Friends didn't say anything. Neither of them started talking. Pierre looked at Prince Andrew, Prince Andrew rubbed his forehead with his little pen.
- Let's go to dinner," he said with a sigh, getting up and heading for the door.
They entered the elegant, newly decorated dining room. Everything, from napkins to silver, faience and crystal, carried the special imprint of novelty that happens in the young couple's household. In the middle of dinner, Prince Andrew leaned over and, as a man with something on his heart for a long time and suddenly daring to speak, with an expression of nervous irritation, in which Pierre had never seen his friend, began to speak:
- Never, never, never marry, my friend; here is my advice, do not marry until you tell yourself that you have done everything you could, and until you stop loving the woman you have chosen, until you see her clearly, otherwise you will be mistaken cruelly and irreparably. Marry an old man who is useless... You will lose everything that is good and high in you. Everything will be spent on trifles. Yes, yes, yes! Don't look at me with such surprise. If you expect something from yourself in front of you, then at every step you will feel that everything is over for you, everything is closed, except for the living room, where you will stand on the same board with a court footman and an idiot ... What the hell!...
He waved energetically.
Pierre took off his glasses, which made his face change, showing even more kindness, and looked at his friend with surprise.
- My wife," continued Prince Andrei, "is a beautiful woman. This is one of those rare women with whom you can be dead for your honor; but, my God, what I wouldn't give now, not to be married! I am telling you this alone and first, because I love you.
Prince Andrew, saying this, was even less like that Bolkonsky who, falling apart, sat in Anna Pavlovna's chairs and through his teeth, squinting, saying French phrases. His dry face was trembling with nervous revival of every muscle; his eyes, which had previously seemed to be extinguished by the fire of life, now shone with a radiant, bright shine. It was clear that the more lifeless he seemed in ordinary times, the more energetic he was in moments of irritation.
- You don't understand why I'm saying this," he continued. - It's the whole story of life. You say Bonaparte and his career," he said, even though Pierre didn't say anything about Bonaparte. - You say, Bonaparte; but Bonaparte, when he was working, step by step went to his goal, he was free, he had nothing but his goal - and he reached it. But tie yourself to a woman - and like a chained well, you lose all freedom. And all that you have in you hopes and strength, everything only burdens and torments you with repentance. Living room, gossip, balls, vanity, pettiness - that's the vicious circle I can't get out of. Now I'm going to war, to the greatest war I've ever been, and I don't know anything and I'm no good. Je suis très aimable et très caustique 8," continued Prince Andrei, "and Anna Pavlovna is listening to me. And this is a stupid society, without which my wife cannot live, and these women... If only you could know what toutes les femmes distinguées 9 and women in general are! My father is right. Selfishness, vanity, stupidity, and nothing in everything - these are the women when they appear as they are. If you look at them in the light, it seems that there is something there, but nothing, nothing, nothing! Yes, don't marry, my soul, don't marry," said Prince Andrei.
- It's funny to me, - said Pierre, - that you consider yourself, yourself incapable, your life - ruined life. You have everything, everything ahead of you. And you...
He didn't say you were, but his tone showed how much he valued his friend and how much he expected from him in the future.
"How can he say that! - Pierre thought. Pierre considered Prince Andrei to be a model of all perfection, precisely because Prince Andrei supremely united all those qualities that Pierre did not have and that can be most closely expressed by the concept of willpower. Pierre was always surprised by Prince Andrei's ability to handle all sorts of people calmly, his extraordinary memory, his reading (he read everything, knew everything, had a concept about everything) and most of all his ability to work and learn. If Pierre was often struck by the lack of ability of dreamy philosophy in Andrei (to which Pierre was particularly inclined), he saw not a lack of it, but strength.
In the best, friendly and simple relationship, flattery or praise are necessary, as a grease is necessary for the wheels to ride.