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By Root 3692 0

as he did before the enemy, though the adjutants by the porch tried to stop him with angry whispers, boldly went up the steps, his spurs knocking against them. Kutuzov, leaving his hands propped on the bench, looked at Denisov with displeasure. Denisov gave his name and announced that he had to inform his serenity of a matter of great importance for the good of the fatherland. Kutuzov began to look at Denisov with his weary gaze and, in a gesture of vexation, taking his hands from the bench and folding them over his stomach, repeated: “For the good of the fatherland? Well, what is it? Speak.” Denisov blushed like a girl (how strange it was to see a blush on that mustached, old, and drunken face), and boldly began to set forth his plan for cutting the enemy’s line of operations between Smolensk and the Vyazma. Denisov used to live in that area and knew the terrain well. His plan seemed unquestionably good, especially from the power of conviction in his words. Kutuzov was looking at his feet and occasionally glanced at the courtyard of the neighboring cottage, as if expecting something unpleasant from there. And in fact, during the time that Denisov was speaking, a general with a portfolio under his arm appeared from the cottage he was looking at.

“What?” Kutuzov said in the middle of Denisov’s explanation. “Ready so soon?”

“Ready, Your Serenity,” said the general. Kutuzov shook his head, as if to say, “How can one man have time for it all,” and went on listening to Denisov.

“I give you the noble word of honor of a Russian officer,” Denisov was saying, “that I will break Napoleon’s communications.”

“What relation are you to Kirill Andreevich Denisov, the commissary general?” Kutuzov interrupted him.

“He’s my uncle, Your Serenity.”

“Oh! we were friends,” Kutuzov said cheerfully. “Very well, very well, my dear boy, stay here at headquarters, we’ll talk tomorrow.” Nodding to Denisov, he turned away and held out his hand for the papers Konovnitsyn had brought him.

“Would you be so good as to come in, Your Serenity?” the general on duty said in a displeased voice. “It is necessary to study the plans and sign some papers.” An adjutant came out the door and announced that everything was ready in the apartment. But Kutuzov evidently wanted to be free before going in. He winced…

“No, my dear boy, have them bring out a little table, I’ll look at them here,” he said. “Don’t go away,” he added, turning to Prince Andrei. Prince Andrei stayed on the porch, listening to the general on duty.

During the report, Prince Andrei heard a woman’s whispers and the rustle of a woman’s silk dress behind the front door. Several times, glancing in that direction, he noticed behind the door a plump, red-cheeked, and beautiful woman in a pink dress, with a purple silk kerchief on her head, holding a platter and obviously waiting for the commander in chief to come in. Kutuzov’s adjutant explained in a whisper to Prince Andrei that she was the mistress of the house, the priest’s wife, who intended to meet his serenity with bread and salt.16 Her husband had met his serenity in church with a cross, and she at home…“Very pretty,” the adjutant added with a smile. At those words Kutuzov glanced up. Kutuzov listened to the report of the general on duty (the main subject of which was a critique of the position at Tsarevo-Zaimishche) in the same way as he had listened to Denisov, in the same way as he had listened, seven years earlier, to the debate at the Austerlitz council of war. He obviously listened only because he had ears, which, despite the fact that one of them was stopped up with hemp, could not help listening; but it was obvious not only that he could not be surprised or interested in anything the general on duty could tell him, but that he knew beforehand everything he was being told and listened to it only because he had to listen, as one has to listen to the singing of a prayer service. Everything Denisov had said was practical and intelligent. What the general on duty was saying was still more practical and intelligent, but it was obvious