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Chapter 12
The only young people remaining in the drawing room, not counting the young lady visitor and the countess’ eldest1 daughter (who was four years older than her sister and behaved already like a grown-up person), were Nikolai and Sonya, the niece. Sonya was a slender little brunette with a tender look in her eyes which were veiled by long lashes2, thick black plaits coiling twice round her head, and a tawny3 tint4 in her complexion5 and especially in the color of her slender but graceful6 and muscular arms and neck. By the grace of her movements, by the softness and flexibility7 of her small limbs, and by a certain coyness and reserve of manner, she reminded one of a pretty, half-grown kitten which promises to become a beautiful little cat. She evidently considered it proper to show an interest in the general conversation by smiling, but in spite of herself her eyes under their thick long lashes watched her cousin who was going to join the army, with such passionate8 girlish adoration9 that her smile could not for a single instant impose upon anyone, and it was clear that the kitten had settled down only to spring up with more energy and again play with her cousin as soon as they too could, like Natasha and Boris, escape from the drawing room.
“Ah yes, my dear,” said the count, addressing the visitor and pointing to Nikolai, “his friend Boris has become an officer, and so for friendship’s sake he is leaving the university and me, his old father, and entering the military service, my dear. And there was a place and everything waiting for him in the Archives Department! Isn’t that friendship?” remarked the count in an inquiring tone.
“But they say that war has been declared,” replied the visitor.
“They’ve been saying so a long while,” said the count, “and they’ll say so again and again, and that will be the end of it. My dear, there’s friendship for you,” he repeated. “He’s joining the hussars.”
The visitor, not knowing what to say, shook her head.
“It’s not at all from friendship,” declared Nikolai, flaring10 up and turning away as if from a shameful11 aspersion12. “It is not from friendship at all; I simply feel that the army is my vocation13.”
He glanced at his cousin and the young lady visitor; and they were both regarding him with a smile of approbation14.
“Schubert, the colonel of the Pavlograd Hussars, is dining with us today. He has been here on leave and is taking Nikolai back with him. It can’t be helped!” said the count, shrugging his shoulders and speaking playfully of a matter that evidently distressed15 him.
“I have already told you, Papa,” said his son, “that if you don’t wish to let me go, I’ll stay. But I know I am no use anywhere except in the army; I am not a diplomat16 or a government clerk. — I don’t know how to hide what I feel.” As he spoke17 he kept glancing with the flirtatiousness of a handsome youth at Sonya and the young lady visitor.
The little kitten, feasting her eyes on him, seemed ready at any moment to start her gambols18 again and display her kittenish nature.
“All right, all right!” said the old count. “He always flares19 up! This Buonaparte has turned all their heads; they all think of how he rose from an ensign and became Emperor. Well, well, God grant it,” he added, not noticing his visitor’s sarcastic20 smile.
The elders began talking about Bonaparte. Julie Karagina turned to young Rostov.
“What a pity you weren’t at the Arkharovs’ on Thursday. It was so dull without you,” said she, giving him a tender smile.
The young man, flattered, sat down nearer to her with a coquettish smile, and engaged the smiling Julie in a confidential21 conversation without at all noticing that his involuntary smile had stabbed the heart of Sonya, who blushed and smiled unnaturally23. In the midst of his talk he glanced round at her. She gave him a passionately24 angry glance, and hardly able to restrain her tears and maintain the artificial smile on her lips, she got up and left the room. All Nikolai’s animation25 vanished. He waited for the first pause in the conversation, and then with a distressed face left the room to find Sonya.
“How plainly all these young people wear their hearts on their sleeves!” said Anna Mikhaylovna, pointing to Nikolai as he went out. “Cousinage — dangereux voisinage;”* she added.
* Cousinhood is a dangerous neighborhood.
“Yes,” said the countess when the brightness these young people had brought into the room had vanished; and as if answering a question no one had put but which was always in her mind, “and how much suffering, how much anxiety one has had to go through that we might rejoice in them now! And yet really the anxiety is greater now than the joy. One is always, always anxious! Especially just at this age, so dangerous both for girls and boys.”
“It all depends on the bringing up,” remarked the visitor.
“Yes, you’re quite right,” continued the countess. “Till now I have always, thank God, been my children’s friend and had their full confidence,” said she, repeating the mistake of so many parents who imagine that their children have no secrets from them. “I know I shall always be my daughters’ first confidante, and that if Nikolai, with his impulsive26 nature, does get into mischief27 (a boy can’t help it), he will all the same never be like those Petersburg young men.”
“Yes, they are splendid, splendid youngsters,” chimed in the count, who always solved questions that seemed to him perplexing by deciding that everything was splendid. “Just fancy: wants to be an hussar. What’s one to do, my dear?”
“What a charming creature your younger girl is,” said the visitor; “a little volcano!”
“Yes, a regular volcano,” said the count. “Takes after me! And what a voice she has; though she’s my daughter, I tell the truth when I say she’ll be a singer, a second Salomoni! We have engaged an Italian to give her lessons.”
“Isn’t she too young? I have heard that it harms the voice to train it at that age.”
“Oh no, not at all too young!” replied the count. “Why, our mothers used to be married at twelve or thirteen.”
“And she’s in love with Boris already. Just fancy!” said the countess with a gentle smile, looking at Boris’ and went on, evidently concerned with a thought that always occupied her: “Now you see if I were to be severe with her and to forbid it . . . goodness knows what they might be up to on the sly” (she meant that they would be kissing), “but as it is, I know every word she utters. She will come running to me of her own accord in the evening and tell me everything. Perhaps I spoil her, but really that seems the best plan. With her elder sister I was stricter.”
“Yes, I was brought up quite differently,” remarked the handsome elder daughter, Countess Vera, with a smile.
But the smile did not enhance Vera’s beauty as smiles generally do; on the contrary it gave her an unnatural22, and therefore unpleasant, expression. Vera was good-looking, not at all stupid, quick at learning, was well brought up, and had a pleasant voice; what she said was true and appropriate, yet, strange to say, everyone — the visitors and countess alike — turned to look at her as if wondering why she had said it, and they all felt awkward.
“People are always too clever with their eldest children and try to make something exceptional of them,” said the visitor.
“What’s the good of denying it, my dear? Our dear countess was too clever with Vera,” said the count. “Well, what of that? She’s turned out splendidly all the same,” he added, winking28 at Vera.
“What manners! I thought they would never go,” said the countess, when she had seen her guests out.
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1
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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2
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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3
tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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9
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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12
aspersion
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| n.诽谤，中伤 | |
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vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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15
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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16
diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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17
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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18
gambols
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19
flares
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| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
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20
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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21
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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animation
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| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
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26
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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27
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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28
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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