e merry
cotillions before supper Prince Andrew was again her partner. He
reminded her of their first encounter in the Otradnoe avenue, and how
she had been unable to sleep that moonlight night, and told her how he
had involuntarily overheard her. Natasha blushed at that recollection
and tried to excuse herself, as if there had been something to be
ashamed of in what Prince Andrew had overheard.

Like all men who have grown up in society, Prince Andrew liked meeting
someone there not of the conventional society stamp. And such was
Natasha, with her surprise, her delight, her shyness, and even her
mistakes in speaking French. With her he behaved with special care and
tenderness, sitting beside her and talking of the simplest and most
unimportant matters; he admired her shy grace. In the middle of the
cotillion, having completed one of the figures, Natasha, still out of
breath, was returning to her seat when another dancer chose her. She was
tired and panting and evidently thought of declining, but immediately
put her hand gaily on the man's shoulder, smiling at Prince Andrew.

"I'd be glad to sit beside you and rest: I'm tired; but you see how they
keep asking me, and I'm glad of it, I'm happy and I love everybody, and
you and I understand it all," and much, much more was said in her smile.
When her partner left her Natasha ran across the room to choose two
ladies for the figure.

"If she goes to her cousin first and then to another lady, she will be
my wife," said Prince Andrew to himself quite to his own surprise, as he
watched her. She did go first to her cousin.

"What rubbish sometimes enters one's head!" thought Prince Andrew, "but
what is certain is that that girl is so charming, so original, that she
won't be dancing here a month before she will be married.... Such as
she are rare here," he thought, as Natasha, readjusting a rose that was
slipping on her bodice, settled herself beside him.

When the cotillion was over the old count in his blue coat came up to
the dancers. He invited Prince Andrew to come and see them, and asked
his daughter whether she was enjoying herself. Natasha did not answer at
once but only looked up with a smile that said reproachfully: "How can
you ask such a question?"

"I have never enjoyed myself so much before!" she said, and Prince
Andrew noticed how her thin arms rose quickly as if to embrace her
father and instantly dropped again. Natasha was happier than she had
ever been in