War and peace ( Constance Garnett-1900)

‘No, what sort, Marya Dmitryevna, what sort?’ she almost shrieked. ‘I want to know.’ Marya Dmitryevna and the countess burst out laughing, and all the party followed their example. They all laughed, not at Marya Dmitryevna’s answer, but at the irrepressible boldness and smartness of the little girl, who had the pluck and the wit to tackle Marya Dmitryevna in this fashion.

Natasha only desisted when she had been told it was to be pineapple ice. Before the ices, champagne was passed round. Again the band struck up, the count kissed the countess, and the guests getting up from the table congratulated the countess, and clinked glasses across the table with the count, the children, and one another. Again the waiters darted about, chairs grated on the floor, and in the same order, but with flushed faces, the guests returned to the drawing-room and the count’s study.

XVII

The card-tables were opened, parties were made up for boston, and the count’s guests settled themselves in the two drawing-rooms, the divan room, and the library.

The count, holding his cards in a fan, with some difficulty kept himself from dropping into his customary after-dinner nap, and laughed at everything. The young people, at the countess’s suggestion, gathered about the clavichord and the harp. Julie was first pressed by every one to perform, and played a piece with variations on the harp. Then she joined the other young ladies in begging Natasha and Nikolay, who were i noted for their musical talents, to sing something. Natasha, who was treated by every one as though she were grown-up, was visibly very i. proud of it, and at the same time made shy by it. j j

‘What are we to sing?’ she asked.

‘The “Spring,” ’ answered Nikolay. $

‘Well, then, let’s make haste. Boris, come here,’ said Natasha. ‘But t

WARANDPEACE 59

be of interest to any one who had just come home from abroad, though it did not in fact interest Pierre. Several other persons joined in the conversation. When the orchestra struck up, Natasha walked into the drawing-room, and going straight up to Pierre, laughing and blushing, she said, ‘Mamma told me to ask you to dance.’

‘I’m afraid of muddling the figures,’ said Pierre, ‘but if you will be my teacher . . .’ and he gave his fat hand to the slim little girl, putting his arm low down to reach her level.

While the couples were placing themselves and the musicians were tuning up, Pierre sat down with his little partner. Natasha was perfectly happy; she was dancing with a grown-up person, with a man who had just come from abroad. She was sitting in view of every one and talking to him like a grown-up person. She had in her hand a fan, which some lady had given her to hold, and taking the most modish pose (God knows where and when she had learnt it), fanning herself and smiling all over her face, she talked to her partner.

‘What a girl! Just look at her, look at her! ’ said the old countess, crossing the big hall and pointing to Natasha. Natasha coloured and laughed.

‘Why, what do you mean, mamma? Why should you laugh? Is there anything strange about it?’

In the middle of the third ecossaise there was a clatter of chairs in the drawing-room, where the count and Marya Dmitryevna were playing, and the greater number of the more honoured guests and elderly people stretching themselves after sitting so long, put their pocket-books and purses in their pockets and came out to the door of the big hall. In front of all came Marya Dmitryevna and the count, both with radiant faces. The count gave his arm, curved into a hoop, to Marya Dmitryevna with playfully exaggerated ceremony, like a ballet-dancer. He drew himself up, and his face beamed with a peculiar, jauntily-knowing smile, and as soon as they had finished dancing the last figure of the ecossaise, he clapped his hands to the orchestra, and shouted to the first violin: ‘Semyon! do you know “Daniel Cooper”?’

That was the count’s favourite dance that he had danced in his youth. (Daniel Cooper was the name of a figure of the anglaise.)

‘Look at papa!’ Natasha shouted to all the room (entirely forgetting that she was dancing with a grown-up partner), and ducking down till her curly head almost touched her knees, she went off into her ringing laugh that filled the hall. Every one in the hall was, in fact, looking with a smile of delight at the gleeful old gentleman. Standing beside his majestic partner, Marya Dmitryevna, who was taller than he was, he curved his arms, swaying them in time to the music, moved his shoulders, twirled with his legs, lightly tapping with his heels, and with a broadening grin on his round face, prepared the spectators for what was to come. As soon as the orchestra played the gay, irresistible air of Daniel Cooper, somewhat like a livelier Russian trepak, all the doorways of the big hall we* 5 ** suddenly filled with the smiling faces of the house-serfs—men on one

side, and women on the other—come to look at their master making merry.