PIERRE was hardly changed in his external habits. In appearance he was just the same as before. He was, as he had always been, absent-minded, and seemed preoccupied with something of his own, something apart from what was before his eyes. The difference was that in old days, when he was unconscious of what was before his eyes, or what was being said to him, he would seem with painfully knitted brows to be striving unsuccessfully to discern something far away from him. He was just as unconscious now of what was said to him, or of what was before him. But now with a faint, apparently ironical smile, he gazed at what was before him, or listened to what was said, though he was obviously seeing and hearing something quite different. In old days he had seemed a good-hearted man, but unhappy. And so people had unconsciously held a little aloof from him. Now a smile of joy in life was continually playing about his mouth, and his eyes were bright with sympathy for others, and the question: Were they all as happy as he? And people felt at ease in his presence.
In old days he had talked a great deal, and had got hot when he talked, and he had listened very little. Now he was rarely carried away in conversation, and knew how to listen, so that people were very ready to tell him the inmost secrets of their hearts.
The princess, who had never liked Pierre, and had cherished a particularly hostile feeling towards him, since after the old count's death she had felt herself under obligation to him, had come to Orel with the intention of proving to him that in spite of his ingratitude she felt it her duty to nurse him, but after a short time she felt, to her own surprise and annoyance, that she was growing fond of him. Pierre did nothing to try and win his cousin's favour; he simply looked at her with curiosity. In old days she had felt that there was mockery and indifference in his eyes, and she had shrunk into herself before him, as she did before other people, and had shown him only her aggressive side. Now she felt on the contrary as though he were delving into the most secret recesses of her life. It was at first mistrustfully, and then with gratitude, that she let him see now the latent good side of her character.
The most artful person could not have stolen into the princess's confidence more cunningly, by arousing her recollections of the best time of her youth, and showing sympathy with them. And yet all Pierre's artfulness consisted in seeking to please himself by drawing out human qualities in the bitter, hard, and, in her own way, proud princess.
“Yes, he is a very, very good-hearted fellow when he is not under bad influence, but under the influence of people like me,” thought the princess.
The change that had taken place in Pierre was noticed in their own way by his servants too—Terenty and Vaska. They considered that he had grown much more good-natured. Often after undressing his master, and wishing him good night, Terenty would linger with his boots and his clothes in his hand, in the hope that his master would begin a conversation with him. And as a rule Pierre kept Terenty, seeing he was longing for a chat.
“Come, tell me, then … how did you manage to get anything to eat?” he would ask. And Terenty would begin his tales of the destruction of Moscow and of the late count, and would stand a long while with the clothes, talking away or listening to Pierre; and it was with a pleasant sense of his master's close intimacy with him and affection for him that he finally withdrew.
The doctor, who was attending Pierre, and came to see him every day, though he thought it his duty as a doctor to pose as a man every minute of whose time is of value for suffering humanity, used to sit on with him for hours together, repeating his favourite anecdotes and observations on the peculiarities of patients in general, and of ladies in particular.
“Yes, it's a pleasure to talk to a man like that; it's not what we are used to in the provinces,” he would say.
In Orel there happened to be several French prisoners, and the doctor brought one of them, a young Italian officer, to see Pierre.
This officer became a frequent visitor, and the princess used to laugh at the tender feelings the Italian expressed for Pierre.
It was obvious that the Italian was never happy but when he could see Pierre, and talk to him, and tell him all about his own past, his home life, and his love, and pour out his indignation against the French, and especially against Napoleon.
“If all Russians are the least bit like you,” he used to say to Pierre, “it is sacrilege to make war on a people like yours. You who have suffered so much at the hands of the French, have not even a grudge against them.”
And Pierre had won the Italian's passionate devotion simply by drawing out what was best in his soul and admiring it.
During the latter part of Pierre's stay in Orel, he received a visit from an old acquaintance, Count Villarsky, the freemason, who had introduced him to the lodge in 1807. Villarsky had married a Russian heiress, who had great estates in the Orel province, and he was filling a temporary post in the commissariat department in the town.
Though Villarsky had never been very intimately acquainted with Bezuhov, on hearing that he was in Orel, he called upon him with those demonstrations of friendliness and intimacy that men commonly display on meeting one another in the desert. Villarsky was dull in Orel, and was delighted to meet a man of his own circle, who had, as he supposed, the same interests as he had.
But to his surprise, Villarsky noticed soon that Pierre had quite dropped behind the times, and had, as he defined it himself to Pierre, sunk into apathy and egoism.
“You are stagnating,” he said to him.
But in spite of that, Villarsky felt much more at home with Pierre now than he had done in the past, and came every day to see him. As Pierre watched Villarsky, and listened to him now, it seemed strange and incredible to him to think that he had very lately been the same sort of person himself.
Villarsky was a married man with a family, whose time was taken up in managing his wife's property, in performing his official duties, and in looking after his family. He regarded all these duties as a drawback in his life, and looked on them all with contempt, because they were all directed to securing his own personal welfare and that of his family. Military, administrative, political, and masonic questions were continually engrossing his attention. And without criticising this view or attempting to change it, Pierre watched this phenomenon—so strange, yet so familiar to him—with the smile of gentle, delighted irony that was now habitual with him.
In Pierre's relations with Villarsky, with his cousin, with the doctor, and with all the people he met now, there was a new feature that gained him the good-will of all. This was the recognition of the freedom of every man to think, to feel, and to look at things in his own way; the recognition of the impossibility of altering a man's conviction by words. This legitimate individuality of every man's views, which had in old days troubled and irritated Pierre, now formed the basis of the sympathetic interest he felt in people. The inconsistency, sometimes the complete antagonism of men's views with their own lives or with one another, delighted Pierre, and drew from him a gentle and mocking smile.
In practical affairs Pierre suddenly felt now that he had the centre of gravity that he had lacked in former days. In the past every money question, especially requests for money, to which as a very wealthy man he was particularly liable, had reduced him to a state of helpless agitation and perplexity. “Ought I to give or not to give?” he used to ask himself. “I have money and he needs it. But some one else needs it more. Who needs it more? And perhaps both are impostors?” And of all these suppositions he had in old days found no satisfactory solution, and gave to all as long as he had anything to give. In old days he had been in the same perplexity over every question relating to his property when one person told him he ought to act in one way and another advised something else.
Now to his own surprise he found that he had no more doubt or hesitation on all such questions. Now there was a judge within him settling what he must do and what he must not, by some laws of which he was himself unaware.
He was just as unconcerned about money matters as before; but now he unhesitatingly knew what he ought to do and what he ought not to do. The first application of that new power within him was in the case of a prisoner, a French colonel, who called on him, talked very freely of his own great exploits, and finally delivered himself of a request that was more like a demand, that he should give him four thousand francs to send to his wife and children. Pierre refused to do so without the slightest difficulty or effort, and wondered himself afterwards that it had been so easy and simple to do what had in old days seemed so hopelessly difficult. At the same time as he refused the French colonel, he made up his mind that he must certainly resort to some stratagem when he left Orel to induce the Italian officer to accept assistance, of which he stood in evident need. A fresh proof to Pierre of his greater certainty in regard to practical matters was the settlement of the question of his wife's debts, and of the rebuilding of his Moscow house and villas in the suburbs.
His head steward came to him in Orel, and with him Pierre went into a general review of his financial position. The fire of Moscow had cost Pierre, by the steward's account, about two millions.
The chief steward to console him for these losses presented a calculation he had made, that Pierre's income, far from being diminished, would be positively increased if he were to refuse to pay the debts left by the countess—which he could not be forced to pay—and if he were not to restore his Moscow houses and the villa near Moscow, which had cost him eight thousand to keep up, and brought in nothing.
“Yes, yes, that's true,” said Pierre, with a beaming smile.
“Yes, yes, I don't need any of them. I have been made much richer by the destruction of the city.”
But in January Savelitch came from Moscow, talked to him of the position of the city, of the estimate the architect had sent in for restoring the house, and the villa in the suburbs, speaking of it as a settled matter. At the same time Pierre received letters from Prince Vassily and other acquaintances in Petersburg, in which his wife's debts were mentioned. And Pierre decided that the steward's plan that he had liked so much was not the right one, and that he must go to Petersburg to wind up his wife's affairs, and must rebuild in Moscow. Why he ought to do so, he could not have said; but he was convinced that he ought. His income was diminished by one-fourth owing to this decision. But it had to be so; he felt that.
Villarsky was going to Moscow, and they agreed to make the journey together.
During the whole period of his convalescence in Orel, Pierre had enjoyed the feeling of joyful freedom and life. But when he found himself on this journey on the open road, and saw hundreds of new faces, that feeling was intensified. During the journey he felt like a schoolboy in the holidays. All the people he saw—the driver, the overseer of the posting station, the peasants on the road, or in the village—all had a new significance for him. The presence and the observations of Villarsky, who was continually deploring the poverty and the ignorance and the backwardness of Russia, compared with Europe, only heightened Pierre's pleasure in it. Where Villarsky saw deadness, Pierre saw the extraordinary mighty force of vitality, the force which sustained the life of that homogeneous, original, and unique people over that immense expanse of snow. He did not contest Villarsky's opinions, and smiled gleefully, as he listened, appearing to agree with him as the easiest means of avoiding arguments which could lead to nothing.
皮埃尔在表面上几乎没有什么改变。外表上他和先前一个样。他完全和从前一样，心不在焉，他好像所关心的并不是眼前的一些事情，而是他自身的、某种特别的事情。他过去的状态和现在的状态之间所不同的是：先前，当他忘记了眼前的事情和人们对他所说的话的时候，他总是紧锁着自己的眉头，好像是他想看清楚而又不能够看得清楚的，那种距离他很遥远的某种东西。现在他仍然是不记得人们对他说过的那些话，不记得在他眼前所发生的一切事情；但是，现在他带着看不出的好像是嘲讽的微笑注视着他面前的东西，倾听着人们对他所说的话，虽然他所看见的和所听见的很明显地完全是另外的一些事情。从前，他虽然显得是一个善良的人，然而，他却是一个不幸的人；因此，人们总是远远地躲避着他。可是现在，在他的嘴角边上经常挂着人生欢乐的微笑，眼睛里闪着对人同情的亮光——好像是在问：他是不是跟我一样感到满足？只要有他在场人们都感到愉快。
从前，他一说起话来总是滔滔不绝，表现得慷慨激昂，他只顾自己说，很少听别人说的话；现在他不太热中于这种谈话而且还善于听人家说话，因此人们也乐意把最秘密的心事告诉他。
这位公爵小姐从来都不喜欢皮埃尔而且对于他特别反感，自从老伯爵去世之后，她就感到自己应当感谢他。使她烦恼和惊奇的是，在她低达奥廖尔作短暂的逗留之后，她原本打算表明，虽然他忘恩负义，而她仍然认为有责任照料他，公爵小姐很快就感觉到，她喜欢皮埃尔。皮埃尔从不去讨公爵小姐的欢心。他只是带着一种好奇心去观察她。最初，公爵小姐觉得，在他投向她的目光中有一种冷漠的和嘲笑的表情，因而，她在他面前也像在其他人的面前一样，表现得十分拘束，只显露出她在生活中的好斗的一面；而现在则又相反，他好像在探索她灵魂深处隐藏的东西；她开头不信任他，而后来却怀着感激的心情对他表露出她性格中善良的方面。
即使是一个最狡猾的人，也不能那么轻而易举地就获得公爵小姐的信任，就能呼唤起她对最美好的青春的回忆和对青春的热爱。而在当时皮埃尔的一切狡猾只在于在这一位凶狠的、无情的，有其所特有的傲慢的公爵小姐身上唤醒人类的感情，他也以此为乐罢了。
“是的，他只要是不受坏人的影响，而是在像我这样的人的影响之下，他就是一个非常、非常善良的人。”公爵小姐对她自己这样说道。
在皮埃尔身上所发生的这一切变化为他的两个仆人——捷连季和瓦西卡——所发觉。他们发觉他随和多了。捷连季常常帮他脱下衣服，把衣服和靴子拿在手上，向他问过晚安，而又迟迟不肯离开，想看一下老爷是不是还有什么吩咐。皮埃尔看得出来，捷连季想和他聊一聊，皮埃尔多半要把他留下来。
“呶，给我讲一下……你们是怎样弄到吃的东西的？”他问道，于是捷连季就讲起莫斯科的毁灭，讲起已去世的老伯爵，就这样，他手上拿着衣服，在那里一站就站很长时间，有时他也听皮埃尔讲述他的故事，然后，他怀着主人对他的亲切和他对主人的友好感情回到前厅。
给皮埃尔治病的医生每天都要前来给他诊病，虽然，这位医生按照一般医生的习惯，认为自己要做出每一分钟对于遭受病痛折磨的人来说都是十分宝贵的样子来，然而，就是他常常在皮埃尔那里一坐就要坐上几个小时，讲述他自己所喜欢的一些故事和他对一般的病人，尤其是女病人的脾气的观察。
“是的，跟他那样的人谈谈是一桩乐事；他和我们本省的人不一样，”他说。
在奥廖尔有几个被俘的法国军官，这位医生带来了其中一个年青的意大利军官。
这位军官经常到皮埃尔那里去，公爵小姐常常取笑这个意大利人对皮埃尔所表露出来的那些温情。
看来，这个意大利人只有在他能得以去皮埃尔那里并且能够和他交谈，他才觉得自己是幸福的，他向皮埃尔讲述他的过去，讲述他的家庭生活，讲述自己的爱情和向他发泄他对于法国人，特别是对拿破仑的愤慨。
“假如所有的俄罗斯人都能多少有点像您这样，”他对皮埃尔说，
“C'estunsacrilègequedefairelaguerreàunpeuplecommelevotre，①法国人使您遭受了那么多的罪，而您甚至并不仇恨他们。”
①同您这样的人民打仗，简直是罪过。
现在皮埃尔已经赢得了这个意大利人满腔的热情，这只不过是由于他唤醒了他的天良——灵魂中的优秀品质——并且他已经欣赏灵魂中的这种优秀品质。
皮埃尔在奥廖尔逗留的最后一些日子，有一位他的老会友维拉尔斯基伯爵——就是一八○七年介绍他参加共济会支部的那个人，前来看望他。维拉尔斯基伯爵与一个富有的俄罗斯女人结了婚，这个女人在奥廖尔省拥有几所大庄园，他在本市的军用粮站找到了一份临时性的工作。
维拉尔斯基获悉别祖霍夫在奥廖尔之后，虽然他们两人之间并不很熟悉，但是维拉尔斯基在会见他时所表现出来的友谊和热情，就好像是在沙漠中人们相遇时那样。维拉尔斯基在奥廖尔很寂寞，他能够遇到和自己同属于一个圈子，同时他又认为在兴趣上和自己相同的人，感到十分高兴。
但是，使维拉尔斯基惊奇的是，他很快就发现皮埃尔已大大落后于现实生活，他自己在内心中已断定皮埃尔已经陷入淡漠和利己主义之中。
“Vousvousencroutez，moncher．”①他对他说。尽管维拉尔斯基现在和皮埃尔在一起较之以往觉得更加愉快，他每天都要到皮埃尔那里去。而皮埃尔现在看维拉尔斯基和听他说话的时候，想到自己在不久之前也是这个样子，就感到奇怪和难以相信。维拉尔斯基是一个已结了婚的，有妻室的人，他忙于料理妻子的事情、自己的公务和家庭的事务。他认为，所有这一切事务，实质上是人生的障碍，这一切都是卑鄙的，因为，这一切都是为了他个人和家庭的利益。军事的，行政的、政治的、共济会的问题，都继续不断地吸引着他的注意力。而皮埃尔并不力图去改变他的观点，也不加以指责，而是带着他现在常有的那种平静的、快活的嘲笑欣赏这种奇怪的、他如此熟悉的现象。
①法语：你太消沉了，我的朋友。
皮埃尔在他和维拉尔斯基、公爵小姐、医生以及他所遇见的所有的人的友谊交往中，有一个新的特点，因此博得了所有人的普遍好感，这就是承认每个人都能按照自己的方式去思索、去感觉和去观察事物；承认不可能用语言来改变一个人的信念。每一个人所应当具有的，这种合乎情理的特点，在以前曾经使皮埃尔激动和恼怒过，而如今却成为能同情别人和激起兴趣的一种基础。人与人相互之间在生活中的观点不同，甚至于观点完全相反，这使皮埃尔感到高兴，引起他显现出嘲讽的、温和的微笑。
在一些实际问题上，皮埃尔现在出乎意料之外地感到自己对遇到的事情有了主见，而这是从前所没有的。原先，每一件金钱问题，特别是像他这样十分富有的人所常常遇到的那样，当有人向他乞讨金钱时，总使他感到进退两难，没有一点办法应付，心中焦急不安。“是给呢还是不给？”他自己问自己。“我很有钱，而他正需要钱。但是还有别的人更需要钱。可谁是最迫切需要的呢？也许他们俩是一对骗子吧？”从前，他对这样一些问题找不到任何解决办法，只要他有钱就给，谁向他要，他就给谁，都给。过去，每当遇到有关财产方面的问题时，有的人说，应当这样办，而又有人说，应当那样办，而他呢，同样不知道该怎样办才好。
现在，令他感到惊奇的是，在所有这一切问题上他不再是犹豫不决和焦急不安了。现在在他心中出现了一个审判官，按照连他自己也不知道的某些法则决定，哪些事情应当做和哪些事情不应当做。
他对金钱问题仍然像以前一样漫不经心，但是他现在明显地知道什么事情是应当做的和什么事情是不应当去做的。这个新审判官为他做的第一件事情就是去对付一个被俘虏来的法军上校向他提出的请求：这位上校在皮埃尔那里讲述了他的许多功绩，末了，他差不多是正式向皮埃尔提出请求，向他要四千块法郎，寄给他的老婆和孩子。皮埃尔没有费丝毫力气，也并不紧张，一口就回绝了他，事情一过，他自己也感到惊奇，这种事要是在过去好像是没有办法可以解决的一道难题，却原来又是那么简单，那么轻而易举。在拒绝了那位上校的要求的同时，他又打定主意在离开奥廖尔时，必须使用点计巧，以便要那个意大利军官能收下他一些钱，看来，他显然是需要钱用的。皮埃尔在处理他妻子的债务和是否要修复在莫斯科的住宅和别墅的问题上，再一次证明了他对所遇到的实际问题确实有了主见。
他的总管来到奥廖尔见他，于是皮埃尔和他一道对已经变化了的收入作了大致的计算。按照总管的估计，在莫斯科大火灾中皮埃尔损失了大约二万卢布。
这位总管为受这些损失，对皮埃尔加以安慰，他向皮埃尔算了一下账，他说，尽管遭受了这些损失，如果他拒绝偿还公爵女儿欠下的债务，他本来就没有偿还这些债务的义务；如果他不去修复在莫斯科的住宅和在莫斯科近郊的别墅，这些建筑物除了每年要耗费八万卢布的巨额支出外，什么收益也得不到，这样，他的收入不但不会减少，反而会有所增加。
“是的，是的，这是真的，”皮埃尔高兴地笑着说，“是的，是的，这一切我都不需要了，我因为破了产还变成一个大富豪了。”
但是，在一月份萨韦利伊奇从莫斯科来到这里，他讲述了莫斯科的情况，还讲述了建筑师为修复莫斯科的住宅和在莫斯科近郊的别墅所做的预算，他在讲述这些事情时就好像是在讲已经决定了的事情似的。在此期间，皮埃尔收到了瓦西里公爵和其他一些熟人从彼得堡的来信。在这些信中都提到了他妻子所欠下的债务。于是皮埃尔决定：总管提出来的，令他如此高兴的计划是不正确的，他必须亲自去彼得堡处理好妻子的一切后事；必须去莫斯科修缮好房屋。至于为什么要这样做，他不知道，但他毫不含糊地知道，应该这样去做。由于他的这一决定，使他的收入减少了四分之三。但是应该这样去做；他感觉到了这一点。
维拉尔斯基要到莫斯科去，于是他们商定一同前往。
皮埃尔在奥廖尔的整个康复期间，亲身体会到自由和生活的乐趣；然而，当他在旅行途中置身于自由天地时，看见了数以百计的陌生人的面孔时，这种感觉就更加强烈了。在整个旅途中间，他感受到就像小学生在放假期间的那种高兴。所有的人：赶马车的车夫、驿站看守人、大路上的或村子里的农民——所有这些人在他的这些话只能使皮埃尔更加高兴。维拉尔斯基的眼中都具有一种新的意义。维拉尔斯基一路上不停地抱怨俄国比欧洲穷，比欧洲落后，还要加上愚昧无知，维拉尔斯基的眼里所看见的是死气沉沉的地方，而皮埃尔却在漫天大雪中，在这一望无垠的大地上看见了非常强大的生命力，这种力量支持着这个完整的、独特的、统一的民族的生命。他并不去反驳维拉尔斯基，好像同意他所说的话似的（这种违心的同意是为了避免发生无谓的争论的一种最简便的方法），他面露出一种快乐的微笑，倾听着他的谈话。
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