War And Peace

The servants – infallible judges of their masters, because their judgements are based not on talk or emotion but on deeds and real life – were delighted to see him back because they knew that when Pierre was there the other count, their master, would stop doing his rounds and he would be in a much better mood, much nicer to them, and also because they knew they would all get expensive presents for the festive day.

The children and their governesses were pleased to see him back because there was no one like Pierre for bringing them into the mainstream of things in the house. He was the one person who could sit down at the clavichord and play the all-purpose écossaise, the only piece he knew, though he said it was good for all dances, and he had probably brought presents for them.

Young Nikolay Bolkonsky, who was by now a slim, delicate but intelligent boy of fifteen, with curly light-brown hair and beautiful eyes, was delighted because his ‘Uncle Pierre’ was the object of his admiration and deep affection. No one had particularly encouraged Nikolay to be so fond of Pierre, and he didn’t see him very often. Countess Marya, who had brought him up, had gone out of her way to make Nikolay love her husband as much as she did, and the boy did like his uncle, but his affection was tinged with contempt. But he worshipped Pierre. He didn’t want to be a dashing hussar or a Knight of St George like his Uncle Nikolay, he wanted to be a learned, clever and kindly man like Pierre. In Pierre’s presence his face glowed with pleasure, and he blushed and felt short of breath when Pierre spoke to him. He never missed a word that fell from Pierre’s lips, and later on, with or without Dessalles, he would go over his every phrase and think about its meaning. Pierre’s past life, his unhappy career before 1812 (a vague, romantic version of which he had compiled from the few words he had heard dropped), his adventures in Moscow and his period of imprisonment, Platon Karatayev (whom he had heard about from Pierre), his love for Natasha (which the boy shared in his own special way) and, above all, his friendship with the father Nikolay couldn’t remember – all of this made Pierre a hero and a saint in his eyes.

From occasional references to his father and Natasha, Pierre’s inability to talk about his father without becoming emotional and Natasha’s cautious, tender and reverential tone whenever she spoke about him, the boy, who was just beginning to work out the meaning of love, had formed an impression that his father had loved Natasha, and bequeathed her to his friend on his deathbed. And as for the father himself, despite having no memories to go on the boy saw him as a godlike creation beyond all imagining, and every time he brought him to mind he did so with a sinking heart and bitter-sweet tears.

So he too was happy when Pierre came back.

All the house guests welcomed Pierre back as a man who could be counted on to bring people together and raise their spirits.

The adult members of the household, including his wife, were welcoming back a friendly figure who always made life run more smoothly and peacefully.

The old ladies were pleased at the thought of the presents he must have brought, but it meant more to them that Natasha would now be a lot livelier.

Pierre could sense the different attitudes coming from the several different worlds, and lost no time in satisfying everybody’s expectations.

He was the most absent-minded and forgetful of men, but he had stuck to the list supplied by his wife and bought everything, not forgetting a single commission from his mother-in-law or brother-in-law, the dress material for Madame Belov or the toys for his nephews.

In the early days of his married life it had struck him as odd that his wife should insist so strongly that he mustn’t forget anything he was supposed to buy, and he had been shocked by seeing her so put out when he had come back from his first trip without remembering a thing. But eventually he got the knack of it. Knowing that Natasha never asked him to get anything for her, and only told him to get things for other people when he had already offered to do so, he now surprised himself by taking a childish pleasure in getting presents for all the household, and he never forgot anything. If he incurred Natasha’s displeasure now it was only for buying too much and spending over the odds. To her other defects (as seen by other people, though Pierre saw them as positive qualities) – her slipshod manner and personal untidiness – Natasha had by now added penny-pinching.

Ever since Pierre had set up home and family on a large scale involving considerable expenditure he had noticed to his astonishment that he was living on half what he had been spending in the past, and his finances, which until recently had been all over the place largely because of the debts incurred by his first wife, were now looking up.