- Chère comtesse, il y a si longtemps... elle a été alitée, la pauvre enfant... au bal des Razoumovsky... et la comtesse Apraksine... j'ai été si heureuse... The conversation began, which is going to be so much as to get up at the first pause, to make a noise in dresses, to say: "Je suis bien charmée; la santé de maman... et la comtesse Apraksine" 3, - and again, with the noise of the dresses, go to the front, put on a fur coat or coat and leave. The conversation was about the main city news of that time - about the illness of the famous rich and handsome old Catherine time Count Bezukhov and about his illegal son Pierre, who behaved so indecently at the evening at Anna Pavlovna Scherer.
- I feel sorry for the poor Count, - said the guest, - his health was bad enough, and now it's a sorrow from his son. This will kill him!
- What is it? - The countess asked as if she didn't know what the guest was talking about, although she had heard the reason for Count Bezukhov's grief fifteen times before.
- Here is the current upbringing! Still abroad, - continued the guest, - this young man was left to himself, and now in St. Petersburg, they say, he did such horrors that he and the police were expelled from there.
- Tell me! - said the Countess.
- He chose his acquaintances badly, - Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened. - The son of Prince Basil, he and one Dolokhov, they say, God knows what they were doing. And both suffered. Dolokhov was demoted into soldiers, and Bezukhov's son was sent to Moscow. Anatol Kuragina was somehow held back by his father. But they did send him away from St. Petersburg.
- What have they done? - The countess asked.
- These are perfect robbers, especially Dolokhov," said the guest. - He is the son of Mary Ivanovna Dolokhova, such a venerable lady, and what is it? Can you imagine; the three of them got a bear somewhere, put it in a carriage and took it to the actresses. The police came to take them away. They caught a quarterman and tied his back and back to the bear, and let the bear into the sink; the bear was swimming, and the quarterman on it.
- Good, ma chère, the figure of the quarter," the Count shouted, dying with laughter.
- Oh, what a horror! What is there to laugh about, Count?
But the ladies were laughing unwittingly, too.
- The violence was rescued," the guest continued. - And this is the son of Count Kirill Vladimirovich Bezukhov so cleverly amused! - She added. - And they said that she was so well brought up and clever. That's where all the education abroad led to. I hope that no one will accept him here, despite his wealth. They wanted to introduce him to me. I resolutely refused: I have a daughter.
- Why do you say that this young man is so rich? - The Countess asked, bending over from the girls who immediately pretended not to listen. - After all, he had only illegal children. It seems... And Pierre is illegal.
The guest waved her hand.
- He has twenty illegal children, I think. Princess Anna Mikhailovna intervened in the conversation, apparently wishing to show her connections and her knowledge of all secular circumstances.
- Here's the thing," she said in a whisper, too. - The reputation of Count Kirill Vladimirovich is known... He lost count to his children, but this Pierre was beloved.
- How good the old man was, - said the Countess, - last year! I have never seen a prettier man.
- Now I've changed a lot," said Anna Mikhailovna. - So I wanted to say, - she continued, - the wife of the direct heir to the estate Prince Vasily, but Pierre's father loved him very much, was engaged in his upbringing and wrote to the King ... So nobody knows if he will die (he is so bad that it is expected every minute, and Lorrain came from St. Petersburg), who will get this huge fortune, Pierre or Prince Vasily. Forty thousand souls and millions. I know this very well, because Prince Vasily himself told me this. And Kirill Vladimirovich, I have a second cousin in my mother's life. He baptized Boris, - she added, as if she did not attribute any importance to this circumstance.
- Prince Vasily arrived in Moscow yesterday. He is going to the revision, I was told," said the guest.
- Yes, but entre nous 4," said the Princess, "is an excuse, he actually came to Count Kirill Vladimirovich, when he found out that he was so bad.
- However, ma chère, it's a nice thing," said the count and, noticing that the older guest did not listen to him, turned to the ladies.
And he, imagining a quarterman waving his arms around, again laughed at the sound and bass laughter that swept his entire body, like people who had always eaten well and drank well. - So, please, have lunch with us," he said.
1 sweet or sweet.
2 It's been so long... Countess... The poor thing was sick... at the Razumovski Ball... Countess Apraksina... I was so glad...
3 Very, very glad... Mom's health... Countess Apraksina.
4 between us.