War and Peace

Chapter 25

It was at the ball that Bin-Air felt for the first time that he was ashamed of his wife's position in high society.He was taciturn and restless, with a deep line across his brow.He stood in front of the window, looking into the distance through the glasses vaguely.Nates noticed Bin-Air's expression.She came to him.She wanted to help him and share her too much happiness with her.She didn't understand, how could someone as kind as Bin Air be unhappy at this moment?

[eighteen]
On the night of the opening of the Council of State, the Duc d'Andrew was invited to visit the house of Sefferanschie.Duke Andrée was late for a while, and several relatives and friends of Sefferanschche had already arrived in the room, including Gervais, Magnitsky, Storey and others.From a long distance, Duke Andrele heard Sephilanschchi's bold laughter.The Duke d'Andrew had never heard Seferranschchi's laughter, and he was surprised by the loud and sharp laughter of this important man of state.

Then, at supper, the bold laughter of Sefferanschitch, and the shameful flattery and vulgar behavior of his relatives and friends, slowly disappointed the Duke Andryl.Duke André looked at Sepherangche in surprise, and felt that the person in front of him was hardly Sephelanche, but someone else.The sacred and noble Sephiranche in Duke André's heart suddenly became shallow and vulgar.After a while, Duke Andrée became rather distasteful to the evening party and its attendees.He left the party very early, and at the same time, he began to feel in his heart that the work he had devoted himself to for half a year was almost useless.

[nineteen]
The next day, the Duke of Andrele was invited to the Lostaffer's house.

Among those who came out to meet him for the first time was Natès, who wore a blue homely dress, which Prince d'Andrew thought was more beautiful than a ball gown.She and the whole family entertained Duke Andrele as if they were old friends, easy-going and amiable.

After dinner, at the invitation of Duke Andryl, Natès began to sing to the accompaniment of the piano.Duke André was standing in front of the window, listening to Natess singing and talking with someone at the same time. When Natess sang a happy sentence, Duke Andrele stopped the conversation, completely beyond his expectation, he He felt tears welling up and a lump in his throat, something he had never felt before.He looked at Natess who was singing, and a fresh sense of happiness welled up in his heart.He felt happy, but also confused.He had no reason to cry, but he just wanted to cry.What are you crying for?Cry for lost love?Cry the lovely Duchess?Crying for your loss?Crying for the longing for later? ... yes, no.His desire to weep was chiefly due to the sudden awareness that there was a terrible opposition in him between that infinitely large, but not quite obvious, and that finite, material thing. The material thing is himself, even her.This antagonism annoyed and amused him as he listened to her sing.

Duke Andrele came back very late.He lay down to sleep, but he knew right away that he hadn't been able to sleep.He lit the candle and sat on the head of the bed, his heart was full of joy and freshness.He had not yet noticed that he was already in love with Nates.He only imagined her in his heart, so all his life had a new purpose for him.

[twenty]
One morning Colonel Berg, dressed in a new army uniform and oiled hair, invited Bin-Air to a party at his house.He had just finished furnishing his new house, and he felt that he should have a ball like other noble families.Before the guests arrived, Berg and his wife Willie sat in the living room and talked about each other's life experiences and philosophies.Berg believes that the most important thing in life is to be good at making friends.After speaking, Berg smiled and stopped talking because he realized that he was superior to weak women. He thought, no matter what, his beautiful wife belonged to weak women, and she could not understand everything about men. benefit.Willie also smiled, because she also realized her superiority over her husband. She thought that even though he was a good husband with high morals, he, like other men, had a wrong recognition of life.Berg judges all women against his wife as impotent and ignorant; while Willie generalizes her view of her husband as conceited, arrogant, and selfish Self-interest.

Here comes Bin-Air.Behind Bin Air came Berg's old colleague Blitz.He entertained Berg and Willie with pride, thinking that he was doing them a favor by coming.After Blitz came the colonel and his wife, the general himself, and the Rosstaffers.Looking at the guests in the living room and listening to their conversations and noises, Berg and Willie couldn't help smiling happily. The party at their home was indeed exactly the same as that at other people's.

[21]

At the ball, Bin-Air, who was playing cards, noticed a different expression on Natess.She was taciturn, gentle and quiet, almost without the look on the dance floor.

"What's the matter with her?" He murmured to himself in amazement.The Duke d'Andrew walked before her with a careful and gentle expression, talking to her.She looked up at him, her face flushed, it seemed that she was trying to control her shortness of breath.The spark that had died out in her heart before now shone with fresh light.She was completely transformed, and she was as beautiful as she was at the ball again.

Duke Andrele walked up to Bin-Air, and Bin-Air saw that his old friend's face was radiant and full of youthful vitality.

"What the hell happened between them?" thought Bin-Air, entertained by a mixture of joy and annoyance, which made him forget the game.

[22]

The next day, the Duke of Andrele was invited by the old earl to dine at the Rostaff's house, and played in their house all day.The whole family knew who Duke Andrele was here for, and he made no secret of it, staying with Nates all day long.Not only Nates, but the whole family felt apprehensive about something important that was bound to happen.

At night, Natess lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.She felt that she had fallen in love with Duke Andrele as early as the first time she saw him in the manor.And now, in Petersburg, she met him again, and she was almost stunned by such a wonderful, strange happiness.

At this moment, the Duke of Andrele also told his friends about his love for Nates at Bin-Air's house, and said that he had decided to marry her.

Standing in front of Bin-Air, Duke Andrele looked radiant and radiant. He didn't notice Bin-Air's sad expression, and was almost intoxicated in his own happiness. He smiled and said to Bin-Air:

"Honey, I wanted to tell you yesterday, and I came to you today for this purpose. I have never experienced such a feeling. My love, dear friend."

Bin-Air sighed deeply, he laid his heavy body on the sofa, and sat beside Duke Andrele.

"Have you really fallen in love with Nates?" he asked. "Really, really, who else could it be but her? I didn't believe that I would be in love, but love overcame me. Yesterday I went through trials and sorrows, but such trials and sorrows take anything in the world Give it to me, I won't change it. My past is worthless, life has just begun from this moment, and I can't live without her. But, will she love me? Will he despise me? Why don't you answer?"

"If I had been told before that I could be in love like this, I would not have believed it," continued the Duke d'Andrew. "It is simply not the kind of feeling I had known before. The whole world was divided for me." Two: One half is her, where there is all happiness, longing, and light; the other half is all without her, where there is only sadness and darkness..." "Darkness, darkness," said Bin-Air, "yes, yes ,I see."

Bin-Air looked at his friend gratefully.The brighter the Duc d'Andrew's fate seemed to him, the more prosaic his own.

[23]

Marriage must be done with the consent of his father, so Duke Andrele will set off tomorrow to visit his father.The father disapproved of the marriage, but instead of expressing his displeasure outright, he begged his son to postpone the marriage for a year, to stay abroad for a year, and then to marry again.

Duke Andrele clearly understood that his father hoped that his feelings would dissipate within this year, perhaps he himself, the old Duke, would pass away during this time, so he decided to obey his father's order: get engaged first, but postponed. One year to get married.

Nates spent more than 20 days in anxious anticipation. She didn't want to go anywhere. She wandered around every room like a shadow all day long, listless, and shed tears behind her back at night. She didn't go to her mother anymore. , and often lost his temper.

One day, the living room door opened and someone asked, "Is she home?" Then footsteps were heard.Natisse looked in the glass, but she saw nothing in it.She heard a noise in the hall and knew it was him.Nates ran into the living room, pale and anxious.

Duke Andrele entered the drawing room.After the countess dismissed the panic-stricken Natess, Duke Andrele formally proposed to the countess that he would marry her daughter, and the countess agreed.Then the countess sent for Natess.

Nates could not remember how she came into the drawing room.Seeing him after walking in the door, she stopped. "This strange man is really everything to me now?" She asked herself, and immediately replied: "Yes, everything: for me, he is more important than everything in the world at this time." Duke Andrele Walking up to her, he lowered his eyes.

"I fell in love with you the moment I saw you. Can I have hope?"

He glanced at her, surprised by the stern excitement in her face.Her look seemed to say, "Why ask? Why doubt what is true? Why do you speak even when words cannot express what you feel?"

She walked up to him and stopped.He took her hand and kissed it. "Do you love me?" asked the Duke d'Andrew. "Yes, yes," said Natess, as if regretting herself, and she sighed loudly, and again, more and more urgently, until at last she burst into tears.

"Why are you crying? What's the matter with you?" "Oh, I'm so happy," she replied, and with a teary smile, she leaned towards him, thought for a moment as if asking herself if she could, then kissed him. hit him.

Duke Andrele held her hand, looked into her eyes, and found that he no longer had the love for her that he had before.There was a sudden change in his heart: the poetic and miraculous beauty of desire disappeared, replaced by a cowardly pity for women and children, a timidity in the face of her loyalty and dependence, And the weighty yet joyous feeling of responsibility that binds them both together forever.Even if this feeling is not as clear and poetic as the previous one, it is more severe and intense.

"However sorrowful I may be, I must postpone my happiness for a year," continued the Duke d'Andrew, "and in the meantime you will be able to examine yourself. I beseech you to give me happiness a year later; yet , you are free; if you think you do not love me, or fall in love again..." Duke André said with an uncomfortable expression.

"Why do you say that? A whole year!" Natess said suddenly, and she didn't realize until now that the wedding would be postponed for a year, "Why one year? Why one year?..." Duke Andrele asked He explained the reasons for postponing the wedding, but Natess did not listen to him at all.

"Must it be?" she asked.Duke Andrele was silent, but the expression on his face showed that this decision could not be changed.

"It's terrible! No, it's terrible, it's terrible!" said Natess suddenly, and wept again. "I'll wait for my death this year. It won't work. It's too scary." She glanced at her fiancé, and saw pity and confusion on his face.

"No, no, I can do it no matter what," she said suddenly, stopping her tears, "I'm so happy!" From now on, Duke Andréle was in and out of the Lostaff's house as his fiancé.

[24]

The engagement ceremony was not held, and the marriage contract between Natess and André was not announced, and Duke André was determined to do so.He said that since he wanted to postpone it, he should bear all the responsibilities, and since he had made an oath, he would always keep it, but he didn't want to restrain Natess, and wanted to give her plenty of freedom.If after half a year, she feels that she doesn't love him anymore, she still has the right to reject him.Neither Natess nor her parents wanted to hear that.Duke Andrele came to Nates's house every day, but he didn't regard himself as a fiancé: he always addressed Natess as "you" and only kissed her hand.After their engagement, a distinct, personal relationship developed between the two of them.The family's sense of restraint when facing the Duke of Andrele also slowly eased, and the Duke of Andrelet completely entered the life of the Rostaff family.

However, the close separation made Nates feel worried. When she thought of something, her face turned pale and her whole body became cold.

On the night before he left Petersburg, Prince Undry brought Bin-Air with him, and said to Natès:

"Whatever happens, you go to Bin-Air alone, for his advice, for his help. He's a rough man, the funniest of men, but he has a warm heart."

Neither the parents, nor Martha, nor Duke Andréle himself, had imagined what separation from his fiancé would have on Nadès.Flushed and in a very bad mood, with no tears in her eyes, she walked up and down the house all day in a trance, doing the most boring things, and hardly knowing what was in store for her.She did not even cry when Duke d'Andrew kissed her hand for the last time to say goodbye to her.

"Don't leave!" She only said this to him. Her voice was so moving that he thought for a while whether he should really stay. And for a long time after that, he always remembered her voice.After he left, she didn't cry, and sat in the room for several days without crying, indifferent to anything, but sometimes said: "Oh, why did he go abroad?"

However, two weeks later, the family members were amazed to see that Natess had recovered from her mental trauma. She was the same as before, but her mental outlook had changed. Same as getting up.

[25]

The old Prince Maral Balkonski's health had deteriorated in the year since his son's departure, and he lost his temper more easily than before, and took out his unreasonable anger on Princess Molière's head. superior.He was almost exclusively focusing on Moliye's pain, torturing her spirit even more ferociously.Princess Molière had two passions: her nephew Little Maral and religion.But these two became the object of the old prince's ridicule. No matter what he said, he would mention Moliere's superstition and her pampering of children. "It's no use trying to turn him (little Maral) into an old girl like you. The Duke d'Andrew wants a son, not an old daughter," he said.

He humiliated Princess Molière so viciously, but the daughter never thought about whether she should forgive her father.Could he be sorry for his daughter?Her father loved her, so could it be that her father was unjust?Moreover, the princess has never considered the noble word "justice".For her, all the complicated rules of human beings can be reduced to a simple rule, which is the rule of love and sacrifice induced to us by God who suffered for mankind with mercy.It has nothing to do with her whether other people are just or unjust.All she needed was to suffer, to love, and she did.

(End of this chapter)