till her son returns.'
'I met them the day before yesterday at the Arkharovs'. Natalie has recovered her looks and is brighter. She sang a song. How easily some people get over everything!'
'Get over what?' inquired Pierre, looking displeased.
Julie smiled.
'You know, Count, such knights as you are only found in Madame de Souza's novels.'
'What knights? What do you mean?' demanded Pierre, blushing.
'Oh, come, my dear count! C'est la fable de tout Moscou. Je vous admire, ma parole d'honneur!'*
*'It is the talk of all Moscow. My word, I admire you!'
'Forfeit, forfeit!' cried the militia officer.
'All right, one can't talk--how tiresome!'
'What is 'the talk of all Moscow'?' Pierre asked angrily, rising to his feet.
'Come now, Count, you know!'
'I don't know anything about it,' said Pierre.
'I know you were friendly with Natalie, and so... but I was always more friendly with Vera--that dear Vera.'
'No, madame!' Pierre continued in a tone of displeasure, 'I have not taken on myself the role of Natalie Rostova's knight at all, and have not been their house for nearly a month. But I cannot understand the cruelty...'
'Qui s'excuse s'accuse,'* said Julie, smiling and waving the lint triumphantly, and to have the last word she promptly changed the subject. 'Do you know what I heard today? Poor Mary Bolkonskaya arrived in Moscow yesterday. Do you know that she has lost her father?'
*'Who excuses himself, accuses himself.'
'Really? Where is she? I should like very much to see her,' said Pierre.
'I spent the evening with her yesterday. She is going to their estate near Moscow either today or tomorrow morning, with her nephew.'
'Well, and how is she?' asked Pierre.
'She is well, but sad. But do you know who rescued her? It is quite a romance. Nicholas Rostov! She was surrounded, and they wanted to kill her and had wounded some of her people. He rushed in and saved her....'
'Another romance,' said the militia officer. 'Really, this general flight has been arranged to get all the old maids married off. Catiche is one and Princess Bolkonskaya another.'
'Do you know, I really believe she is un petit peu amoureuse du jeune homme.'*
*'A little bit in love with the young man.'
'Forfeit, forfeit, forfeit!'
'But how could one say that in Russian?'
CHAPTER XVIII
When Pierre returned home he was handed two of Rostopchin's broadsheets that had been brought that day.
The first declared that the report that Count Rostopchin had forbidden people to leave Moscow was false; on the contrary he was glad that ladies and tradesmen's wives were leaving the city. 'There will be less panic and less gossip,' ran the broadsheet 'but I will stake my life on it that that will not enter Moscow.' These words showed Pierre clearly for the first time that the French would enter Moscow. The second broadsheet stated that our headquarters were at Vyazma, that Count Wittgenstein had defeated the French, but that as many of the inhabitants of Moscow wished to be armed, weapons were ready for them at the arsenal: sabers, pistols, and muskets which could be had at a low price. The tone of the proclamation was not as jocose as in the former Chigirin talks. Pierre pondered over these broadsheets. Evidently the terrible stormcloud he had desired with the whole strength of his soul but which yet aroused involuntary horror in him was drawing near.
'Shall I join the army and enter the service, or wait?' he asked himself for the hundredth time. He took a pack of cards that lay on the table and began to lay them out for a game of patience.
'If this patience comes out,' he said to himself after shuffling the cards, holding them in his hand, and lifting his head, 'if it comes out, it means... what does it mean?'
He had not decided what it should mean when he heard the voice of the eldest princess at the door asking whether she might come in.
'Then it will mean that I must go to the army,' said Pierre to himself. 'Come in, come in!' he added to the princess.
Only the eldest princess, the one with the stony face and long waist, was still living in Pierre's house. The two younger ones had both married.
'Excuse my coming to you, cousin,' she said in a reproachful and agitated voice. 'You know some decision must be come to. What is going to happen? Everyone has left Moscow and the people are rioting. How is it that we are staying on?'
'On the contrary, things seem satisfactory, ma cousine,' said Pierre in the bantering tone he habitually adopted toward her, always feeling uncomfortable in the role of her benefactor.
