NEXT DAY Prince Andrey went to dine at the Rostovs', as Count Ilya Andreitch had invited him, and spent the whole day with them.

Every one in the house perceived on whose account Prince Andrey came, and he openly tried to be all day long with Natasha.

Not only in the soul of Natasha—scared, but happy and enthusiastic—in the whole household, too, there was a feeling of awe, of something of great gravity being bound to happen. With sorrowful and sternly serious eyes the countess looked at Prince Andrey as he talked to Natasha, and shyly and self-consciously tried to begin some insignificant talk with him as soon as he looked round at her. Sonya was afraid to leave Natasha, and afraid of being in their way if she stayed with them. Natasha turned pale in a panic of expectation every time she was left for a moment alone with him. Prince Andrey's timidity impressed her. She felt that he wanted to tell her something, but could not bring himself up to the point.

When Prince Andrey had gone away in the evening, the countess went up to Natasha and whispered:

“Well?”

“Mamma, for God's sake, don't ask me anything just now. This one can't talk of,” said Natasha.

But in spite of this answer, Natasha lay a long while in her mother's bed that night, her eyes fixed before her, excited and scared by turns. She told her how he had praised her, how he had said he was going abroad, how he had asked where they were going to spend the summer, and how he had asked her about Boris.

“But anything like this, like this … I have never felt before!” she said. “Only I'm afraid with him, I'm always afraid with him. What does that mean? Does it mean that it's the real thing? Mamma, are you asleep?”

“No, my darling. I'm afraid of him myself,” answered her mother. “Go to bed.”

“Anyhow, I shouldn't go to sleep. How stupid sleep is! Mamma, mamma, nothing like this have I ever felt before,” she said, with wonder and terror at the feeling she recognised in herself. “And could we ever have dreamed! …”

It seemed to Natasha that she had fallen in love with Prince Andrey the first time she saw him at Otradnoe. She was as it were terrified at this strange, unexpected happiness that the man she had chosen even then (she was firmly convinced that she had done so)—that very man should meet them again now and be apparently not indifferent to her.

“And it seems as though it all happened on purpose—his coming to Petersburg just while we are here. And our meeting at that ball. It was all fate. It's clear that it is fate, that it has all led up to this. Even then, as soon as I saw him, I felt something quite different.”

“What has he said to you? What are those verses? Read them …” said the mother thoughtfully, referring to the verses Prince Andrey had written in Natasha's album.

“Mamma, does it matter his being a widower?”

“Hush, Natasha. Pray to God. Marriages are made in heaven,” she said, quoting the French proverb.

“Mamma, darling, how I love you! how happy I am!” cried Natasha, shedding tears of excitement and happiness and hugging her mother.

At that very time Prince Andrey was telling Pierre of his love for Natasha and of his fixed determination to marry her.

That evening the Countess Elena Vassilyevna gave a reception; the French ambassador was there, and a royal prince who had become a very frequent visitor at the countess's of late and many brilliant ladies and gentlemen. Pierre came down to it, wandered through the rooms and impressed all the guests by his look of concentrated preoccupation and gloom.

Pierre had been feeling one of his attacks of nervous depression coming upon him ever since the day of the ball and had been making desperate efforts to struggle against it. Since his wife's intrigue with the royal prince, Pierre had been to his surprise appointed a kammerherr, and ever since he had felt a sense of weariness and shame in court society, and his old ideas of the vanity of all things human began to come back oftener and oftener. The feeling he had lately noticed between his protégée Natasha and Prince Andrey had aggravated his gloom by the contrast between his own position and his friend's. He tried equally to avoid thinking of his wife and also of Natasha and Prince Andrey. Again everything seemed to him insignificant in comparison with eternity; again the question rose before him: “What for?” And for days and nights together he forced himself to work at masonic labours, hoping to keep off the evil spirit. Pierre had come out of the countess's apartments at midnight, and was sitting in a shabby dressing-gown at the table in his own low-pitched, smoke-blackened room upstairs, copying out long transactions of the Scottish freemasons, when some one came into his room. It was Prince Andrey.

“Oh, it's you,” said Pierre, with a preoccupied and dissatisfied air. “I'm at work, you see,” he added, pointing to the manuscript book with that look of escaping from the ills of life with which unhappy people look at their work.

Prince Andrey stood before Pierre with a radiant, ecstatic face, full of new life, and with the egoism of happiness smiled at him without noticing his gloomy face.

“Well, my dear boy,” he said, “I wanted to tell you yesterday, and I have come to do so to-day. I have never felt anything like it. I am in love.”

Pierre suddenly heaved a heavy sigh, and dumped down his heavy person on the sofa beside Prince Andrey.

“With Natasha Rostov, yes?” he said “Yes, yes, who else could it be? I would never have believed it, but the feeling is too strong for me. Yesterday I was in torment, in agony, but I would not exchange that agony even for anything in the world. I have never lived till now, but I cannot live without her. But can she love me? … I'm too old for her.…Why don't you speak? …”

“I? I? What did I tell you?” said Pierre, suddenly getting up and walking about the room. “I always thought so.…That girl is a treasure.…She's a very rare sort of girl.…My dear fellow, don't, I entreat you, be too wise, don't doubt, marry, marry, marry! … And I am sure no man was ever happier than you will be.”

“But she?”

“She loves you.”

“Don't talk nonsense …” said Prince Andrey, smiling and looking into Pierre's face.

“She loves you, I know it,” Pierre cried angrily.

“No; do listen,” said Prince Andrey, taking hold of him by the arm and stopping him. “Do you know the state I am in? I must talk about it to some one.”

“Well, well, talk away, I'm very glad,” said Pierre, and his face did really change, the line of care in his brow was smoothed away, and he listened gladly to Prince Andrey. His friend seemed, and was indeed, an utterly different, new man. What had become of his ennui, his contempt of life, his disillusionment? Pierre was the only person to whom he could have brought himself to speak quite openly; but to him he did reveal all that was in his heart. Readily and boldly he made plans reaching far into the future; said he could not sacrifice his own happiness to the caprices of his father; declared that he would force his father to agree to the marriage and like her, or dispense with his consent altogether; then he marvelled at the feeling which had taken possession of him, as something strange, and apart, independent of himself.

“I should never have believed it, if any one had told me I could love like this,” said Prince Andrey. “It is utterly different from the feeling I once had. The whole world is split into two halves for me: one—she, and there all is happiness, hope, and light; the other half—all where she is not, there all is dejection and darkness.…”

“Darkness and gloom,” repeated Pierre; “yes, yes, I understand that.”

“I can't help loving the light; that's not my fault; and I am very happy. Do you understand me? I know you are glad for me.”

“Yes, yes,” Pierre assented, looking at his friend with eyes full of tenderness and sadness. The brighter the picture of Prince Andrey's fate before his mind, the darker seemed his own.

第二天，伊利亚·安德烈伊奇伯爵邀请安德烈公爵，他于是乘车前往罗斯托夫家出席午宴，并且在他们家中消度了整整一天。

全家人都能意识到，安德烈公爵为何人而来，他不加隐瞒，整天都在想方设法和娜塔莎呆在一起。娜塔莎惊惶失措，但她感觉到幸福和喜悦，不仅在她心中，而且在全家人心中都产生一种恐惧感，担心将要发生重大的事情。当安德烈公爵和娜塔莎谈话的时候，伯爵夫人用那忧愁而且严峻的目光注视他，当他骤然回头望她的时候，她就胆怯地、虚假地开始谈论一些琐碎的事情。索尼娅害怕离开娜塔莎，当她和安德烈公爵呆在一起的时候，她又怕成为他们的障碍。当娜塔莎单独和他在一起停留片刻的时候，她由于害怕期待的事情会发生而面色苍白。安德烈公爵的腼腆的神情使她感到惊奇。

她觉得他要对她说些什么话，但他拿不定主意。

夜晚安德烈公爵离开后，伯爵夫人走到娜塔莎跟前，低声说：

“怎么啦？”

“妈妈，看在上帝份上，现在您不要问我什么。这一点没法跟您说。”娜塔莎说。

尽管如此，这天夜晚娜塔莎时而激动不安，时而胆战心惊，带着凝滞的目光久久地躺在母亲床上。她向她述说，他怎样夸奖她，他说他将要到国外去，他探问他们在何地度过这个夏天，他也问到鲍里斯的情况。

“可是，我从来没有碰见这样的、这样的事情！！”她说。

“只不过在他面前我感到害怕，在他面前我总感到害怕，这意味着什么？意味着，这不就是真的害怕，对吗？妈妈，您睡着了？”

“没有，我的心肝，连我自己也感到害怕，”妈妈答道，“你去睡吧。”

“我反正不愿意睡觉。睡觉是一件多么愚蠢的事啊！妈妈，妈妈，我从来没有碰见这样的事啊！”在意识到她自己内心的感情之前，她带着惊奇而恐惧的神情说，“我们不会想到吧！

……”

娜塔莎觉得，还是在奥特拉德诺耶初次看见安德烈公爵的时候，她就爱上他了。这种奇怪的出乎意料的幸福仿佛使她感到害怕，她当时选择的那个人（她对此坚信不移）正是那个人，又遇见她了，看来他对她不是漠不关心的。“目前我们在彼得堡，他自然特意到这里来。我们自然在这次舞会上相逢了……这一切都是命定的。很明显，这是命运，这一切都是命中注定的。当时我一看见他，我就感到有点儿非同一般。”

“他对你说过些什么话？那是一首什么诗呢？你念给我听……”

母亲若有所思地说，她一面问到安德烈公爵写在娜塔莎的纪念册上的诗句。

“妈妈，他是个光棍，不难为情么？”

“娜塔莎，够了，说到哪儿去了。祷告上帝吧，Les　mariages　se　font　dans　les　cieux．①”

①法语：婚姻是由天定的。

“亲爱的，妈妈，我多么爱您，我多么舒畅！”娜塔莎喊道，她一面哭着，流出幸福和激动的眼泪，一面拥抱着母亲。

就在这时候，安德烈公爵坐在皮埃尔身旁，向他提到他对娜塔莎的爱情，并且决定娶她为妻。

这一天，伯爵夫人海伦·瓦西里耶夫娜举办隆重的招待晚会，出席晚会的有法国公使，亲王（他在不久前已成为伯爵夫人家中的常客），此外还有许多杰出的女士和男士。皮埃尔住在楼下，他穿过几个大厅时，他那陷入沉思的、漫不经心的阴郁的神情使全体宾客大吃一惊。

自从上次舞会以来，皮埃尔觉得自己的疑病快要发作，他竭尽全力与疾病作斗争。自从亲王和皮埃尔的妻子建立密切联系以来，皮埃尔突然被赐封为宫廷高级侍从，从此以后他在大庭广众中总觉得心情沉重，羞耻得无地自容，从前那种人世空虚的阴暗思想常常在他脑海中浮现出来。这时他发觉由他监护的娜塔莎和安德烈公爵之间产生了感情，经过对比他的地位和他的朋友的地位，愈益加深了这种阴郁情绪。他同样地竭力避免去想他自己的妻子、娜塔莎和安德烈公爵。与永恒相比，他又复觉得这一切都是渺小的，他心目中又复浮现出一个问题：“为了什么？”他于是日日夜夜迫使他自己致力于钻研共济会的作品，希望驱逐逼近的魔鬼。十一点多钟，皮埃尔从伯爵夫人的内室里走了出来，坐在自己楼上的一间矮矮的吸得满是烟的房间里的桌子前面，他身穿一件破旧的长衫，有人走进他房里来的时候，他正在抄写苏格兰共济会的正式记录。这个走进来的人就是安德烈公爵。

“哦，是您，”皮埃尔现出一副漫不经心的、不满意的样子说，“瞧，我在工作，”他指着一本练习簿说，他那种神色就像不幸的人流露出拯救灵魂使免受人生之苦的神色注视着自己做的工作似的。

安德烈公爵带着容光焕发、洋洋自得和获得新生的神色站在皮埃尔面前，他不注意他那凄惨的面容，而怀着利己的幸福的心情向他微微一笑。

“啊，我的心肝，”他说，“我昨天原想对你说，今天我就是为了这件事到你这里来。我从来没有经历过这种事情。我的朋友，我有所爱了。”

皮埃尔突然沉重地叹一口气，他那沉甸甸的身体倒在安德烈公爵旁边的长沙发上。

“你爱上罗斯托娃·娜塔莎，是吗？”他说道。

“是啊，是啊，还能爱谁呢？我从来都不相信我会谈恋爱，可是这种感情把我压服了。昨天我受到折磨，很不好受，但我决不把这种痛苦推托给世界上的任何人。从前我未曾真正生活，现在我才刚刚生活，但若没有她，我就不能生活下去……不过，她会不会爱我呢？……在她看来，我太老了。你干嘛不说话？……”

“我？我？我对您说过什么呢？”皮埃尔突然说道，他站起来，开始在房里走来走去。“我总是这样想的……这个姑娘是个这么珍贵的宝贝，这么珍贵的……这是个罕见的姑娘……可爱的朋友，我请求您，您不要自作聪明，不要犹豫不决，结婚吧，结婚吧，结婚吧……我相信，比您更幸福的人是不会有的。”

“可是她呢？”

“她爱您。”

“请甭说废话。”安德烈公爵一面微笑，一面望着皮埃尔的眼睛，说道。

“她爱您，我知道。”皮埃尔忿怒地喊道。

“不对，听我说，”安德烈公爵说道，他一把抓住他的手，叫他停住，“你知不知道我处在什么境地？我总得向谁把这一切都讲出来。”

“喂，喂，您说吧，我很高兴，”皮埃尔说，他的脸色真的变了，有一条皱纹舒展开了，他愉快地倾听安德烈公爵说话。安德烈公爵好像是一个截然不同的新人物了。他的悲伤、他对人生的蔑视和绝望的心情在哪里了？皮埃尔是他敢于倾吐心情的唯一的人，于是他便把他心里要讲的话向他一股脑儿说出来。他时而轻松地、大胆地制订长远规划，他说到他万万不能牺牲自己的幸福去满足他父亲随心所欲的要求，他必将迫使他父亲同意这门婚事并且疼爱她，或则，未经他许可，也要办成婚事；他时而表示惊讶，对这种古怪的、陌生的、不以他的意志为转移的感情表示惊讶，对那控制他的感情也表示惊讶。

“如果有人对我说，我会这样热恋她，我就不相信他了，”安德烈公爵说，“这根本不是我原有的那种感情。对我来说，整个世界已分成两个一半：一半只有她，那里充满着幸福、希望和光明；另一半中没有她，那里充满着沮丧和黑暗……”

“黑暗和阴郁，”皮埃尔重复地说，“对，对，这一点我是明白的。”

“我不能不爱光明，对于这一点我没有过失。我非常幸福。

你懂得我的意思吗？我知道，你为我感到高兴。”

“对，对。”皮埃尔一面承认，一面用那深受感动的忧郁的目光望着自己的朋友。他觉得安德烈公爵的命途愈益光明，而他自己的命途就显得愈益黑暗。

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