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"And
was Ivanushka with you?"
"I
go by myself, benefactor," said Ivanushka, trying to speak in a
bass
voice.
"I only came across Pelageya in Yukhnovo..."
Pelageya
interrupted her companion; she evidently wished to tell what
she
had seen.
"In
Kolyazin, master, a wonderful blessing has been revealed."
"What
is it? Some new relics?" asked Prince Andrew.
"Andrew,
do leave off," said Princess Mary. "Don't tell him, Pelageya."
"No...
why not, my dear, why shouldn't I? I like him. He is kind, he is
one
of God's chosen, he's a benefactor, he once gave me ten rubles, I
remember.
When I was in Kiev, Crazy Cyril says to me (he's one of God's
own
and goes barefoot summer and winter), he says, 'Why are you not
going
to the right place? Go to Kolyazin where a wonder-working icon of
the
Holy Mother of God has been revealed.' On hearing those words I
said
good-by
to the holy folk and went."
All
were silent, only the pilgrim woman went on in measured tones,
drawing
in her breath.
"So
I come, master, and the people say to me: 'A great blessing has
been
revealed,
holy oil trickles from the cheeks of our blessed Mother, the
Holy
Virgin Mother of God'...."
"All
right, all right, you can tell us afterwards," said Princess
Mary,
flushing.
"Let
me ask her," said Pierre. "Did you see it yourselves?" he
inquired.
"Oh,
yes, master, I was found worthy. Such a brightness on the face
like
the
light of heaven, and from the blessed Mother's cheek it drops and
drops...."
"But,
dear me, that must be a fraud!" said Pierre, naively, who had
listened
attentively to the pilgrim.
"Oh,
master, what are you saying?" exclaimed the horrified Pelageya,
turning
to Princess Mary for support.
"They
impose on the people," he repeated.
"Lord
Jesus Christ!" exclaimed the pilgrim woman, crossing herself.
"Oh,
don't
speak so, master! There was a general who did not believe, and
said,
'The monks cheat,' and as soon as he'd said it he went blind. And
he
dreamed that the Holy Virgin Mother of the Kiev catacombs came to
him
and
said, 'Believe in me and I will make you whole.' So he begged:
'Take
me
to her, take me to her.' It's the real truth I'm telling you, I
saw
it
myself. So he was brought, quite blind, straight to her, and he
goes
up
to her and falls down and says, 'Make me whole,' says he, 'and
I'll
give
thee what the Tsar bestowed on me.' I saw it myself, master, the
star
is fixed into the icon. Well, and what do you think? He received
his
sight! It's a sin to speak so. God will punish you," she said
admonishingly,
turning to Pierre.
"How
did the star get into the icon?" Pierre asked.
"And
was the Holy Mother promoted to the rank of general?" said Prince
Andrew,
with a smile.
Pelageya
suddenly grew quite pale and clasped her hands.
"Oh,
master, master, what a sin! And you who have a son!" she began,
her
pallor
suddenly turning to a vivid red. "Master, what have you said? God
forgive
you!" And she crossed herself. "Lord forgive him! My dear, what
does
it mean?..." she asked, turning to Princess Mary. She got up and,
almost
crying, began to arrange her wallet. She evidently felt
frightened
and ashamed to have accepted charity in a house where such
things
could be said, and was at the same time sorry to have now to
forgo
the charity of this house.
"Now,
why need you do it?" said Princess Mary. "Why did you come to
me?..."
"Come,
Pelageya, I was joking," said Pierre. "Princesse, ma parole, je
n'ai
pas voulu l'offenser. * I did not mean anything, I was only
joking,"
he said, smiling shyly and trying to efface his offense. "It
was
all my fault, and Andrew was only joking."
*
"Princess, on my word, I did not wish to offend her."
Pelageya
stopped doubtfully, but in Pierre's face there was such a look
of
sincere penitence, and Prince Andrew glanced so meekly now at her
and
now
at Pierre, that she was gradually reassured.
CHAPTER
XIV
The
pilgrim woman was appeased and, being encouraged to talk, gave a
long
account of Father Amphilochus, who led so holy a life that his
hands
smelled of incense, and how on her last visit to Kiev some monks
she
knew let her have the keys of the catacombs, and how she, taking
some
dried bread with her, had spent two days in the catacombs with
the
saints.
"I'd pray awhile to one, ponder awhile, then go on to another.
I'd
sleep a bit and then again go and kiss the relics, and there was
such
peace all around, such blessedness, that one don't want to come
out,
even into the light of heaven again."
Pierre
listened to her attentively and seriously. Prince Andrew went out
of
the room, and then, leaving "God's folk" to finish their tea,
Princess
Mary took Pierre into the drawing room.
"You
are very kind," she said to him.
"Oh,
I really did not mean to hurt her feelings. I understand them so
well
and have the greatest respect for them."
Princess
Mary looked at him silently and smiled affectionately.
"I
have known you a long time, you see, and am as fond of you as of
a
brother,"
she said. "How do you find Andrew?" she added hurriedly, not
giving
him time to reply to her affectionate words. "I am very anxious
about
him. His health was better in the winter, but last spring his
wound
reopened and the doctor said he ought to go away for a cure. And
I
am
also very much afraid for him spiritually. He has not a character
like
us women who, when we suffer, can weep away our sorrows. He keeps
it
all within him. Today he is cheerful and in good spirits, but that
is
the
effect of your visit--he is not often like that. If you could
persuade
him to go abroad. He needs activity, and this quiet regular
life
is very bad for him. Others don't notice it, but I see it."
Toward
ten o'clock the men servants rushed to the front door, hearing
the
bells of the old prince's carriage approaching. Prince Andrew and
Pierre
also went out into the porch.
"Who's
that?" asked the old prince, noticing Pierre as he got out of the
carriage.
"Ah!
Very glad! Kiss me," he said, having learned who the young
stranger
was.
The
old prince was in a good temper and very gracious to Pierre.
Before
supper, Prince Andrew, coming back to his father's study, found
him
disputing hotly with his visitor. Pierre was maintaining that a
time
would
come when there would be no more wars. The old prince disputed it
chaffingly,
but without getting angry.
"Drain
the blood from men's veins and put in water instead, then there
will
be no more war! Old women's nonsense--old women's nonsense!" he
repeated,
but still he patted Pierre affectionately on the shoulder, and
then
went up to the table where Prince Andrew, evidently not wishing
to
join
in the conversation, was looking over the papers his father had
brought
from town. The old prince went up to him and began to talk
business.
"The
marshal, a Count Rostov, hasn't sent half his contingent. He came
to
town and wanted to invite me to dinner--I gave him a pretty
dinner!...
And there, look at this.... Well, my boy," the old prince
went
on, addressing his son and patting Pierre on the shoulder. "A
fine
fellow--your
friend--I like him! He stirs me up. Another says clever
things
and one doesn't care to listen, but this one talks rubbish yet
stirs
an old fellow up. Well, go! Get along! Perhaps I'll come and sit
with
you at supper. We'll have another dispute. Make friends with my
little
fool, Princess Mary," he shouted after Pierre, through the door.
Only
now, on his visit to Bald Hills, did Pierre fully realize the
strength
and charm of his friendship with Prince Andrew. That charm was
not
expressed so much in his relations with him as with all his
family
and
with the household. With the stern old prince and the gentle,
timid
Princess
Mary, though he had scarcely known them, Pierre at once felt
like
an old friend. They were all fond of him already. Not only
Princess
Mary,
who had been won by his gentleness with the pilgrims, gave him
her
most
radiant looks, but even the one-year-old "Prince Nicholas" (as
his
grandfather
called him) smiled at Pierre and let himself be taken in his
arms,
and Michael Ivanovich and Mademoiselle Bourienne looked at him
with
pleasant smiles when he talked to the old prince.
The
old prince came in to supper; this was evidently on Pierre's
account.
And during the two days of the young man's visit he was
extremely
kind to him and told him to visit them again.
When
Pierre had gone and the members of the household met together,
they
began
to express their opinions of him as people always do after a new
acquaintance
has left, but as seldom happens, no one said anything but
what
was good of him.
CHAPTER
XV
When
returning from his leave, Rostov felt, for the first time, how
close
was the bond that united him to Denisov and the whole regiment.
On
approaching it, Rostov felt as he had done when approaching his
home
in
Moscow. When he saw the first hussar with the unbuttoned uniform
of
his
regiment, when he recognized red-haired Dementyev and saw the
picket
ropes
of the roan horses, when Lavrushka gleefully shouted to his
master,
"The count has come!" and Denisov, who had been asleep on his
bed,
ran all disheveled out of the mud hut to embrace him, and the
officers
collected round to greet the new arrival, Rostov experienced
the
same feeling as when his mother, his father, and his sister had
embraced
him, and tears of joy choked him so that he could not speak.
The
regiment was also a home, and as unalterably dear and precious as
his
parents' house.
When
he had reported himself to the commander of the regiment and had
been
reassigned to his former squadron, had been on duty and had gone
out
foraging, when he had again entered into all the little interests
of
the
regiment and felt himself deprived of liberty and bound in one
narrow,
unchanging frame, he experienced the same sense of peace, of
moral
support, and the same sense of being at home here in his own
place,
as he had felt under the parental roof. But here was none of all
that
turmoil of the world at large, where he did not know his right
place
and took mistaken decisions; here was no Sonya with whom he
ought,
or
ought not, to have an explanation; here was no possibility of
going
there
or not going there; here there were not twenty-four hours in the
day
which could be spent in such a variety of ways; there was not
that
innumerable
crowd of people of whom not one was nearer to him or farther
from
him than another; there were none of those uncertain and
undefined
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