War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [368]
Throughout this entr’acte Kuragin stood with Dolokhov in front by the footlights, gazing at the Rostovs’ box. Natasha knew he was talking about her, and that afforded her pleasure. She even turned so that he could see her in profile, which, to her mind, was the most advantageous position. Before the start of the second act, the figure of Pierre, whom the Rostovs had not seen since their arrival, appeared in the parterre. His face was sad, and he had grown still fatter since the last time Natasha saw him. Not noticing anyone, he walked to the front rows. Anatole went up to him and began saying something to him, looking and pointing at the Rostovs’ box. Pierre, seeing Natasha, became animated and, hastening along the rows, went to their box. On reaching them, he leaned on his elbows and, smiling, talked with Natasha for a long time. During her conversation with Pierre, Natasha heard a man’s voice in Countess Bezukhov’s box and somehow knew it was Kuragin. She turned and their eyes met. He, almost smiling, looked her straight in the eye with such an admiring, tender gaze that it seemed strange to be so near him, to look at him that way, to be so certain that he liked her, and not be acquainted with him.
In the second act, there were pieces of cardboard representing monuments, and there was a hole in the canvas representing the moon, and the shades were raised over the footlights, and the horns and double basses began to play in the bass clef, and from right and left came many people in black mantles. The people began to wave their arms, and in their hands there were something like daggers; then some other people came running and began to drag away the girl who used to be wearing a white dress and was now wearing a light blue one. They did not drag her away at once, but sang with her for a long time, and only then dragged her away, and in the wings something iron was struck three times, and everyone knelt and began to sing a prayer. All this performing was interrupted several times by the rapturous shouts of the spectators.
During this act, Natasha, each time she glanced at the parterre, saw Anatole Kuragin, his arm flung over the back of his seat, looking at her. She was pleased to see that he was so captivated by her, and it never entered her head that there was anything bad in it.
When the second act was over, Countess Bezukhov got up, turned to the Rostovs’ box (her bosom was now completely bared), beckoned to the old count with her gloved finger, and, ignoring the people who came into her box, began talking to him with an amiable smile.
“Do introduce me to your lovely daughters,” she said. “The whole town is shouting about them, and I don’t know them.”
Natasha stood up and curtsied to the magnificent countess. Natasha was so pleased to be praised by this brilliant beauty that she blushed with pleasure.
“I, too, want to become a Muscovite now,” said Hélène. “And you should be ashamed to bury such pearls in the country!”
Countess Bezukhov was entitled to her reputation as an enchanting woman. She was able to say what she did not think, and especially to flatter, with perfect simplicity and naturalness.
“No, dear count, you must allow me to occupy myself with your daughters. I’m not here for long, but then neither are you. I’ll try to entertain them. I had already heard much about you in Petersburg and wanted to get to know you,” she said to Natasha with her uniformly beautiful smile. “I had heard about you from my page, Drubetskoy—have you heard he’s getting married?—and from my husband’s friend, Bolkonsky, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky,” she said with special emphasis, hinting by it that she knew of his relation to Natasha. She asked that, in order to become better acquainted, one of the girls be allowed to sit in her box for the rest of the performance, and Natasha went over to her.
In the third act, there was a representation of a palace on stage, in which many candles were burning and paintings were hung, portraying knights