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Chapter 22 - Anna Mikhaylovna and Pierre at Count Bezukhov’s
While these conversations were going on in the reception room and the princess’ room, a carriage containing Pierre (who had been sent for) and Anna Mikhaylovna (who found it necessary to accompany him) was driving into the court of Count Bezukhov’s house. As the wheels rolled softly over the straw beneath the windows, Anna Mikhaylovna, having turned with words of comfort to her companion, realized that he was asleep in his corner and woke him up. Rousing himself, Pierre followed Anna Mikhaylovna out of the carriage, and only then began to think of the interview with his dying father which awaited him. He noticed that they had not come to the front entrance but to the back door. While he was getting down from the carriage steps two men, who looked like tradespeople, ran hurriedly from the entrance and hid in the shadow of the wall. Pausing for a moment, Pierre noticed several other men of the same kind hiding in the shadow of the house on both sides. But neither Anna Mikhaylovna nor the footman nor the coachman, who could not help seeing these people, took any notice of them. “It seems to be all right,” Pierre concluded, and followed Anna Mikhaylovna. She hurriedly ascended1 the narrow dimly lit stone staircase, calling to Pierre, who was lagging behind, to follow. Though he did not see why it was necessary for him to go to the count at all, still less why he had to go by the back stairs, yet judging by Anna Mikhaylovna’s air of assurance and haste, Pierre concluded that it was all absolutely necessary. Halfway2 up the stairs they were almost knocked over by some men who, carrying pails, came running downstairs, their boots clattering3. These men pressed close to the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna pass and did not evince the least surprise at seeing them there.
“Is this the way to the princesses’ apartments?” asked Anna Mikhaylovna of one of them.
“Yes,” replied a footman in a bold loud voice, as if anything were now permissible4; “the door to the left, ma’am.”
“Perhaps the count did not ask for me,” said Pierre when he reached the landing. “I’d better go to my own room.”
Anna Mikhaylovna paused and waited for him to come up.
“Ah, my friend!” she said, touching5 his arm as she had done her son’s when speaking to him that afternoon, “believe me I suffer no less than you do, but be a man!”
“Ah, my dear friend! Forget the wrongs that may have been done you. Think that he is your father . . . perhaps in the agony of death.” She sighed. “I have loved you like a son from the first. Trust yourself to me, Pierre. I shall not forget your interests.”
Pierre did not understand a word, but the conviction that all this had to be grew stronger, and he meekly7 followed Anna Mikhaylovna who was already opening a door.
This door led into a back anteroom. An old man, a servant of the princesses, sat in a corner knitting a stocking. Pierre had never been in this part of the house and did not even know of the existence of these rooms. Anna Mikhaylovna, addressing a maid who was hurrying past with a decanter on a tray as “my dear” and “my sweet,” asked about the princess’ health and then led Pierre along a stone passage. The first door on the left led into the princesses’ apartments. The maid with the decanter in her haste had not closed the door (everything in the house was done in haste at that time), and Pierre and Anna Mikhaylovna in passing instinctively8 glanced into the room, where Prince Vasili and the eldest9 princess were sitting close together talking. Seeing them pass, Prince Vasili drew back with obvious impatience10, while the princess jumped up and with a gesture of desperation slammed the door with all her might.
This action was so unlike her usual composure and the fear depicted11 on Prince Vasili’s face so out of keeping with his dignity that Pierre stopped and glanced inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide. Anna Mikhaylovna evinced no surprise, she only smiled faintly and sighed, as if to say that this was no more than she had expected.
“Be a man, my friend. I will look after your interests,” said she in reply to his look, and went still faster along the passage.
Pierre could not make out what it was all about, and still less what “watching over his interests” meant, but he decided12 that all these things had to be. From the passage they went into a large, dimly lit room adjoining the count’s reception room. It was one of those sumptuous13 but cold apartments known to Pierre only from the front approach, but even in this room there now stood an empty bath, and water had been spilled on the carpet. They were met by a deacon with a censer and by a servant who passed out on tiptoe without heeding14 them. They went into the reception room familiar to Pierre, with two Italian windows opening into the conservatory15, with its large bust16 and full length portrait of Catherine the Great. The same people were still sitting here in almost the same positions as before, whispering to one another. All became silent and turned to look at the pale tear-worn Anna Mikhaylovna as she entered, and at the big stout17 figure of Pierre who, hanging his head, meekly followed her.
Anna Mikhaylovna’s face expressed a consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived. With the air of a practical Petersburg lady she now, keeping Pierre close beside her, entered the room even more boldly than that afternoon. She felt that as she brought with her the person the dying man wished to see, her own admission was assured. Casting a rapid glance at all those in the room and noticing the count’s confessor there, she glided18 up to him with a sort of amble19, not exactly bowing yet seeming to grow suddenly smaller, and respectfully received the blessing20 first of one and then of another priest.
“God be thanked that you are in time,” said she to one of the priests; “all we relatives have been in such anxiety. This young man is the count’s son,” she added more softly. “What a terrible moment!”
Having said this she went up to the doctor.
“Dear doctor,” said she, “this young man is the count’s son. Is there any hope?”
The doctor cast a rapid glance upwards21 and silently shrugged22 his shoulders. Anna Mikhaylovna with just the same movement raised her shoulders and eyes, almost closing the latter, sighed, and moved away from the doctor to Pierre. To him, in a particularly respectful and tenderly sad voice, she said:
“Trust in His mercy!” and pointing out a small sofa for him to sit and wait for her, she went silently toward the door that everyone was watching and it creaked very slightly as she disappeared behind it.
Pierre, having made up his mind to obey his monitress implicitly23, moved toward the sofa she had indicated. As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna had disappeared he noticed that the eyes of all in the room turned to him with something more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that they whispered to one another, casting significant looks at him with a kind of awe24 and even servility. A deference25 such as he had never before received was shown him. A strange lady, the one who had been talking to the priests, rose and offered him her seat; an aide-de-camp picked up and returned a glove Pierre had dropped; the doctors became respectfully silent as he passed by, and moved to make way for him. At first Pierre wished to take another seat so as not to trouble the lady, and also to pick up the glove himself and to pass round the doctors who were not even in his way; but all at once he felt that this would not do, and that tonight he was a person obliged to perform some sort of awful rite26 which everyone expected of him, and that he was therefore bound to accept their services. He took the glove in silence from the aide-de-camp, and sat down in the lady’s chair, placing his huge hands symmetrically on his knees in the naive27 attitude of an Egyptian statue, and decided in his own mind that all was as it should be, and that in order not to lose his head and do foolish things he must not act on his own ideas tonight, but must yield himself up entirely28 to the will of those who were guiding him.
Not two minutes had passed before Prince Vasili with head erect29 majestically30 entered the room. He was wearing his long coat with three stars on his breast. He seemed to have grown thinner since the morning; his eyes seemed larger than usual when he glanced round and noticed Pierre. He went up to him, took his hand (a thing he never used to do), and drew it downwards31 as if wishing to ascertain32 whether it was firmly fixed33 on.
“Courage, courage, my friend! He has asked to see you. That is well!” and he turned to go.
But Pierre thought it necessary to ask: “How is . . . ” and hesitated, not knowing whether it would be proper to call the dying man “the count,” yet ashamed to call him “father.”
“He had another stroke about half an hour ago. Courage, my friend . . . ”
Pierre’s mind was in such a confused state that the word “stroke” suggested to him a blow from something. He looked at Prince Vasili in perplexity, and only later grasped that a stroke was an attack of illness. Prince Vasili said something to Lorrain in passing and went through the door on tiptoe. He could not walk well on tiptoe and his whole body jerked at each step. The eldest princess followed him, and the priests and deacons and some servants also went in at the door. Through that door was heard a noise of things being moved about, and at last Anna Mikhaylovna, still with the same expression, pale but resolute34 in the discharge of duty, ran out and touching Pierre lightly on the arm said:
“The divine mercy is inexhaustible! Unction is about to be administered. Come.”
Pierre went in at the door, stepping on the soft carpet, and noticed that the strange lady, the aide-de-camp, and some of the servants, all followed him in, as if there were now no further need for permission to enter that room.
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1
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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3
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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permissible
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| adj.可允许的，许可的 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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6
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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7
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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8
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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9
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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10
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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11
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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12
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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13
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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14
heeding
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
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15
conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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16
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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17
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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18
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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19
amble
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| vi.缓行，漫步 | |
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20
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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21
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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22
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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23
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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24
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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25
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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26
rite
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| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
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27
naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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28
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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29
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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30
majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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31
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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32
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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33
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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34
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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