"Well, I'll ask."
Natásha ran into the house and went on tip-toe through the half-open door into the sitting room, where there was a smell of vinegar and Hoffman's drops.[1]
"Are you asleep, Mamma?"
"Oh, what sleep?" said the countess, waking up just as she was dropping into a doze.
"Mamma darlingl" said Natásha, kneeling by her mother and bringing her face close to her mother's, "I am sorry, forgive me, I'll never do it again; I woke you up! Mávra Kuzmínichna has sent me: they have brought some wounded here officers. Will you let them come? They have nowhere to go. I knew you'd let them come . . ." she said quickly all in one breath.
"What officers? Whom have they brought? I don't understand anything about it," said the countess.
Natásha laughed, and the countess too smiled slightly.
"I knew you'd give permission ... so I'll tell them," and, having kissed her mother, Natásha got up and went to the door. In the hall she met her father, who had returned with bad news.
"We've stayed too long! "said the count with involuntary vexation. "The Club is closed and the police are leaving."
"Papa, is it all right I've invited some of the wounded into the house?" said Natásha.
"Of course it is," he answered absently.
"That's not the point. I beg you not to indulge in trifles now, but to help to pack, and tomorrow we must go, go, go! . . ."
And the count gave a similar order to the major-domo and the servants.
At dinner Pétya having returned home told them the news he had heard. He said the people had been getting arms in the Kremlin, and that though Rostopchin's broadsheet had said that he would sound a call two or three days in advance, the order had certainly already been given for everyone to go armed to the Three Hills tomorrow, and that there would be a big battle there.
The countess looked with timid horror at her son's eager, excited face as he said this. She realized that if she said a word about his not going to the battle (she knew he enjoyed the thought of the impending engagement) he would say something about men, honor, and the fatherland something senseless, masculine, and obstinate which there would be no contradicting, and her plans would be spoiled; and so, hoping to arrange to leave before then and take Pétya with her as their protector and defender, she did not answer him, but after dinner called the count aside and implored him with tears to take her away quickly, that very night if possible. With a woman's involuntary loving cunning she, who till then had not shown any alarm, said that she would die of fright if they did not leave that very night. Without any pretense she was now afraid of everything.
CHAPTER XIV
Madame Schoss, who had been out to visit her daughter, increased the countess' fears still more by telling what she had seen at a spirit dealer's in Myasnítski Street. When returning by that street she had been unable to pass because of a drunken crowd rioting in front of the shop. She had taken a cab and driven home by a side street and the cabman had told her that the people were breaking open the barrels at the drink store, having received orders to do so.
After dinner the whole Rostóv household set to work with enthusiastic haste packing their belongings and preparing for their departure. The old count, suddenly setting to work, kept passing from the yard to the house and back again, shouting confused instructions to the hurrying people, and flurrying them still more. Pétya directed things in the yard. Sónya, owing to the count's contradictory orders, lost her head and did not know what to do. The servants ran noisily about the house and yard, shouting and disputing. Natásha, with the ardor characteristic of all she did, suddenly set to work too. At first her intervention in the business of packing was received skeptically. Everybody expected some prank from her and did not wish to obey her; but she resolutely and passionately demanded obedience, grew angry and nearly cried because they did not heed her, and at last succeeded in making them believe her. Her first exploit, which cost her immense effort and established her authority, was the packing of the carpets. The count had valuable Gobelin tapestries and Persian carpets in the house. When Natásha set to work two cases were standing open in the ballroom, one almost full up with crockery, the other with carpets. There was also much china standing on the tables, and still more was being brought
- ↑ A medicine much used in Russia. TR.
