I am all the more encouraged by the messages I have received." "No doubt you have heard the heroic deeds of Raevsky, who once embraced his two sons and said: I will die with them, but we will not waver! Indeed, although the enemy is twice as strong as us, we We passed the time as best we could. But is wartime like wartime? Princess Alina and Sophie sit with me all day, unhappy widows, spinning balls of cotton At that time, everyone chatted with great interest; at least you are here, my friend..." and so on.The reason why Princess Maria did not understand the full meaning of this war was mainly because the old prince never talked about war, did not admit that there was a war, and laughed at Desalle who talked about this war at dinner.The old prince's tone was so calm and confident that Princess Marya believed him without any objection.

-------- ① In the old days, the rags were torn off to replace the wound with cotton wool. All July the old prince was very active, even animated.He laid the foundations for yet another new garden and a new building for the servants.The only thing that troubled Princess Marya was that he slept so little, changed his habits in the study, and changed his lodging every day.Sometimes he ordered his cot to be opened in the corridor; sometimes he lay on the sofa in the living room without undressing or sat in a Voltaire chair; Petrusha read to him; sometimes he also spent the night in the mess hall.

On August 1, a second letter was received from Prince Andrew.In the first letter received shortly after his departure, Prince Andrew humbly begged his father to forgive him for what he had said, and to restore his favor to him.The old prince answered him a letter kindly, after which he was estranged from the Frenchwoman.Prince Andrei's second letter was written near Vitebsk when the French army occupied it. In the letter, he briefly described the entire process of the battle and the schematic diagram of the battle, as well as his views on the future battle situation.At the same time, in this letter, Prince Andrei also told his father that it was a disadvantage for him to live near the battlefield, being on a military line of communication, and advised his father to go to Moscow.

During dinner that day, Desalle said that he heard that the French army had invaded Vitebsk, and the old prince suddenly remembered the letter from Prince Andrew. "I received a letter from Prince Andrew today," he said to Princess Marya. "Have you read it?" "No, monpere," replied the princess, surprised.She had never read the letter, nor had she even heard of receiving it. -------- ①French: Dad. "He talks about this war again in his letters," said the Duke, with that contemptuous smile which had become his habit at the mention of the present war.

"Must be fun!" DeSalle said. "The duke will know..." "Oh, very interesting?" said Mademoiselle Bourienne. "Go and fetch me the letter!" said the old prince to Mademoiselle Bourienne. "You know that the letter is under the platen on the little table." Mademoiselle Bourienne jumped up with joy. "Oh, don't go," he cried, frowning; "you go, Mikhail Ivanitch!" Mikhail Ivanitch got up and went to his study.No sooner had he gone out than the old prince looked about anxiously, threw down his napkin, and went to fetch the letter himself.

They don't know how to do anything, they always make a mess. After he had gone, Princess Marya, Desalle, Mademoiselle Bourienne, and even Nikolushka all exchanged silent glances.The old prince, accompanied by Mihail Ivanitch, returned with hasty steps.He took the letter and the plans for the house with him, and kept them with him at meals, without letting anyone read them. After the old prince returned to the living room, he handed the letter to Princess Maria, and then spread out the new building plan. While watching the building plan, he ordered her to read the letter aloud. looked at his father.He was looking at the plans for the house, apparently lost in thought.

"What do you think of this question, Duke?" Desalt thought he could ask. "Me? Me? . . . " said the prince, as if waking up unpleasantly, but his eyes were still fixed on the plans for the house. "Very likely, the battlefield is not far from us..." "Ha, ha, ha! The field!" said the prince. "I have said, and I say again, that the field is in Poland, and that the enemy will never cross the Niemen." When the enemy had reached the Dnieper, Dessalle looked in surprise at the Duke who was still talking about the Nemen; but Princess Maria, forgetting the location of the Nemen, thought her father was right.

"When the snow melts, they will be stuck in the swamps of Poland. It's just that they don't see it." The old prince said, obviously remembering the war that happened in 1807, thinking that It's that close. "Bernigsen should have been in Prussia earlier, it would have been different..." "But, Duke," said Dessalle timidly, "the letter refers to Vitebsk..." "Ah, did you mention it in the letter? Yes..." said the prince dissatisfied, "Yes... yes..." His face suddenly took on a gloomy expression.He was silent for a while. "Yes, he wrote. On what river was the French defeated?" Desalle lowered his eyes. "The duke didn't mention it in his letter," he whispered. "Did it really not be mentioned? Huh, I won't make it up." There was a long silence. "Yes . Mikhail Ivanitch went up to the plans, and the prince and he read the plans for the new house, and after looking angrily at Princess Marya and Dessalles, they went to their rooms. Princess María saw Dessalle fix her father with embarrassment and surprise, and also noticed that he was silent and surprised that her father had left his son's letter on the living room table, but she Not only was she afraid to talk about it, she was afraid to ask Dessert about the reasons for his embarrassment and silence, but she was also afraid to think about it. In the evening Mikhail Ivanitch was sent by the prince to Princess Marya to fetch a letter from Prince Andrew which had been forgotten in the drawing room.Princess Marya gave him the letter.Although it was unpleasant to her, she dared to ask Mikhail Ivanitch what her father was doing now. "Always busy!" said Mihail Ivanitch with a respectful and ironic smile, which made Princess Marya turn pale. "He was very worried about the new house, read for a while, and now," said Mikhail Ivanitch in a low voice, and must have been at his desk writing his will! (One of the duke's favorite jobs these days is organizing the posthumous documents, which he calls wills.)" "Are you going to send Alpatitch to Smolensk?" asked Princess Marya. "No, he has been waiting for a long time."