after blow on the old count’s head. He seemed to be unable
to understand the meaning of all these events, and bowed
his old head in a spiritual sense as if expecting and inviting further blows which would finish him. He seemed now
frightened and distraught and now unnaturally animated
and enterprising.
The arrangements for Natasha’s marriage occupied
him for a while. He ordered dinners and suppers and obviously tried to appear cheerful, but his cheerfulness was
not infectious as it used to be: on the contrary it evoked the
compassion of those who knew and liked him.
When Pierre and his wife had left, he grew very quiet
and began to complain of depression. A few days later he
fell ill and took to his bed. He realized from the first that
he would not get up again, despite the doctor’s encouragement. The countess passed a fortnight in an armchair by
his pillow without undressing. Every time she gave him his
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medicine he sobbed and silently kissed her hand. On his
last day, sobbing, he asked her and his absent son to forgive him for having dissipated their propertythat being the
chief fault of which he was conscious. After receiving communion and unction he quietly died; and next day a throng
of acquaintances who came to pay their last respects to the
deceased filled the house rented by the Rostovs. All these
acquaintances, who had so often dined and danced at his
house and had so often laughed at him, now said, with a
common feeling of self-reproach and emotion, as if justifying themselves: ‘Well, whatever he may have been he was a
most worthy man. You don’t meet such men nowadays….
And which of us has not weaknesses of his own?’
It was just when the count’s affairs had become so involved that it was impossible to say what would happen if he
lived another year that he unexpectedly died.
Nicholas was with the Russian army in Paris when the
news of his father’s death reached him. He at once resigned
his commission, and without waiting for it to be accepted took leave of absence and went to Moscow. The state of
the count’s affairs became quite obvious a month after his
death, surprising everyone by the immense total of small
debts the existence of which no one had suspected. The
debts amounted to double the value of the property.
Friends and relations advised Nicholas to decline the inheritance. But he regarded such a refusal as a slur on his
father’s memory, which he held sacred, and therefore would
not hear of refusing and accepted the inheritance together
with the obligation to pay the debts.
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The creditors who had so long been silent, restrained by
a vague but powerful influence exerted on them while he
lived by the count’s careless good nature, all proceeded to
enforce their claims at once. As always happens in such cases rivalry sprang up as to which should get paid first, and
those who like Mitenka held promissory notes given them
as presents now became the most exacting of the creditors.
Nicholas was allowed no respite and no peace, and those
who had seemed to pity the old manthe cause of their losses
(if they were losses)now remorselessly pursued the young
heir who had voluntarily undertaken the debts and was obviously not guilty of contracting them.
Not one of the plans Nicholas tried succeeded; the estate
was sold by auction for half its value, and half the debts still
remained unpaid. Nicholas accepted thirty thousand rubles
offered him by his brother-in-law Bezukhov to pay off debts
he regarded as genuinely due for value received. And to
avoid being imprisoned for the remainder, as the creditors
threatened, he re-entered the government service.
He could not rejoin the army where he would have been
made colonel at the next vacancy, for his mother now clung
to him as her one hold on life; and so despite his reluctant
to remain in Moscow among people who had known him
before, and despite his abhorrence of the civil service, he accepted a post in Moscow in that service, doffed the uniform
of which he was so fond, and moved with his mother and
Sonya to a small house on the Sivtsev Vrazhek.
Natasha and Pierre were living in Petersburg at the time
and had no clear idea of Nicholas’ circumstances. Having
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borrowed money from his brother-in-law, Nicholas tried
to hide his wretched condition from him. His position was
the more difficult because with his salary of twelve hundred
rubles he had not only to keep himself, his mother, and Sonya, but had to shield his mother from knowledge of their
poverty. The countess could not conceive of life without the
luxurious conditions she had been used to from childhood
and, unable to realize how hard it was for her son, kept demanding now a carriage (which they did not keep) to send
for a friend, now some expensive article of food for herself,
or wine for her son, or money to buy a present as a surprise
for Natasha or Sonya, or for Nicholas himself.
Sonya kept house, attended on her aunt, read to her, put
up with her whims and secret ill-will, and helped Nicholas to conceal their poverty from the old countess. Nicholas
felt himself irredeemably indebted to Sonya for all she was
doing for his mother and greatly admired her patience and
devotion, but tried to keep aloof from her.
He seemed in his heart to reproach her for being too perfect, and because there was nothing to reproach her with.
She had all that people are valued for, but little that could
have made him love her. He felt that the more he valued her
the less he loved her. He had taken her at her word when
she wrote giving him his freedom and now behaved as if all
that had passed between them had been long forgotten and
could never in any case be renewed.
Nicholas’ position became worse and worse. The idea of
putting something aside out of his salary proved a dream.
Not only did he not save anything, but to comply with his
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mother’s demands he even incurred some small debts. He
could see no way out of this situation. The idea of marrying some rich woman, which was suggested to him by his
female relations, was repugnant to him. The other way
outhis mother’s deathnever entered his head. He wished
for nothing and hoped for nothing, and deep in his heart
experienced a gloomy and stern satisfaction in an uncomplaining endurance of his position. He tried to avoid his old
acquaintances with their commiseration and offensive offers of assistance; he avoided all distraction and recreation,
and even at home did nothing but play cards with his mother, pace silently up and down the room, and smoke one pipe
after another. He seemed carefully to cherish within himself the gloomy mood which alone enabled him to endure
his position.
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Chapter VI
At the beginning of winter Princess Mary came to Moscow. From reports current in town she learned how the
Rostovs were situated, and how ‘the son has sacrificed himself for his mother,’ as people were saying.
‘I never expected anything else of him,’ said Princess
Mary to herself, feeling a joyous sense of her love for him.
Remembering her friendly relations with all the Rostovs
which had made her almost a member of the family, she
thought it her duty to go to see them. But remembering her
relations with Nicholas in Voronezh she was shy about doing so. Making a great effort she did however go to call on
them a few weeks after her arrival in Moscow.
Nicholas was the first to meet her, as the countess’ room
could only be reached through his. But instead of being
greeted with pleasure as she had expected, at his first glance
at her his face assumed a cold, stiff, proud expression she
had not seen on it before. He inquired about her health, led
the way to his mother, and having sat there for five minutes
left the room.
When the princess came out of the countess’ room Nicholas met her again, and with marked solemnity and stiffness
accompanied her to the anteroom. To her remarks about his
mother’s health he made no reply. ‘What’s that to you? Leave
me in peace,’ his looks seemed to say.
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‘Why does she come prowling here? What does she want?
I can’t bear these ladies and all these civilities!’ said he aloud
in Sonya’s presence, evidently unable to repress his vexation, after the princess’ carriage had disappeared.
‘Oh, Nicholas, how can you talk like that?’ cried Sonya,
hardly able to conceal her delight. ‘She is so kind and Mamma is so fond of her!’
Nicholas did not reply and tried to avoid speaking of the
princess any more. But after her visit the old countess spoke
of her several times a day.
She sang her praises, insisted that her son must call on
her, expressed a wish to see her often, but yet always became
ill-humored when she began to talk about her.
Nicholas tried to keep silence when his mother spoke of
the princess, but his silence irritated her.
‘She is a very admirable and excellent young woman,’
said she, ‘and you must go and call on her. You would at
least be seeing somebody, and I think it must be dull for you
only seeing us.’
‘But I don’t in the least want to, Mamma.’
‘You used to want to, and now you don’t. Really I don’t
understand you, my dear. One day you are dull, and the
next you refuse to see anyone.’
‘But I never said I was dull.’
‘Why, you said yourself you don’t want even to see her.
She is a very admirable young woman and you always liked
her, but now suddenly you have got some notion or other in
your head. You hide everything from me.’
‘Not at all, Mamma.’
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‘If I were asking you to do something disagreeable nowbut I only ask you to return a call. One would think mere
politeness required it…. Well, I have asked you, and now I
won’t interfere any more since you have secrets from your
mother.’
‘Well, then, I’ll go if you wish it.’
‘It doesn’t matter to me. I only wish it for your sake.’
Nicholas
