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Chapter 6 - Pierre at Prince Andrey's
Having thanked Anna Pavlovna for her charming soiree, the guests began to take their leave.
Pierre was ungainly. Stout1, about the average height, broad, with huge red hands; he did not know, as the saying is, how to enter a drawing room and still less how to leave one; that is, how to say something particularly agreeable before going away. Besides this he was absent-minded. When he rose to go, he took up instead of his own, the general’s three-cornered hat, and held it, pulling at the plume2, till the general asked him to restore it. All his absent-mindedness and inability to enter a room and converse3 in it was, however, redeemed4 by his kindly5, simple, and modest expression. Anna Pavlovna turned toward him and, with a Christian6 mildness that expressed forgiveness of his indiscretion, nodded and said: “I hope to see you again, but I also hope you will change your opinions, my dear Monsieur Pierre.”
When she said this, he did not reply and only bowed, but again everybody saw his smile, which said nothing, unless perhaps, “Opinions are opinions, but you see what a capital, good-natured fellow I am.” And everyone, including Anna Pavlovna, felt this.
Prince Andrey had gone out into the hall, and, turning his shoulders to the footman who was helping7 him on with his cloak, listened indifferently to his wife’s chatter8 with Prince Hippolyte who had also come into the hall. Prince Hippolyte stood close to the pretty, pregnant princess, and stared fixedly9 at her through his eyeglass.
“Go in, Annette, or you will catch cold,” said the little princess, taking leave of Anna Pavlovna. “It is settled,” she added in a low voice.
Anna Pavlovna had already managed to speak to Lisa about the match she contemplated10 between Anatole and the little princess’ sister-in-law.
“I rely on you, my dear,” said Anna Pavlovna, also in a low tone. “Write to her and let me know how her father looks at the matter. Au revoir!”— and she left the hall.
Prince Hippolyte approached the little princess and, bending his face close to her, began to whisper something.
Two footmen, the princess’ and his own, stood holding a shawl and a cloak, waiting for the conversation to finish. They listened to the French sentences which to them were meaningless, with an air of understanding but not wishing to appear to do so. The princess as usual spoke11 smilingly and listened with a laugh.
“I am very glad I did not go to the ambassador’s,” said Prince Hippolyte “-so dull-. It has been a delightful12 evening, has it not? Delightful!”
“They say the ball will be very good,” replied the princess, drawing up her downy little lip. “All the pretty women in society will be there.”
“Not all, for you will not be there; not all,” said Prince Hippolyte smiling joyfully13; and snatching the shawl from the footman, whom he even pushed aside, he began wrapping it round the princess. Either from awkwardness or intentionally14 (no one could have said which) after the shawl had been adjusted he kept his arm around her for a long time, as though embracing her.
Still smiling, she gracefully15 moved away, turning and glancing at her husband. Prince Andrey’s eyes were closed, so weary and sleepy did he seem.
“Are you ready?” he asked his wife, looking past her.
Prince Hippolyte hurriedly put on his cloak, which in the latest fashion reached to his very heels, and, stumbling in it, ran out into the porch following the princess, whom a footman was helping into the carriage.
“Princesse, au revoir,” cried he, stumbling with his tongue as well as with his feet.
The princess, picking up her dress, was taking her seat in the dark carriage, her husband was adjusting his saber; Prince Hippolyte, under pretense16 of helping, was in everyone’s way.
“Allow me, sir,” said Prince Andrey in Russian in a cold, disagreeable tone to Prince Hippolyte who was blocking his path.
“I am expecting you, Pierre,” said the same voice, but gently and affectionately.
The postilion started, the carriage wheels rattled17. Prince Hippolyte laughed spasmodically as he stood in the porch waiting for the vicomte whom he had promised to take home.
“Well, mon cher,” said the vicomte, having seated himself beside Hippolyte in the carriage, “your little princess is very nice, very nice indeed, quite French,” and he kissed the tips of his fingers. Hippolyte burst out laughing.
“Do you know, you are a terrible chap for all your innocent airs,” continued the vicomte. “I pity the poor husband, that little officer who gives himself the airs of a monarch18.”
Hippolyte spluttered again, and amid his laughter said, “And you were saying that the Russian ladies are not equal to the French? One has to know how to deal with them.”
Pierre reaching the house first went into Prince Andrey’s study like one quite at home, and from habit immediately lay down on the sofa, took from the shelf the first book that came to his hand (it was Caesar’s Commentaries), and resting on his elbow, began reading it in the middle.
“What have you done to Mlle Scherer? She will be quite ill now,” said Prince Andrey, as he entered the study, rubbing his small white hands.
Pierre turned his whole body, making the sofa creak. He lifted his eager face to Prince Andrey, smiled, and waved his hand.
“That abbe is very interesting but he does not see the thing in the right light. . . . In my opinion perpetual peace is possible but — I do not know how to express it . . . not by a balance of political power. . . . ”
It was evident that Prince Andrey was not interested in such abstract conversation.
“One can’t everywhere say all one thinks, mon cher. Well, have you at last decided19 on anything? Are you going to be a guardsman or a diplomatist?” asked Prince Andrey after a momentary20 silence.
Pierre sat up on the sofa, with his legs tucked under him.
“Really, I don’t yet know. I don’t like either the one or the other.”
“But you must decide on something! Your father expects it.”
Pierre at the age of ten had been sent abroad with an abbe as tutor, and had remained away till he was twenty. When he returned to Moscow his father dismissed the abbe and said to the young man, “Now go to Petersburg, look round, and choose your profession. I will agree to anything. Here is a letter to Prince Vasili, and here is money. Write to me all about it, and I will help you in everything.” Pierre had already been choosing a career for three months, and had not decided on anything. It was about this choice that Prince Andrey was speaking. Pierre rubbed his forehead.
“But he must be a Freemason,” said he, referring to the abbe whom he had met that evening.
“That is all nonsense.” Prince Andrey again interrupted him, “let us talk business. Have you been to the Horse Guards?”
“No, I have not; but this is what I have been thinking and wanted to tell you. There is a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for freedom I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army; but to help England and Austria against the greatest man in the world is not right.”
Prince Andrey only shrugged21 his shoulders at Pierre’s childish words. He put on the air of one who finds it impossible to reply to such nonsense, but it would in fact have been difficult to give any other answer than the one Prince Andrey gave to this naive22 question.
“If no one fought except on his own conviction, there would be no wars,” he said.
“And that would be splendid,” said Pierre.
Prince Andrey smiled ironically.
“Very likely it would be splendid, but it will never come about . . . ”
“Well, why are you going to the war?” asked Pierre.
“What for? I don’t know. I must. Besides that I am going . . . ” He paused. “I am going because the life I am leading here does not suit me!”
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1
stout
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| adj.强壮的，粗大的，结实的，勇猛的，矮胖的 | |
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2
plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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3
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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4
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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5
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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6
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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7
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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8
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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9
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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10
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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11
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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12
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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13
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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14
intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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15
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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16
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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17
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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18
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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19
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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20
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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21
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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22
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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