Book 8 Chapter 4

PRINCESS MARYA, sitting in the drawing-room, and hearing the old men's talk and criticisms, did not understand a word of what she was hearing. She thought of nothing but whether all their guests were noticing her father's hostile attitude to her. She did not even notice the marked attention and amiability shown her during the whole of dinner by Drubetskoy, who was that day paying them his third visit.

Princess Marya turned with an absent-minded, questioning glance to Pierre, who, with a smile on his face, came up to her, hat in hand, the last of the guests, after the prince had gone out, and they were left alone together in the drawing-room.

“Can I stay a little longer?” he said, dropping his bulky person into a low chair beside Princess Marya.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “You noticed nothing?” her eyes asked.

Pierre was in an agreeable, after-dinner mood. He looked straight before him and smiled softly. “Have you known that young man long, princess?” he said.

“Which one?”

“Drubetskoy.”

“No, not long.…”

“Well, do you like him?”

“Yes; he's a very agreeable young man. Why do you ask me?” said Princess Marya, still thinking of her conversation in the morning with her father.

“Because I have observed, that when a young man comes from Petersburg to Moscow on leave, it is invariably with the object of marrying an heiress.”

“Have you observed that?” said Princess Marya.

“Yes,” Pierre went on with a smile, “and that young man now manages matters so that wherever there are wealthy heiresses—there he is to be found. I can read him like a book. He is hesitating now which to attack, you or Mademoiselle Julie Karagin. He is very attentive to her.”

“Does he visit them?”

“Yes, very often. And do you know the new-fashioned method of courting?” said Pierre, smiling good-humouredly, and obviously feeling in that light-hearted mood of good-natured irony, for which he had so often reproached himself in his diary.

“No,” said Princess Marya.

“To please the Moscow girls nowadays one has to be melancholy. He is very melancholy with Mademoiselle Karagin,” said Pierre.

“Really!” said Princess Marya, looking at the kindly face of Pierre, and thinking all the time of her own trouble. “It would ease my heart,” she was thinking, “if I could make up my mind to confide all I am feeling to some one. And it is just Pierre I should like to tell it all to. He is so kind and generous. It would ease my heart. He would give me advice.”

“Would you marry him?” asked Pierre.

“O my God, count! there are moments when I would marry any one”—to her own surprise Princess Marya said, with tears in her voice. “Ah! how bitter it is to love some one near to one and to feel,” she went on in a shaking voice, “that you can do nothing for him, but cause him sorrow, and when you know you cannot alter it. There's only one thing—to go away, and where am I to go?”

“What is wrong? what is the matter with you, princess?”

But Princess Marya, without explaining further, burst into tears.

“I don't know what is the matter with me to-day. Don't take any notice of me, forget what I said to you.”

All Pierre's gaiety had vanished. He questioned the princess anxiously, begged her to speak out, to confide her trouble to him. But she would only repeat that she begged him to forget what she had said, that she did not remember what she had said, and that she had no trouble except the one he knew—her anxiety lest Prince Andrey's marriage should cause a breach between him and his father.

“Have you heard anything of the Rostovs?” she asked to change the subject. “I was told they would soon be here. I expect Andrey, too, every day. I should have liked them to see each other here.”

“And how does he look at the matter now?” said Pierre, meaning by he the old prince. Princess Marya shook her head.

“But it can't be helped. There are only a few months left now before the year is over. And it can't go on like this. I should only have liked to spare my brother the first minutes. I could have wished they were coming sooner. I hope to get to know her well.…You have known them a long while,” said Princess Marya. “Tell me the whole truth, speaking quite seriously. What sort of a girl is she, and how do you like her? But the whole truth, because, you see, Andrey is risking so much in doing this against our father's will, that I should like to know …”

A vague instinct told Pierre that these pleas and repeated requests to him to tell her the whole truth betrayed Princess Marya's ill-will towards her future sister-in-law, that she wanted Pierre not to approve of Prince Andrey's choice; but Pierre said what he felt rather than what he thought. “I don't know how to answer your question,” said he, blushing though he could not have said why himself. “I really don't know what kind of girl she is. I can't analyse her. She's fascinating; and why she is, I don't know; that's all that one can say about her.”

Princess Marya sighed, and her face expressed: “Yes; that's what I expected and feared.”

“Is she clever?” asked Princess Marya. Pierre thought a moment.

“I suppose not,” he said. “Yes, though. She does not think it worth while to be clever.…Yes, no; she is fascinating, and nothing more.”

Princess Marya again shook her head disapprovingly.

“Ah, I do so want to like her! You tell her so if you see her before I do.”

“I have heard that they will be here in a few days,” said Pierre.

Princess Marya told Pierre her plan of getting to know her future sister-in-law as soon as the Rostovs arrived, and trying to get the old prince accustomed to her.

公爵小姐玛丽亚坐在客厅里，静听老年人的流言闲语，她对听见的话一点也不懂；心中只想到客人们是否正在注意她父亲对她的敌视态度。她甚至没有注意共进午餐时德鲁别茨科伊对她特别关心，向她献殷勤，他第三次到他们家里来访问。

公爵小姐玛丽亚现出漫不经心的、疑惑的眼神，把脸转向皮埃尔，在公爵走出去以后，皮埃尔这个最后走的客人手里拿着一顶帽子，脸上微露笑容，走到她跟前，他们单独地留在客厅里。

“还可以再坐一会儿吗？”他把那肥胖的身子懒散地躺在公爵小姐玛丽亚身旁的安乐椅上时说道。

“啊，可以，”她说。“您什么都没有发觉吗？”她的目光仿佛这样说。

皮埃尔在午餐后心情愉快。他两眼望着前面，悄悄地微笑。

“公爵小姐，您老早就认识这个年轻人吗？”他说。

“哪个年轻人？”

“德鲁别茨科伊？”

“不，不久以前才……”

“怎么样，您喜欢他吗？”

“是的，他是个招人喜欢的年轻人……您干嘛问我这个呢？”公爵小姐玛丽亚说，心里还继续想到今天早上她和父亲的谈话。

“因为我观察到了：这个年轻人平时总是从彼得堡坐车到莫斯科来休假，其目的只是娶一个富有的未婚女子。”

“您观察到了这种事吗？”公爵小姐玛丽亚说。

“是啊，”皮埃尔面露微笑，继续说下去，“目前这个年轻人是这样活动的：那里有富裕的未婚女子，他就到那里去。我把他看得一清二楚。他现今踌躇不前，他要向谁发动进攻：向您进攻呢，还是向朱莉·卡拉金娜小姐进攻呢？Il　est　très　assidu　aupres　d'elle①．”

“他常到她们那里去吗？”

“是的，他常到那里去。您知道一种追求女人的新方式吗？”

皮埃尔带着欢乐的微笑说，显然他怀有善意讥讽的愉快心情，正因为他有这种心情，所以他常在日记上责备自己。

“不晓得。”公爵小姐玛丽亚说。

“目前要取得莫斯科的少女的欢心，il　faut　être　mélancoli－que．Et　il　est　très　melancolique　auprès　dm—lle卡拉金娜。②”皮埃尔说。

①法语：他很关怀她。

②法语：就应该抑郁寡欢。他在她面前显得非常抑郁寡欢。

“Vraiment？①”公爵小姐玛丽亚说，她两眼望着皮埃尔的仁慈的面孔，不断地想到自己的痛苦，“若是我拿定主意，把我感觉到的一切讲给什么人听，我心里就会松快点儿。我恰恰愿意把这一切讲给皮埃尔听。他这样善良而且高尚。我希望变得松快一点。他给我出一个好主意吧！”

①法语：是真的吗？

“您愿意嫁给他吗？”皮埃尔问道。

“哎呀，我的天啊，伯爵！有时候我愿意嫁给任何人。”公爵小姐玛丽亚突然出乎自己意料，带着哭泣的嗓音说，“噢，爱一个亲近的人并且感觉到……（她的嗓音颤抖地继续说下去）除开痛苦之外，你竟不能替他做什么，当你知道你不能改变这种情况时，你会多么难受啊。那末唯一的办法就是离开他，但是我能到哪里去呢？”

“公爵小姐，怎么了，您发生了什么事情？”

可是公爵小姐并没有把话说完，就放声大哭起来。

“我不晓得我今天是怎么搞的。甭听我说吧，把我对您说的话忘掉吧。”

皮埃尔的愉快心情已消失殆尽。他担心地探问公爵小姐，请她把心里的话一股脑儿说出来，向他倾诉自己的烦恼，但她只是再三地说，请他忘掉她所说的话，他不记得她说过什么话了。她没有什么烦恼，只有他知道的那种烦恼，即是安德烈公爵结婚一事有引起父子发生争执的危险。

“您是否听到罗斯托夫一家人的情况？”为了改变话题，她问道。“有人告诉我他们不久以后会到这里来。我也天天在等待安德烈。我希望他们在这儿会面。”

“他现在对这种事有什么看法？”皮埃尔问道，他言下的“他”指的是老公爵。公爵小姐玛丽亚摇摇头。

“但是怎么办才好？到年尾只剩下几个月了。这种事是不会发生的。我只希帮助哥哥摆脱刚刚会面时出现的窘态。我渴望他们快点回来。我希望和她合得来。您早就认识他们，”公爵小姐玛丽亚说，“您老老实实把全部实情告诉我，她是个怎样的姑娘，您认为她怎样？但是您得说出全部真相，您知道，因为安德烈冒着很大的风险，他违反父亲的意旨擅自行动，我希望知道……”

一种模糊的本能对皮埃尔说，这些补充说明，加上要他说出全部实情的反复多次的请求，表示公爵小姐对未来的嫂嫂怀有恶意，她心里想要皮埃尔不赞许安德烈公爵的选择，但是皮埃尔道出了与其说是他所考虑到的，毋宁说是他心里觉得要说的话。

“我不知道要怎样回答您的问题，”他说，连他自己也不知道为什么面红耳赤。“我根本不知道，她是一个怎样的姑娘，我怎样也没法分析她。她十分迷人。为什么我不知道，关于她的情形能够说的就只有这些。”公爵小姐玛丽亚叹了一口气，她的面部表情仿佛在说：“是的，这就是我所预料到的，我觉得害怕。”

“她很聪明吗？”公爵小姐玛丽亚问道。皮埃尔沉吟起来。

“我以为，她不聪明。”他说，“不过，她也挺聪明，她不让人家看出她是一个聪明人……不对，她很有魅力，没有什么别的了。”公爵小姐玛丽亚又不赞成地摇摇头。

“啊，我真愿意疼爱她！如果您先看见她，就请您把我说的话告诉她吧。”

“我听说，他们在最近几天内要来了。”皮埃尔说。

公爵小姐玛丽亚把她自己的计划告诉皮埃尔，一当罗斯托夫家里的人抵达，她就与未来的嫂嫂靠拢，想个法子使老公爵和她混熟。