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Chapter 20 - Pierre confronts Anatole
Pierre did not stay for dinner, but left the room and went away at once. He drove through the town seeking Anatole Kuragin, at the thought of whom now the blood rushed to his heart and he felt a difficulty in breathing. He was not at the ice hills, nor at the gypsies’, nor at Komoneno’s. Pierre drove to the Club. In the Club all was going on as usual. The members who were assembling for dinner were sitting about in groups; they greeted Pierre and spoke1 of the town news. The footman having greeted him, knowing his habits and his acquaintances, told him there was a place left for him in the small dining room and that Prince Michael Zakharych was in the library, but Paul Timofeevich had not yet arrived. One of Pierre’s acquaintances, while they were talking about the weather, asked if he had heard of Kuragin’s abduction of Rostova which was talked of in the town, and was it true? Pierre laughed and said it was nonsense for he had just come from the Rostovs’. He asked everyone about Anatole. One man told him he had not come yet, and another that he was coming to dinner. Pierre felt it strange to see this calm, indifferent crowd of people unaware2 of what was going on in his soul. He paced through the ballroom3, waited till everyone had come, and as Anatole had not turned up did not stay for dinner but drove home.
Anatole, for whom Pierre was looking, dined that day with Dolokhov, consulting him as to how to remedy this unfortunate affair. It seemed to him essential to see Natasha. In the evening he drove to his sister’s to discuss with her how to arrange a meeting. When Pierre returned home after vainly hunting all over Moscow, his valet informed him that Prince Anatole was with the countess. The countess’ drawing room was full of guests.
Pierre without greeting his wife whom he had not seen since his return — at that moment she was more repulsive4 to him than ever — entered the drawing room and seeing Anatole went up to him.
“Ah, Pierre,” said the countess going up to her husband. “You don’t know what a plight5 our Anatole . . . ”
She stopped, seeing in the forward thrust of her husband’s head, in his glowing eyes and his resolute6 gait, the terrible indications of that rage and strength which she knew and had herself experienced after his duel7 with Dolokhov.
“Where you are, there is vice8 and evil!” said Pierre to his wife. “Anatole, come with me! I must speak to you,” he added in French.
Anatole glanced round at his sister and rose submissively, ready to follow Pierre. Pierre, taking him by the arm, pulled him toward himself and was leading him from the room.
“If you allow yourself in my drawing room . . . ” whispered Helene, but Pierre did not reply and went out of the room.
Having entered his study Pierre closed the door and addressed Anatole without looking at him.
“You promised Countess Rostova to marry her and were about to elope with her, is that so?”
“Mon cher,” answered Anatole (their whole conversation was in French), “I don’t consider myself bound to answer questions put to me in that tone.”
Pierre’s face, already pale, became distorted by fury. He seized Anatole by the collar of his uniform with his big hand and shook him from side to side till Anatole’s face showed a sufficient degree of terror.
“When I tell you that I must talk to you! . . . ” repeated Pierre.
“Come now, this is stupid. What?” said Anatole, fingering a button of his collar that had been wrenched10 loose with a bit of the cloth.
“You’re a scoundrel and a blackguard, and I don’t know what deprives me from the pleasure of smashing your head with this!” said Pierre, expressing himself so artificially because he was talking French.
He took a heavy paperweight and lifted it threateningly, but at once put it back in its place.
“Did you promise to marry her?”
“I . . . I didn’t think of it. I never promised, because . . . ”
Pierre interrupted him.
“Have you any letters of hers? Any letters?” he said, moving toward Anatole.
Anatole glanced at him and immediately thrust his hand into his pocket and drew out his pocketbook.
Pierre took the letter Anatole handed him and, pushing aside a table that stood in his way, threw himself on the sofa.
“I shan’t be violent, don’t be afraid!” said Pierre in answer to a frightened gesture of Anatole’s. “First, the letters,” said he, as if repeating a lesson to himself. “Secondly,” he continued after a short pause, again rising and again pacing the room, “tomorrow you must get out of Moscow.”
“But how can I? . . . ”
“Thirdly,” Pierre continued without listening to him, “you must never breathe a word of what has passed between you and Countess Rostova. I know I can’t prevent your doing so, but if you have a spark of conscience . . . ” Pierre paced the room several times in silence.
Anatole sat at a table frowning and biting his lips.
“After all, you must understand that besides your pleasure there is such a thing as other people’s happiness and peace, and that you are ruining a whole life for the sake of amusing yourself! Amuse yourself with women like my wife — with them you are within your rights, for they know what you want of them. They are armed against you by the same experience of debauchery; but to promise a maid to marry her . . . to deceive, to kidnap. . . . Don’t you understand that it is as mean as beating an old man or a child? . . . ”
Pierre paused and looked at Anatole no longer with an angry but with a questioning look.
“I don’t know about that, eh?” said Anatole, growing more confident as Pierre mastered his wrath11. “I don’t know that and don’t want to,” he said, not looking at Pierre and with a slight tremor12 of his lower jaw13, “but you have used such words to me — ‘mean’ and so on — which as a man of honor I can’t allow anyone to use.”
“Though it was tete-a-tete,” Anatole continued, “still I can’t . . . ”
“Is it satisfaction you want?” said Pierre ironically.
“You could at least take back your words. What? If you want me to do as you wish, eh?”
“I take them back, I take them back!” said Pierre, “and I ask you to forgive me.” Pierre involuntarily glanced at the loose button. “And if you require money for your journey . . . ”
Anatole smiled. The expression of that base and cringing15 smile, which Pierre knew so well in his wife, revolted him.
Next day Anatole left for Petersburg.
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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2
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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3
ballroom
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| n.舞厅 | |
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4
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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5
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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6
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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7
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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8
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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9
jaunty
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| adj．愉快的，满足的；adv.心满意足地，洋洋得意地；n.心满意足；洋洋得意 | |
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10
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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11
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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12
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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13
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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14
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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15
cringing
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| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
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16
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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