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Chapter 31
The valet, returning to the cottage, informed the count that Moscow was burning. The count donned his dressing1 gown and went out to look. Sonya and Madame Schoss, who had not yet undressed, went out with him. Only Natasha and the countess remained in the room. Petya was no longer with the family, he had gone on with his regiment2 which was making for Troitsa.
The countess, on hearing that Moscow was on fire, began to cry. Natasha, pale, with a fixed3 look, was sitting on the bench under the icons4 just where she had sat down on arriving and paid no attention to her father’s words. She was listening to the ceaseless moaning of the adjutant, three houses off.
“Oh, how terrible,” said Sonya returning from the yard chilled and frightened. “I believe the whole of Moscow will burn, there’s an awful glow! Natasha, do look! You can see it from the window,” she said to her cousin, evidently wishing to distract her mind.
But Natasha looked at her as if not understanding what was said to her and again fixed her eyes on the corner of the stove. She had been in this condition of stupor5 since the morning, when Sonya, to the surprise and annoyance6 of the countess, had for some unaccountable reason found it necessary to tell Natasha of Prince Andrey’s wound and of his being with their party. The countess had seldom been so angry with anyone as she was with Sonya. Sonya had cried and begged to be forgiven and now, as if trying to atone7 for her fault, paid unceasing attention to her cousin.
“Look, Natasha, how dreadfully it is burning!” said she.
“What’s burning?” asked Natasha. “Oh, yes, Moscow.”
And as if in order not to offend Sonya and to get rid of her, she turned her face to the window, looked out in such a way that it was evident that she could not see anything, and again settled down in her former attitude.
“But you didn’t see it!”
“Yes, really I did,” Natasha replied in a voice that pleaded to be left in peace.
Both the countess and Sonya understood that, naturally, neither Moscow nor the burning of Moscow nor anything else could seem of importance to Natasha.
The count returned and lay down behind the partition. The countess went up to her daughter and touched her head with the back of her hand as she was wont9 to do when Natasha was ill, then touched her forehead with her lips as if to feel whether she was feverish10, and finally kissed her.
“You are cold. You are trembling all over. You’d better lie down,” said the countess.
“Lie down? All right, I will. I’ll lie down at once,” said Natasha.
When Natasha had been told that morning that Prince Andrey was seriously wounded and was traveling with their party, she had at first asked many questions: Where was he going? How was he wounded? Was it serious? And could she see him? But after she had been told that she could not see him, that he was seriously wounded but that his life was not in danger, she ceased to ask questions or to speak at all, evidently disbelieving what they told her, and convinced that say what she might she would still be told the same. All the way she had sat motionless in a corner of the coach with wide open eyes, and the expression in them which the countess knew so well and feared so much, and now she sat in the same way on the bench where she had seated herself on arriving. She was planning something and either deciding or had already decided11 something in her mind. The countess knew this, but what it might be she did not know, and this alarmed and tormented12 her.
“Natasha, undress, darling; lie down on my bed.”
A bed had been made on a bedstead for the countess only. Madame Schoss and the two girls were to sleep on some hay on the floor.
“No, Mamma, I will lie down here on the floor,” Natasha replied irritably13 and she went to the window and opened it. Through the open window the moans of the adjutant could be heard more distinctly. She put her head out into the damp night air, and the countess saw her slim neck shaking with sobs15 and throbbing16 against the window frame. Natasha knew it was not Prince Andrey who was moaning. She knew Prince Andrey was in the same yard as themselves and in a part of the hut across the passage; but this dreadful incessant17 moaning made her sob14. The countess exchanged a look with Sonya.
“Lie down, darling; lie down, my pet,” said the countess, softly touching18 Natasha’s shoulders. “Come, lie down.”
“Oh, yes . . . I’ll lie down at once,” said Natasha, and began hurriedly undressing, tugging19 at the tapes of her petticoat.
When she had thrown off her dress and put on a dressing jacket, she sat down with her foot under her on the bed that had been made up on the floor, jerked her thin and rather short plait of hair to the front, and began replaiting it. Her long, thin, practiced fingers rapidly unplaited, replaited, and tied up her plait. Her head moved from side to side from habit, but her eyes, feverishly20 wide, looked fixedly21 before her. When her toilet for the night was finished she sank gently onto the sheet spread over the hay on the side nearest the door.
“Natasha, you’d better lie in the middle,” said Sonya.
“I’ll stay here,” muttered Natasha. “Do lie down,” she added crossly, and buried her face in the pillow.
The countess, Madame Schoss, and Sonya undressed hastily and lay down. The small lamp in front of the icons was the only light left in the room. But in the yard there was a light from the fire at Little Mytishchi a mile and a half away, and through the night came the noise of people shouting at a tavern22 Mamonov’s Cossacks had set up across the street, and the adjutant’s unceasing moans could still be heard.
For a long time Natasha listened attentively23 to the sounds that reached her from inside and outside the room and did not move. First she heard her mother praying and sighing and the creaking of her bed under her, then Madame Schoss’ familiar whistling snore and Sonya’s gentle breathing. Then the countess called to Natasha. Natasha did not answer.
“I think she’s asleep, Mamma,” said Sonya softly.
Soon after that Natasha heard her mother’s even breathing. Natasha did not move, though her little bare foot, thrust out from under the quilt, was growing cold on the bare floor.
As if to celebrate a victory over everybody, a cricket chirped25 in a crack in the wall. A cock crowed far off and another replied near by. The shouting in the tavern had died down; only the moaning of the adjutant was heard. Natasha sat up.
“Sonya, are you asleep? Mamma?” she whispered.
No one replied. Natasha rose slowly and carefully, crossed herself, and stepped cautiously on the cold and dirty floor with her slim, supple26, bare feet. The boards of the floor creaked. Stepping cautiously from one foot to the other she ran like a kitten the few steps to the door and grasped the cold door handle.
It seemed to her that something heavy was beating rhythmically27 against all the walls of the room: it was her own heart, sinking with alarm and terror and overflowing28 with love.
She opened the door and stepped across the threshold and onto the cold, damp earthen floor of the passage. The cold she felt refreshed her. With her bare feet she touched a sleeping man, stepped over him, and opened the door into the part of the hut where Prince Andrey lay. It was dark in there. In the farthest corner, on a bench beside a bed on which something was lying, stood a tallow candle with a long, thick, and smoldering29 wick.
From the moment she had been told that of Prince Andrey’s wound and his presence there, Natasha had resolved to see him. She did not know why she had to, she knew the meeting would be painful, but felt the more convinced that it was necessary.
All day she had lived only in hope of seeing him that night. But now that the moment had come she was filled with dread8 of what she might see. How was he maimed? What was left of him? Was he like that incessant moaning of the adjutant’s? Yes, he was altogether like that. In her imagination he was that terrible moaning personified. When she saw an indistinct shape in the corner, and mistook his knees raised under the quilt for his shoulders, she imagined a horrible body there, and stood still in terror. But an irresistible30 impulse drew her forward. She cautiously took one step and then another, and found herself in the middle of a small room containing baggage. Another man — Timokhin — was lying in a corner on the benches beneath the icons, and two others — the doctor and a valet — lay on the floor.
The valet sat up and whispered something. Timokhin, kept awake by the pain in his wounded leg, gazed with wide-open eyes at this strange apparition31 of a girl in a white chemise, dressing jacket, and nightcap. The valet’s sleepy, frightened exclamation32, “What do you want? What’s the matter?” made Natasha approach more swiftly to what was lying in the corner. Horribly unlike a man as that body looked, she must see him. She passed the valet, the snuff fell from the candle wick, and she saw Prince Andrey clearly with his arms outside the quilt, and such as she had always seen him.
He was the same as ever, but the feverish color of his face, his glittering eyes rapturously turned toward her, and especially his neck, delicate as a child’s, revealed by the turn-down collar of his shirt, gave him a peculiarly innocent, childlike look, such as she had never seen on him before. She went up to him and with a swift, flexible, youthful movement dropped on her knees.
He smiled and held out his hand to her.
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1
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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3
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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4
icons
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| n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像 | |
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stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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7
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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8
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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9
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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11
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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irritably
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| ad.易生气地 | |
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14
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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16
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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18
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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19
tugging
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| n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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20
feverishly
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| adv. 兴奋地 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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22
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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23
attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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24
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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25
chirped
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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26
supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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27
rhythmically
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| adv.有节奏地 | |
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28
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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29
smoldering
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| v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 ) | |
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30
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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31
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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32
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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