the orchestra rail, stood Dolokhov in a Persian dress, his curly hair brushed up into a huge shock. He stood in full view of the audience, well aware that he was attracting everyone’s attention, yet as much at ease as though he were in his own room. Around him thronged Moscow’s most brilliant young men, whom he evidently dominated. The count, laughing, nudged the blushing Sonya and pointed to her former adorer. "Do you recognize him?" said he. "And where has he sprung from?" he asked, turning to Shinshin. "Didn’t he vanish somewhere?" "He did," replied Shinshin. "He was in the Caucasus and ran away from there. They say he has been acting as minister to some ruling prince in Persia, where he killed the Shah’s brother. Now all the Moscow ladies are mad about him! It’s ‘Dolokhov the Persian’ that does it! We never hear a word but Dolokhov is mentioned. They swear by him, they offer him to you as they would a dish of choice sterlet. Dolokhov and Anatole Kuragin have turned all our ladies’ heads." A tall, beautiful woman with a mass of plaited hair and much exposed plump white shoulders and neck, round which she wore a double string of large pearls, entered the adjoining box rustling her heavy silk dress and took a long time settling into her place. Natasha involuntarily gazed at that neck, those shoulders, and pearls and coiffure, and admired the beauty of the shoulders and the pearls. While Natasha was fixing her gaze on her for the second time the lady looked round and, meeting the count’s eyes, nodded to him and smiled. She was the Countess Bezukhova, Pierre’s wife, and the count, who knew everyone in society, leaned over and spoke to her. "Have you been here long, Countess?" he inquired. "I’ll call, I’ll call to kiss your hand. I’m here on business and have brought my girls with me. They say Semenova acts marvelously. Count Pierre never used to forget us. Is he here?" "Yes, he meant to look in," answered Helene, and glanced attentively at Natasha. Count Rostov resumed his seat. "Handsome, isn’t she?" he whispered to Natasha. "Wonderful!" answered Natasha. "She’s a woman one could easily fall in love with." Just then the last chords of the overture were heard and the conductor tapped with his stick. Some latecomers took their seats in the stalls, and the curtain rose. As soon as it rose everyone in the boxes and stalls became silent, and all the men, old and young, in uniform and evening dress, and all the women with gems on their bare flesh, turned their whole attention with eager curiosity to the stage. Natasha too began to look at it. CHAPTER IX The floor of the stage consisted of smooth boards, at the sides was some painted cardboard representing trees, and at the back was a cloth stretched over boards. In the center of the stage sat some girls in red bodices and white skirts. One very fat girl in a white silk dress sat apart on a low bench, to the back of which a piece of green cardboard was glued. They all sang something. When they had finished their song the girl in white went up to the prompter’s box and a man with tight silk trousers over his stout legs, and holding a plume and a dagger, went up to her and began singing, waving his arms about. First the man in the tight trousers sang alone, then she sang, then they both paused while the orchestra played and the man fingered the hand of the girl in white, obviously awaiting the beat to start singing with her. They sang together and everyone in the theater began clapping and shouting, while the man and woman on the stage - who represented lovers - began smiling, spreading out their arms, and bowing. After her life in the country, and in her present serious mood, all this seemed grotesque and amazing to Natasha. She could not follow the opera nor even listen to the music; she saw only the painted cardboard and the queerly dressed men and women who moved, spoke, and sang so strangely in that brilliant light. She knew what it was all meant to represent, but it was so pretentiously false and unnatural that she first felt ashamed for the actors and then amused at them. She looked at the faces of the audience, seeking in them the same sense of ridicule and perplexity she herself experienced, but they all seemed attentive to what was happening on the stage, and expressed delight which to Natasha seemed feigned. "I suppose it has to be like this!" she thought. She kept looking round in turn at the rows of pomaded heads in the stalls and then at the seminude women in the boxes, especially at Helene in the next box, who - apparently quite unclothed - sat with a quiet tranquil smile, not taking her eyes off the stage. And feeling the bright light that flooded the whole place and the warm air heated by the crowd, Natasha little by little began to pass into a state of intoxication she had not experienced for a long while. She did not realize who and where she was, nor what was going on before her. As she looked and thought, the strangest fancies unexpectedly and disconnectedly passed through her mind: the idea occurred to her of jumping onto the edge of the box and singing the air the actress was singing, then she wished to touch with her fan an old gentleman sitting not far from her, then to lean over to Helene and tickle her. At a moment when all was quiet before the commencement of a song, a door leading to the stalls on the side nearest the Rostovs’ box creaked, and the steps of a belated arrival were heard. "There’s Kuragin!" whispered Shinshin. Countess Bezukhova turned smiling to the newcomer, and Natasha, following the direction of that look, saw an exceptionally handsome adjutant approaching their box with a self-assured yet courteous bearing. This was Anatole Kuragin whom she had seen and noticed long ago at the ball in Petersburg. He was now in an adjutant’s uniform with one epaulet and a shoulder knot. He moved with a restrained swagger which would have been ridiculous had he not been so good-looking and had his handsome face not worn such an expression of good-humored complacency and gaiety. Though the performance was proceeding, he walked deliberately down the carpeted gangway, his sword and spurs slightly jingling and his handsome perfumed head held high. Having looked at Natasha he approached his sister, laid his well gloved hand on the edge of her box, nodded to her, and leaning forward asked a question, with a motion toward Natasha. "Mais charmante!" said he, evidently referring to Natasha, who did not exactly hear his words but understood them from the movement of his lips. Then he took his place in the first row of the stalls and sat down beside Dolokhov, nudging with his elbow in a friendly and offhand way that Dolokhov whom others treated so fawningly. He winked at him gaily, smiled, and rested his foot against the orchestra screen. "How like the brother is to the sister," remarked the count. "And how handsome they both are!" Shinshin, lowering his voice, began to tell the count of some intrigue of Kuragin’s in Moscow, and Natasha tried to overhear it just because he had said she was "charmante." The first act was over. In the stalls everyone began moving about, going out and coming in. Boris came to the Rostovs’ box, received their congratulations very simply, and raising his eyebrows with an absent-minded smile conveyed to Natasha and Sonya his fiancee’s invitation to her wedding, and went away. Natasha with a gay, coquettish smile talked to him, and congratulated on his approaching wedding that same Boris with whom she had formerly been in love. In the state of intoxication she was in, everything seemed simple and natural. The scantily clad Helene smiled at everyone in the same way, and Natasha gave Boris a similar smile. Helene’s box was filled and surrounded from the stalls by the most distinguished and intellectual men, who seemed to vie with one another in their wish to let everyone see that they knew her. During the whole of that entr’acte Kuragin stood with Dolokhov in front of the orchestra partition, looking at the Rostovs’ box. Natasha knew he was talking about her and this afforded her pleasure. She even turned so that he should see her profile in what she thought was its most becoming aspect. Before the beginning of the second act Pierre appeared in the stalls. The Rostovs had not seen him since their arrival. His face looked sad, and he had grown still stouter since Natasha last saw him. He passed up to the front rows, not noticing anyone. Anatole went up to him and began speaking to him, looking at and indicating the Rostovs’ box. On seeing Natasha Pierre grew animated and, hastily passing between the rows, came toward their box. When he got there he leaned on his elbows and, smiling, talked to her for a long time. While conversing with Pierre, Natasha heard a man’s voice in Countess Bezukhova’s box and something told her it was Kuragin. She turned and their eyes met. Almost smiling, he gazed straight into her eyes with such an enraptured caressing look that it seemed strange to be so near him, to look at him like that, to be so sure he admired her, and not to be acquainted with him. In the second act there was scenery representing tombstones, there was a round hole in the canvas to represent the moon, shades were raised over the footlights, and from horns and contrabass came deep notes while many people appeared from right and left wearing black cloaks and holding things like daggers in their hands. They began waving their arms. Then some other people ran in and began dragging away the maiden who had been in white and was now in light blue. They did not drag her away at once, but sang with her for a long time and then at last dragged her off, and behind the scenes something metallic was struck three times and everyone knelt down and sang a prayer. All these things were repeatedly interrupted by the enthusiastic shouts of the audience. During this act every time Natasha looked toward the stalls she saw Anatole Kuragin with an arm thrown across the back of his chair, staring at her. She was pleased to see that he was captivated by her and it did not occur to her that there was anything wrong in it. When the second act was over Countess Bezukhova rose, turned to the Rostovs’ box - her whole bosom completely exposed - beckoned the old count with a gloved finger, and paying no attention to those who had entered her box began talking to him with an amiable smile. "Do make me acquainted with your charming daughters," said she. "The whole town is singing their praises and I don’t even know them!" Natasha rose and curtsied to the splendid countess. She was so pleased by praise from this brilliant beauty that she blushed with pleasure. "I want to become a Moscovite too, now," said Helene. "How is it you’re not ashamed to bury such pearls in the country?" Countess Bezukhova quite deserved her reputation of being a fascinating woman. She could say what she did not think - especially what was flattering - quite simply and naturally. "Dear count, you must let me look after your daughters! Though I am not staying here long this time - nor are you - I will try to amuse them. I have already heard much of you in Petersburg and wanted to get to know you," said she to Natasha with her stereotyped and lovely smile. "I had heard about you from my page, Drubetskoy. Have you heard he is getting married? And also from my husband’s friend Bolkonski, Prince Andrew Bolkonski," she went on with special emphasis, implying that she knew of his relation to Natasha. To get better acquainted she asked that one of the young ladies should come into her box for the rest of the performance, and Natasha moved over to it. The scene of the third act represented a palace in which many candles were burning and pictures of knights with short beards hung on the walls. In the middle stood what were probably a king and a queen. The king waved his right arm and, evidently nervous, sang something badly and sat down on a crimson throne. The maiden who had been first in white and then in light blue, now wore only a smock, and stood beside the throne with her hair down. She sang something mournfully, addressing the queen, but the king waved his arm severely, and men and women with bare legs came in from both sides and began dancing all together. Then the violins played very shrilly and merrily and one of the women with thick bare legs and thin arms, separating from the others, went behind the wings, adjusted her bodice, returned to the middle of the stage, and began jumping and striking one foot rapidly against the other. In the stalls everyone clapped and shouted "bravo!" Then one of the men went into a corner of the stage. The cymbals and horns in the orchestra struck up more loudly, and this man with bare legs jumped very high and waved his feet about very rapidly. (He was Duport, who received sixty thousand rubles a year for this art.) Everybody in the stalls, boxes, and galleries began clapping and shouting with all their might, and the man stopped and began smiling and bowing to all sides. Then other men and women danced with bare legs. Then the king again shouted to the sound of music, and they all began singing. But suddenly a storm came on, chromatic scales and diminished sevenths were heard in the orchestra, everyone ran off, again dragging one of their number away, and the curtain dropped. Once more there was a terrible noise and clatter among the audience, and with rapturous faces everyone began shouting: "Duport! Duport! Duport!" Natasha no longer thought this strange. She looked about with pleasure, smiling joyfully. "Isn’t Duport delightful?" Helene asked her. "Oh, yes," replied Natasha. CHAPTER X During the entr’acte a whiff of cold air came into Helene’s box, the door opened, and Anatole entered, stooping and trying not to brush against anyone. "Let me introduce my brother to you," said Helene, her eyes shifting uneasily from Natasha to Anatole. Natasha turned her pretty little head toward the elegant young officer and smiled at him over her bare shoulder. Anatole, who was as handsome at close quarters as at a distance, sat down beside her and told her he had long wished to have this happiness - ever since the Naryshkins’ ball in fact, at which he had had the well-remembered pleasure of seeing her. Kuragin was much more sensible and simple with women than among men. He talked boldly and naturally, and Natasha was strangely and agreeably struck by the fact that there was nothing formidable in this man about whom there was so much talk, but that on the contrary his smile was most naïve, cheerful, and good-natured. Kuragin asked her opinion of the performance and told her how at a previous performance Semenova had fallen down on the stage. "And do you know, Countess," he said, suddenly addressing her as an old, familiar acquaintance, "we are getting up a costume tournament; you ought to take part in it! It will be great fun. We shall all meet at the Karagins’! Please come! No! Really, eh?" said he. While saying this he never removed his smiling eyes from her face, her neck, and her bare arms. Natasha knew for certain that he was enraptured by her. This pleased her, yet his presence made her feel constrained and oppressed. When she was not looking at him she felt that he was looking at her shoulders, and she involuntarily caught his eye so that he should look into hers rather than this. But looking into his eyes she was frightened, realizing that there was not that barrier of modesty she had always felt between herself and other men. She did not know how it was that within five minutes she had come to feel herself terribly near to this man. When she turned away she feared he might seize her from behind by her bare arm and kiss her on the neck. They spoke of most ordinary things, yet she felt that they were closer to one another than she had ever been to any man. Natasha kept turning to Helene and to her father, as if asking what it all meant, but Helene was engaged in conversation with a general and did not answer her look, and her father’s eyes said nothing but what they always said: "Having a good time? Well, I’m glad of it!" During one of these moments of awkward silence when Anatole’s prominent eyes were gazing calmly and fixedly at her, Natasha, to break the silence, asked him how he liked Moscow. She asked the question and blushed. She felt all the time that by talking to him she was doing something improper. Anatole smiled as though to encourage her. "At first I did not like it much, because what makes a town pleasant ce sont les jolies femmes, * isn’t that so? But now I like it very much indeed," he said, looking at her significantly. "You’ll come to the costume tournament, Countess? Do come!" and putting out his hand to her bouquet and dropping his voice, he added, "You will be the prettiest there. Do come, dear countess, and give me this flower as a pledge!" * Are the pretty women. Natasha did not understand what he was saying any more than he did himself, but she felt that his incomprehensible words had an improper intention. She did not know what to say and turned away as if she had not heard his remark. But as soon as she had turned away she felt that he was there, behind, so close behind her. "How is he now? Confused? Angry? Ought I to put it right?" she asked herself, and she could not refrain from turning round. She looked straight into his eyes, and his nearness, self-assurance, and the good-natured tenderness of his smile vanquished her. She smiled just as he was doing, gazing straight into his eyes. And again she felt with horror that no barrier lay between him and her. The curtain rose again. Anatole left the box, serene and gay. Natasha went back to her father in the other box, now quite submissive to the world she found herself in. All that was going on before her now seemed quite natural, but on the other hand all her previous thoughts of her betrothed, of Princess Mary, or of life in the country did not once recur to her mind and were as if belonging to a remote past. In the fourth act there was some sort of devil who sang waving his arm about, till the boards were withdrawn from under him and he disappeared down below. That was the only part of the fourth act that Natasha saw. She felt agitated and tormented, and the cause of this was Kuragin whom she could not help watching. As they were leaving the theater Anatole came up to them, called their carriage, and helped them in. As he was putting Natasha in he pressed her arm above the elbow. Agitated and flushed she turned round. He was looking at her with glittering eyes, smiling tenderly. Only after she had reached home was Natasha able clearly to think over what had happened to her, and suddenly remembering Prince Andrew she was horrified, and at tea to which all had sat down after the opera, she gave a loud exclamation, flushed, and ran out of the room. "O God! I am lost!" she said to herself. "How could I let him?" She sat for a long time hiding her flushed face in her hands trying to realize what had happened to her, but was unable either to understand what had happened or what she felt. Everything seemed dark, obscure, and terrible. There in that enormous, illuminated theater where the bare-legged Duport, in a tinsel-decorated jacket, jumped about to the music on wet boards, and young girls and old men, and the nearly naked Helene with her proud, calm smile, rapturously cried "bravo!" - there in the presence of that Helene it had all seemed clear and simple; but now, alone by herself, it was incomprehensible. "What is it? What was that terror I felt of him? What is this gnawing of conscience I am feeling now?" she thought. Only to the old countess at night in bed could Natasha have told all she was feeling. She knew that Sonya with her severe and simple views would either not understand it at all or would be horrified at such a confession. So Natasha tried to solve what was torturing her by herself. "Am I spoiled for Andrew’s love or not?" she asked herself, and with soothing irony replied: "What a fool I am to ask that! What did happen to me? Nothing! I have done nothing, I didn’t lead him on at all. Nobody will know and I shall never see him again," she told herself. "So it is plain that nothing has happened and there is nothing to repent of, and Andrew can love me still. But why ‘still?’ O God, why isn’t he here?" Natasha quieted herself for a moment, but again some instinct told her that though all this was true, and though nothing had happened, yet the former purity of her love for Prince Andrew had perished. And again in imagination she went over her whole conversation with Kuragin, and again saw the face, gestures, and tender smile of that bold handsome man when he pressed her arm. CHAPTER XI Anatole Kuragin was staying in Moscow because his father had sent him away from Petersburg, where he had been spending twenty thousand rubles a year in cash, besides running up debts for as much more, which his creditors demanded from his father. His father announced to him that he would now pay half his debts for the last time, but only on condition that he went to Moscow as adjutant to the commander in chief - a post his father had procured for him - and would at last try to make a good match there. He indicated to him Princess Mary and Julie Karagina. Anatole consented and went to Moscow, where he put up at Pierre’s house. Pierre received him unwillingly at first, but got used to him after a while, sometimes even accompanied him on his carousals, and gave him money under the guise of loans. As Shinshin had remarked, from the time of his arrival Anatole had turned the heads of the Moscow ladies, especially by the fact that he slighted them and plainly preferred the gypsy girls and French actresses - with the chief of whom, Mademoiselle George, he was said to be on intimate relations. He had never missed a carousal at Danilov’s or other Moscow revelers’, drank whole nights through, outvying everyone else, and was at all the balls and parties of the best society. There was talk of his intrigues with some of the ladies, and he flirted with a few of them at the balls. But he did not run after the unmarried girls, especially the rich heiresses who were most of them plain. There was a special reason for this, as he had got married two years before - a fact known only to his most intimate friends. At that time while with his regiment in Poland, a Polish landowner of small means had forced him to marry his daughter. Anatole had very soon abandoned his wife and, for a payment which he agreed to send to his father-in-law, had arranged to be free to pass himself off as a bachelor. Anatole was always content with his position, with himself, and with others. He was instinctively and thoroughly convinced that it was impossible for him to live otherwise than as he did and that he had never in his life done anything base. He was incapable of considering how his actions might affect others or what the consequences of this or that action of his might be. He was convinced that, as a duck is so made that it must live in water, so God had made him such that he must spend thirty thousand rubles a year and always occupy a prominent position in society. He believed this so firmly that others, looking at him, were persuaded of it too and did not refuse him either a leading place in society or money, which he borrowed from anyone and everyone and evidently would not repay. He was not a gambler, at any rate he did not care about winning. He was not vain. He did not mind what people thought of him. Still less could he be accused of ambition. More than once he had vexed his father by spoiling his own career, and he laughed at distinctions of all kinds. He was not mean, and did not refuse anyone who asked of him. All he cared about was gaiety and women, and as according to his ideas there was nothing dishonorable in these tastes, and he was incapable of considering what the gratification of his tastes entailed for others, he honestly considered himself irreproachable, sincerely despised rogues and bad people, and with a tranquil conscience carried his head high. Rakes, those male Magdalenes, have a secret feeling of innocence similar to that which female Magdalenes have, based on the same hope of forgiveness. "All will be forgiven her, for she loved much; and all will be forgiven him, for he enjoyed much." Dolokhov, who had reappeared that year in Moscow after his exile and his Persian adventures, and was leading a life of luxury, gambling, and dissipation, associated with his old Petersburg comrade Kuragin and made use of him for his own ends. Anatole was sincerely fond of Dolokhov for his cleverness and audacity. Dolokhov, who needed Anatole Kuragin’s name, position, and connections as a bait to draw rich young men into his gambling set, made use of him and amused himself at his expense without letting the other feel it. Apart from the advantage he derived from Anatole, the very process of dominating another’s will was in itself a pleasure, a habit, and a necessity to Dolokhov. Natasha had made a strong impression on Kuragin. At supper after the opera he described to Dolokhov with the air of a connoisseur the attractions of her arms, shoulders, feet, and hair and expressed his intention of making love to her. Anatole had no notion and was incapable of considering what might come of such love-making, as he never had any notion of the outcome of any of his actions. "She’s first-rate, my dear fellow, but not for us," replied Dolokhov. "I will tell my sister to ask her to dinner," said Anatole. "Eh?" "You’d better wait till she’s married...." "You know, I adore little girls, they lose their heads at once," pursued Anatole. "You have been caught once already by a ‘little girl,’" said Dolokhov who knew of Kuragin’s marriage. "Take care!" "Well, that can’t happen twice! Eh?" said Anatole, with a good-humored laugh. CHAPTER XII The day after the opera the Rostovs went nowhere and nobody came to see them. Marya Dmitrievna talked to the count about something which they concealed from Natasha. Natasha guessed they were talking about the old prince and planning something, and this disquieted and offended her. She was expecting Prince Andrew any moment and twice that day sent a manservant to the Vozdvizhenka to ascertain whether he had come. He had not arrived. She suffered more now than during her first days in Moscow. To her impatience and pining for him were now added the unpleasant recollection of her interview with Princess Mary and the old prince, and a fear and anxiety of which she did not understand the cause. She continually fancied that either he would never come or that something would happen to her before he came. She could no longer think of him by herself calmly and continuously as she had done before. As soon as she began to think of him, the recollection of the old prince, of Princess Mary, of the theater, and of Kuragin mingled with her thoughts. The question again presented itself whether she was not guilty, whether she had not already broken faith with Prince Andrew, and again she found herself recalling to the minutest detail every word, every gesture, and every shade in the play of expression on the face of the man who had been able to arouse in her such an incomprehensible and terrifying feeling. To the family Natasha seemed livelier than usual, but she was far less tranquil and happy than before. On Sunday morning Marya Dmitrievna invited her visitors to Mass at her parish church - the Church of the Assumption built over the graves of victims of the plague. "I don’t like those fashionable churches," she said, evidently priding herself on her independence of thought. "God is the same everywhere. We have an excellent priest, he conducts the service decently and with dignity, and the deacon is the same. What holiness is there in giving concerts in the choir? I don’t like it, it’s just self-indulgence!" Marya Dmitrievna liked Sundays and knew how to keep them. Her whole house was scrubbed and cleaned on Saturdays; neither she nor the servants worked, and they all wore holiday dress and went to church. At her table there were extra dishes at dinner, and the servants had vodka and roast goose or suckling pig. But in nothing in the house was the holiday so noticeable as in Marya Dmitrievna’s broad, stern face, which on that day wore an invariable look of solemn festivity. After Mass, when they had finished their coffee in the dining room where the loose covers had been removed from the furniture, a servant announced that the carriage was ready, and Marya Dmitrievna rose with a stern air. She wore her holiday shawl, in which she paid calls, and announced that she was going to see Prince Nicholas Bolkonski to have an explanation with him about Natasha. After she had gone, a dressmaker from Madame Suppert-Roguet waited on the Rostovs, and Natasha, very glad of this diversion, having shut herself into a room adjoining the drawing room, occupied herself trying on the new dresses. Just as she had put on a bodice without sleeves and only tacked together, and was turning her head to see in the glass how the back fitted, she heard in the drawing room the animated sounds of her father’s voice and another’s - a woman’s - that made her flush. It was Helene. Natasha had not time to take off the bodice before the door opened and Countess Bezukhova, dressed in a purple velvet gown with a high collar, came into the room beaming with good-humored amiable smiles. "Oh, my enchantress!" she cried to the blushing Natasha. "Charming! No, this is really beyond anything, my dear count," said she to Count Rostov who had followed her in. "How can you live in Moscow and go nowhere? No, I won’t let you off! Mademoiselle George will recite at my house tonight and there’ll be some people, and if you don’t bring your lovely girls - who are prettier than Mademoiselle George - I won’t know you! My husband is away in Tver or I would send him to fetch you. You must come. You positively must! Between eight and nine." She nodded to the dressmaker, whom she knew and who had curtsied respectfully to her, and seated herself in an armchair beside the looking glass, draping the folds of her velvet dress picturesquely. She did not cease chattering good-naturedly and gaily, continually praising Natasha’s beauty. She looked at Natasha’s dresses and praised them, as well as a new dress of her own made of "metallic gauze," which she had received from Paris, and advised Natasha to have one like it. "But anything suits you, my charmer!" she remarked. A smile of pleasure never left Natasha’s face. She felt happy and as if she were blossoming under the praise of this dear Countess Bezukhova who had formerly seemed to her so unapproachable and important and was now so kind to her. Natasha brightened up and felt almost in love with this woman, who was so beautiful and so kind. Helene for her part was sincerely delighted with Natasha and wished to give her a good time. Anatole had asked her to bring him and Natasha together, and she was calling on the Rostovs for that purpose. The idea of throwing her brother and Natasha together amused her. Though at one time, in Petersburg, she had been annoyed with Natasha for drawing Boris away, she did not think of that now, and in her own way heartily wished Natasha well. As she was leaving the Rostovs she called her protegee aside. "My brother dined with me yesterday - we nearly died of laughter - he ate nothing and kept sighing for you, my charmer! He is madly, quite madly, in love with you, my dear." Natasha blushed scarlet when she heard this. "How she blushes, how she blushes, my pretty!" said Helene. "You must certainly come. If you love somebody, my charmer, that is not a reason to shut yourself up. Even if you are engaged, I am sure your fiance would wish you to go into society rather than be bored to death." "So she knows I am engaged, and she and her husband Pierre - that good Pierre - have talked and laughed about this. So it’s all right." And again, under Helene’s influence, what had seemed terrible now seemed simple and natural. "And she is such a grande dame, so kind, and evidently likes me so much. And why not enjoy myself?" thought Natasha, gazing at Helene with wide-open, wondering eyes. Marya Dmitrievna came back to dinner taciturn and serious, having evidently suffered a defeat at the old prince’s. She was still too agitated by the encounter to be able to talk of the affair calmly. In answer to the count’s inquiries she replied that things were all right and that she would tell about it next day. On hearing of Countess Bezukhova’s visit and the invitation for that evening, Marya Dmitrievna remarked: "I don’t care to have anything to do with Bezukhova and don’t advise you to; however, if you’ve promised - go. It will divert your thoughts," she added, addressing Natasha. CHAPTER XIII Count Rostov took the girls to Countess Bezukhova’s. There were a good many people there, but nearly all strangers to Natasha. Count Rostov was displeased to see that the company consisted almost entirely of men and women known for the freedom of their conduct. Mademoiselle George was standing in a corner of the drawing room surrounded by young men. There were several Frenchmen present, among them Metivier who from the time Helene reached Moscow had been an intimate in her house. The count decided not to sit down to cards or let his girls out of his sight and to get away as soon as Mademoiselle George’s performance was over. Anatole was at the door, evidently on the lookout for the Rostovs. Immediately after greeting the count he went up to Natasha and followed her. As soon as she saw him she was seized by the same feeling she had had at the opera - gratified vanity at his admiration of her and fear at the absence of a moral barrier between them. Helene welcomed Natasha delightedly and was loud in admiration of her beauty and her dress. Soon after their arrival Mademoiselle George went out of the room to change her costume. In the drawing room people began arranging the chairs and taking their seats. Anatole moved a chair for Natasha and was about to sit down beside her, but the count, who never lost sight of her, took the seat himself. Anatole sat down behind her. Mademoiselle George, with her bare, fat, dimpled arms, and a red shawl draped over one shoulder, came into the space left vacant for her, and assumed an unnatural pose. Enthusiastic whispering was audible. Mademoiselle George looked sternly and gloomily at the audience and began reciting some French verses describing her guilty love for her son. In some places she raised her voice, in others she whispered, lifting her head triumphantly; sometimes she paused and uttered hoarse sounds, rolling her eyes. "Adorable! divine! delicious!" was heard from every side. Natasha looked at the fat actress, but neither saw nor heard nor understood anything of what went on before her. She only felt herself again completely borne away into this strange senseless world - so remote from her old world - a world in which it was impossible to know what was good or bad, reasonable or senseless. Behind her sat Anatole, and conscious of his proximity she experienced a frightened sense of expectancy. After the first monologue the whole company rose and surrounded Mademoiselle George, expressing their enthusiasm. "How beautiful she is!" Natasha remarked to her father who had also risen and was moving through the crowd toward the actress. "I don’t think so when I look at you!" said Anatole, following Natasha. He said this at a moment when she alone could hear him. "You are enchanting... from the moment I saw you I have never ceased..." "Come, come, Natasha!" said the count, as he turned back for his daughter. "How beautiful she is!" Natasha without saying anything stepped up to her father and looked at him with surprised inquiring eyes. After giving several recitations, Mademoiselle George left, and Countess Bezukhova asked her visitors into the ballroom. The count wished to go home, but Helene entreated him not to spoil her improvised ball, and the Rostovs stayed on. Anatole asked Natasha for a valse and as they danced he pressed her waist and hand and told her she was bewitching and that he loved her. During the ecossaise, which she also danced with him, Anatole said nothing when they happened to be by themselves, but merely gazed at her. Natasha lifted her frightened eyes to him, but there was such confident tenderness in his affectionate look and smile that she could not, whilst looking at him, say what she had to say. She lowered her eyes. "Don’t say such things to me. I am betrothed and love another," she said rapidly.... She glanced at him. Anatole was not upset or pained by what she had said. "Don’t speak to me of that! What can I do?" said he. "I tell you I am madly, madly, in love with you! Is it my fault that you are enchanting?... It’s our turn to begin." Natasha, animated and excited, looked about her with wide-open frightened eyes and seemed merrier than usual. She understood hardly anything that went on that evening. They danced the ecossaise and the Grossvater. Her father asked her to come home, but she begged to remain. Wherever she went and whomever she was speaking to, she felt his eyes upon her. Later on she recalled how she had asked her father to let her go to the dressing room to rearrange her dress, that Helene had followed her and spoken laughingly of her brother’s love, and that she again met Anatole in the little sitting room. Helene had disappeared leaving them alone, and Anatole had taken her hand and said in a tender voice: "I cannot come to visit you but is it possible that I shall never see you? I love you madly. Can I never...?" and, blocking her path, he brought his face close to hers. His large, glittering, masculine eyes were so close to hers that she saw nothing but them. "Natalie?" he whispered inquiringly while she felt her hands being painfully pressed. "Natalie?" "I don’t understand. I have nothing to say," her eyes replied. Burning lips were pressed to hers, and at the same instant she felt herself released, and Helene’s footsteps and the rustle of her dress were heard in the room. Natasha looked round at her, and then, red and trembling, threw a frightened look of inquiry at Anatole and moved toward the door. "One word, just one, for God’s sake!" cried Anatole. She paused. She so wanted a word from him that would explain to her what had happened and to which she could find no answer. "Natalie, just a word, only one!" he kept repeating, evidently not knowing what to say and he repeated it till Helene came up to them. Helene returned with Natasha to the drawing room. The Rostovs went away without staying for supper. After reaching home Natasha did not sleep all night. She was tormented by the insoluble question whether she loved Anatole or Prince Andrew. She loved Prince Andrew - she remembered distinctly how deeply she loved him. But she also loved Anatole, of that there was no doubt. "Else how could all this have happened?" thought she. "If, after that, I could return his smile when saying good-by, if I was able to let it come to that, it means that I loved him from the first. It means that he is kind, noble, and splendid, and I could not help loving him. What am I to do if I love him and the other one too?" she asked herself, unable to find an answer to these terrible questions. CHAPTER XIV Morning came with its cares and bustle. Everyone got up and began to move about and talk, dressmakers came again. Marya Dmitrievna appeared, and they were called to breakfast. Natasha kept looking uneasily at everybody with wide-open eyes, as if wishing to intercept every glance directed toward her, and tried to appear the same as usual. After breakfast, which was her best time, Marya Dmitrievna sat down in her armchair and called Natasha and the count to her. "Well, friends, I have now thought the whole matter over and this is my advice," she began. "Yesterday, as you know, I went to see Prince Bolkonski. Well, I had a talk with him.... He took it into his head to begin shouting, but I am not one to be shouted down. I said what I had to say!" "Well, and he?" asked the count. "He? He’s crazy... he did not want to listen. But what’s the use of talking? As it is we have worn the poor girl out," said Marya Dmitrievna. "My advice to you is finish your business and go back home to Otradnoe... and wait there." "Oh, no!" exclaimed Natasha. "Yes, go back," said Marya Dmitrievna, "and wait there. If your betrothed comes here now - there will be no avoiding a quarrel; but alone with the old man he will talk things over and then come on to you." Count Rostov approved of this suggestion, appreciating its reasonableness. If the old man came round it would be all the better to visit him in Moscow or at Bald Hills later on; and if not, the wedding, against his wishes, could only be arranged at Otradnoe. "That is perfectly true. And I am sorry I went to see him and took her," said the old count. "No, why be sorry? Being here, you had to pay your respects. But if he won’t - that’s his affair," said Marya Dmitrievna, looking for something in her reticule. "Besides, the trousseau is ready, so there is nothing to wait for; and what is not ready I’ll send after you. Though I don’t like letting you go, it is the best way. So go, with God’s blessing!" Having found what she was looking for in the reticule she handed it to Natasha. It was a letter from Princess Mary. "She has written to you. How she torments herself, poor thing! She’s afraid you might think that she does not like you." "But she doesn’t like me," said Natasha. "Don’t talk nonsense!" cried Marya Dmitrievna. "I shan’t believe anyone, I know she doesn’t like me," replied Natasha boldly as she took the letter, and her face expressed a cold and angry resolution that caused Marya Dmitrievna to look at her more intently and to frown. "Don’t answer like that, my good girl!" she said. "What I say is true! Write an answer!" Natasha did not reply and went to her own room to read Princess Mary’s letter. Princess Mary wrote that she was in despair at the misunderstanding that had occurred between them. Whatever her father’s feelings might be, she begged Natasha to believe that she could not help loving her as the one chosen by her brother, for whose happiness she was ready to sacrifice everything. "Do not think, however," she wrote, "that my father is ill-disposed toward you. He is an invalid and an old man who must be forgiven; but he is good and magnanimous and will love her who makes his son happy." Princess Mary went on to ask Natasha to fix a time when she could see her again. After reading the letter Natasha sat down at the writing table to answer it. "Dear Princess," she wrote in French quickly and mechanically, and then paused. What more could she write after all that had happened the evening before? "Yes, yes! All that has happened, and now all is changed," she thought as she sat with the letter she had begun before her. "Must I break off with him? Must I really? That’s awful..." and to escape from these dreadful thoughts she went to Sonya and began sorting patterns with her. After dinner Natasha went to her room and again took up Princess Mary’s letter. "Can it be that it is all over?" she thought. "Can it be that all this has happened so quickly and has destroyed all that went before?" She recalled her love for Prince Andrew in all its former strength, and at the same time felt that she loved Kuragin. She vividly pictured herself as Prince Andrew’s wife, and the scenes of happiness with him she had so often repeated in her imagination, and at the same time, aglow with excitement, recalled every detail of yesterday’s interview with Anatole. "Why could that not be as well?" she sometimes asked herself in complete bewilderment. "Only so could I be completely happy; but now I have to choose, and I can’t be happy without either of them. Only," she thought, "to tell Prince Andrew what has happened or to hide it from him are both equally impossible. But with that one nothing is spoiled. But am I really to abandon forever the joy of Prince Andrew’s love, in which I have lived so long?" "Please, Miss!" whispered a maid entering the room with a mysterious air. "A man told me to give you this - " and she handed Natasha a letter. "Only, for Christ’s sake..." the girl went on, as Natasha, without thinking, mechanically broke the seal and read a love letter from Anatole, of which, without taking in a word, she understood only that it was a letter from him - from the man she loved. Yes, she loved him, or else how could that have happened which had happened? And how could she have a love letter from him in her hand? With trembling hands Natasha held that passionate love letter which Dolokhov had composed for Anatole, and as she read it she found in it an echo of all that she herself imagined she was feeling. "Since yesterday evening my fate has been sealed; to be loved by you or to die. There is no other way for me," the letter began. Then he went on to say that he knew her parents would not give her to him - for this there were secret reasons he could reveal only to her - but that if she loved him she need only say the word yes, and no human power could hinder their bliss. Love would conquer all. He would steal her away and carry her off to the ends of the earth. "Yes, yes! I love him!" thought Natasha, reading the letter for the twentieth time and finding some peculiarly deep meaning in each word of it. That evening Marya Dmitrievna was going to the Akharovs’ and proposed to take the girls with her. Natasha, pleading a headache, remained at home. CHAPTER XV On returning late in the evening Sonya went to Natasha’s room, and to her surprise found her still dressed and asleep on the sofa. Open on the table, beside her lay Anatole’s letter. Sonya picked it up and read it. As she read she glanced at the sleeping Natasha, trying to find in her face an explanation of what she was reading, but did not find it. Her face was calm, gentle, and happy. Clutching her breast to keep herself from choking, Sonya, pale and trembling with fear and agitation, sat down in an armchair and burst into tears. "How was it I noticed nothing? How could it go so far? Can she have left off loving Prince Andrew? And how could she let Kuragin go to such lengths? He is a deceiver and a villain, that’s plain! What will Nicholas, dear noble Nicholas, do when he hears of it? So this is the meaning of her excited, resolute, unnatural look the day before yesterday, yesterday, and today," thought Sonya. "But it can’t be that she loves him! She probably opened the letter without knowing who it was from. Probably she is offended by it. She could not do such a thing!" Sonya wiped away her tears and went up to Natasha, again scanning her face. "Natasha!" she said, just audibly. Natasha awoke and saw Sonya. "Ah, you’re back?" And with the decision and tenderness that often come at the moment of awakening, she embraced her friend, but noticing Sonya’s look of embarrassment, her own face expressed confusion and suspicion. "Sonya, you’ve read that letter?" she demanded. "Yes," answered Sonya softly. Natasha smiled rapturously. "No, Sonya, I can’t any longer!" she said. "I can’t hide it from you any longer. You know, we love one another! Sonya, darling, he writes... Sonya..." Sonya stared open-eyed at Natasha, unable to believe her ears. "And Bolkonski?" she asked. "Ah, Sonya, if you only knew how happy I am!" cried Natasha. "You don’t know what love is...." "But, Natasha, can that be all over?" Natasha looked at Sonya with wide-open eyes as if she could not grasp the question. "Well, then, are you refusing Prince Andrew?" said Sonya. "Oh, you don’t understand anything! Don’t talk nonsense, just listen!" said Natasha, with momentary vexation. "But I can’t believe it," insisted Sonya. "I don’t understand. How is it you have loved a man for a whole year and suddenly... Why, you have only seen him three times! Natasha, I don’t believe you, you’re joking! In three days to forget everything and so..." "Three days?" said Natasha. "It seems to me I’ve loved him a hundred years. It seems to me that I have never loved anyone before. You can’t understand it.... Sonya, wait a bit, sit here," and Natasha embraced and kissed her. "I had heard that it happens like this, and you must have heard it too, but it’s only now that I feel such love. It’s not the same as before. As soon as I saw him I felt he was my master and I his slave, and that I could not help loving him. Yes, his slave! Whatever he orders I shall do. You don’t understand that. What can I do? What can I do, Sonya?" cried Natasha with a happy yet frightened expression. "But think what you are doing," cried Sonya. "I can’t leave it like this. This secret correspondence... How could you let him go so far?" she went on, with a horror and disgust she could hardly conceal. "I told you that I have no will," Natasha replied. "Why can’t you understand? I love him!" "Then I won’t let it come to that... I shall tell!" cried Sonya, bursting into tears. , , 1 . , 2 , 3 . 4 , . 5 6 , , 7 . 8 9 " ? " . " ? " 10 , . " ? " 11 12 " , " . " 13 . 14 , . 15 ! 16 ! . 17 , . 18 . " 19 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 . 24 25 , , 26 , . 27 28 , , . 29 , , , 30 , . 31 32 " , ? " . " , 33 . 34 . . 35 . ? " 36 37 " , , " , 38 . 39 40 . 41 42 " , ? " . 43 44 " ! " . " 45 . " 46 47 48 . , 49 . 50 51 , 52 , , , 53 , 54 . . 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 , 63 , 64 . 65 . 66 , 67 . . 68 69 , , 70 , . 71 72 , , 73 74 , 75 . 76 , - 77 - , , . 78 79 , , 80 . 81 ; 82 , , 83 . , 84 85 . 86 , 87 , 88 , . 89 " ! " . 90 91 , , 92 - - , 93 . 94 , 95 96 . 97 , . , 98 99 : 100 , 101 , 102 . 103 104 , 105 , 106 . " ! " 107 . , 108 , , 109 - 110 . 111 . 112 . 113 114 - 115 - . 116 , , 117 . 118 , 119 , , 120 , . 121 122 " ! " , , 123 124 . 125 , 126 . , 127 , . 128 129 " , " . " 130 ! " 131 132 , , 133 , 134 " . " 135 136 . , 137 . 138 139 , 140 , - 141 , 142 . , , 143 144 . , 145 . 146 147 , 148 . 149 150 151 , 152 . 153 154 155 , . 156 . 157 158 . 159 . 160 . , 161 . , 162 . , 163 . 164 , , . 165 , , 166 . , 167 . 168 . , 169 170 , , , 171 . 172 173 , 174 , 175 , 176 177 . . 178 179 . , 180 , 181 182 . 183 . 184 185 186 , 187 . 188 . 189 190 , 191 - - 192 , 193 . 194 195 " , " . 196 " 197 ! " 198 199 . 200 . 201 202 " , , " . " 203 ? " 204 205 206 . - 207 - . 208 209 " , ! 210 - - 211 . 212 , " 213 . " , . 214 ? 215 , , " 216 , . 217 218 , 219 . 220 221 222 223 . . 224 , , 225 . 226 , , 227 . , 228 , , 229 . 230 231 , , 232 , , , 233 . 234 " ! " 235 . 236 , 237 . ( , 238 . ) , , 239 , 240 . 241 . 242 , . 243 , 244 , , , 245 . 246 , 247 : " ! ! ! " 248 . , . 249 250 " ? " . 251 252 " , , " . 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 , 261 , , 262 . 263 264 " , " , 265 . 266 267 268 . , 269 , 270 - 271 , - 272 . 273 . , 274 275 , 276 , , - . 277 278 279 . 280 281 " , , " , 282 , , " ; 283 ! . 284 ! ! ! , ? " . 285 286 , 287 , . 288 . , 289 . 290 , 291 . 292 , 293 . 294 295 . 296 . 297 , 298 . 299 , , 300 301 , : 302 " ? , ! " 303 304 305 , , 306 , . 307 . 308 . . 309 310 " , 311 , * ? 312 , " , . " 313 , ? ! " 314 , , " 315 . , , 316 ! " 317 318 * . 319 320 321 , 322 . 323 . 324 , , . 325 326 " ? ? ? ? " 327 , . 328 , , - , 329 - . 330 , . 331 . 332 333 . , . 334 , 335 . 336 , 337 , , 338 . 339 340 341 , 342 . . 343 , 344 . 345 , , . 346 . 347 . , 348 . 349 350 351 352 , 353 , , 354 , , . 355 356 " ! ! " . " ? " 357 358 , 359 . , , 360 . , 361 - , - , 362 , , 363 , , 364 " ! " - 365 ; , , . 366 " ? ? 367 ? " . 368 369 370 . 371 372 . 373 . 374 375 " ? " , 376 : " ! 377 ? ! , 378 . , " 379 . " 380 , . ? 381 , ? " , 382 , 383 , 384 . 385 , , , 386 . 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 , 396 , , 397 . 398 399 400 , 401 - - 402 . 403 . 404 405 , 406 . , 407 , , 408 . 409 410 , 411 , 412 413 - , , 414 . 415 , , 416 , . 417 , 418 . 419 , . 420 , 421 - . 422 , 423 . 424 , - - , 425 . 426 427 , , 428 . 429 430 . 431 432 . , 433 , 434 435 . , , 436 437 , 438 . 439 440 , . 441 . . 442 . 443 , . 444 , . 445 , 446 , 447 , 448 , 449 , . 450 451 , , 452 , 453 . " , ; 454 , . " 455 456 , 457 , , , 458 , 459 . 460 461 462 . , , , 463 , 464 465 . , 466 , 467 , . 468 469 . 470 471 , , , 472 . 473 - , 474 . 475 476 " - , , , " 477 . 478 479 " , " . 480 " ? " 481 482 " . . . . " 483 484 " , , , " 485 . 486 487 " , " 488 . " ! " 489 490 " , ! ? " , 491 - . 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 . 501 . 502 , . 503 504 . 505 . . 506 507 , 508 . 509 510 . 511 . 512 , , 513 , , . 514 , 515 , 516 , , 517 518 519 . , 520 . 521 522 523 - 524 . 525 526 " , " , 527 . " 528 . , 529 , . 530 ? , 531 - ! " 532 533 . 534 ; 535 , . 536 , 537 . 538 , , 539 . 540 541 , 542 , 543 , 544 . , , 545 546 . 547 548 , - 549 , , , 550 , 551 . 552 , 553 , 554 - - 555 . . 556 , 557 , 558 - . 559 560 " , ! " . 561 " ! , , , " 562 . " 563 ? , ! 564 , 565 - 566 - ! 567 . . ! 568 . " 569 570 , 571 , 572 , . 573 - , 574 . 575 , " , " 576 , 577 . 578 579 " , ! " . 580 581 . 582 583 584 . 585 , . 586 . 587 , 588 . 589 . 590 591 , , 592 , , 593 . 594 . 595 596 " - - 597 , ! , 598 , , . " 599 600 . 601 602 " , , ! " . " 603 . , , 604 . , 605 606 . " 607 608 " , - 609 - . . " 610 , , 611 . " , , 612 . ? " 613 , - , . 614 615 , 616 . 617 . 618 619 . 620 , 621 : 622 623 " 624 ; , - . 625 , " , . 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 . 634 , . 635 636 . 637 638 . , 639 . 640 641 . 642 643 , . 644 645 . 646 - 647 . 648 649 650 . 651 . 652 . 653 , , 654 , . . 655 656 , , , , 657 , , 658 . . 659 660 661 662 . , , 663 ; 664 , . 665 666 " ! ! ! " . 667 668 , 669 . 670 - 671 - 672 , . , 673 674 . 675 676 677 , . 678 679 " ! " 680 . 681 682 " ! " , 683 . . " 684 . . . . . . " 685 686 " , , ! " , 687 . " ! " 688 689 . 690 691 , , 692 . 693 694 , 695 , . 696 697 . , 698 , 699 , . 700 , 701 , , 702 . . 703 704 " . , " 705 . . . . . 706 707 . 708 709 " ! ? " . " 710 , , ! 711 ? . . . . " 712 713 , , - 714 . 715 . 716 . , . 717 , 718 . 719 , 720 , 721 . 722 , 723 : 724 725 " 726 ? . . . . ? " , , 727 . 728 729 , , 730 . 731 732 " ? " 733 . " ? " 734 735 " . , " . 736 737 , 738 , 739 . , , 740 , 741 . 742 743 " , , ! " . 744 745 . 746 . 747 748 " , , ! " , 749 . 750 751 . 752 . 753 754 . 755 . 756 - 757 . , . " 758 ? " . " , , 759 - , 760 , . 761 , , , . 762 ? " , 763 . 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 . 772 , . 773 , . 774 - , 775 , . 776 777 , , 778 . 779 780 " , , 781 , " . " , , 782 . , . . . . 783 , . 784 ! " 785 786 " , ? " . 787 788 " ? . . . . 789 ? , " 790 . " 791 . . . . " 792 793 " , ! " . 794 795 " , , " , " . 796 - ; 797 798 . " 799 800 , 801 . 802 ; , , 803 , . 804 805 " . 806 , " . 807 808 " , ? , . 809 - , " , 810 . " , , 811 ; . 812 , . , 813 ! " 814 815 816 . . 817 818 " . , ! 819 . " 820 821 " , " . 822 823 " ! " . 824 825 " , , " 826 , 827 828 . 829 830 " , ! " . " 831 ! ! " 832 833 834 . 835 836 837 . , 838 839 , 840 . 841 842 " , , " , " 843 - . 844 ; 845 . " 846 . 847 848 849 . " , " 850 , . 851 ? " , ! , 852 , " 853 . " ? ? 854 . . . " 855 . 856 857 858 . " ? " . 859 " 860 ? " 861 , . 862 , 863 , 864 , , 865 . 866 867 " ? " 868 . " ; 869 , . , " 870 , " 871 . 872 . 873 , ? " 874 875 " , ! " 876 . " - " 877 . 878 879 " , . . . " , , 880 , 881 , , , 882 - . , 883 , ? 884 ? 885 886 887 , 888 . 889 890 " ; 891 . , " . 892 - 893 - 894 , 895 . . 896 . 897 898 " , ! ! " , 899 900 . 901 902 903 . , , 904 . 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 , 913 . 914 , . 915 . 916 917 , 918 , . 919 , , . 920 , , , 921 . 922 923 " ? ? 924 ? 925 ? , ! 926 , , ? 927 , , 928 , , , " . " 929 ! 930 . . 931 ! " 932 933 , 934 . 935 936 " ! " , . 937 938 . 939 940 " , ? " 941 942 943 , , 944 , . 945 946 " , ? " . 947 948 " , " . 949 950 . 951 952 " , , ! " . " 953 . , ! , , 954 . . . . . . " 955 956 - , . 957 958 " ? " . 959 960 " , , ! " . 961 " . . . . " 962 963 " , , ? " 964 965 - 966 . 967 968 " , , ? " . 969 970 " , ! , 971 ! " , . 972 973 " , " . " 974 . 975 . . . , ! , 976 , ! 977 . . . " 978 979 " ? " . " 980 . . 981 . . . . , , , " 982 . 983 984 " , 985 , . 986 . , 987 . , ! 988 . . ? , 989 ? " . 990 991 " , " . " 992 . . . . 993 ? " , . 994 995 " , " . " 996 ? ! " 997 998 " . . . ! " , 999 . 1000