ts wished to hear of
this, but Prince Andrew was firm. He came every day to the Rostovs',
but did not behave to Natasha as an affianced lover: he did not use
the familiar thou, but said you to her, and kissed only her hand. After
their engagement, quite different, intimate, and natural relations
sprang up between them. It was as if they had not known each other till
now. Both liked to recall how they had regarded each other when as
yet they were nothing to one another; they felt themselves now quite
different beings: then they were artificial, now natural and sincere. At
first the family felt some constraint in intercourse with Prince Andrew;
he seemed a man from another world, and for a long time Natasha trained
the family to get used to him, proudly assuring them all that he only
appeared to be different, but was really just like all of them, and that
she was not afraid of him and no one else ought to be. After a few
days they grew accustomed to him, and without restraint in his presence
pursued their usual way of life, in which he took his part. He could
talk about rural economy with the count, fashions with the countess
and Natasha, and about albums and fancywork with Sonya. Sometimes the
household both among themselves and in his presence expressed their
wonder at how it had all happened, and at the evident omens there had
been of it: Prince Andrew's coming to Otradnoe and their coming to
Petersburg, and the likeness between Natasha and Prince Andrew which
her nurse had noticed on his first visit, and Andrew's encounter with
Nicholas in 1805, and many other incidents betokening that it had to be.

In the house that poetic dullness and quiet reigned which always
accompanies the presence of a betrothed couple. Often when all sitting
together everyone kept silent. Sometimes the others would get up and
go away and the couple, left alone, still remained silent. They rarely
spoke of their future life. Prince Andrew was afraid and ashamed to
speak of it. Natasha shared this as she did all his feelings, which she
constantly divined. Once she began questioning him about his son. Prince
Andrew blushed, as he often did now--Natasha particularly liked it in
him--and said that his son would not live with them.

"Why not?" asked Natasha in a frightened tone.

"I cannot take him away from his grandfather, and besides..."

"How I should have loved him!" said Natasha, immediately guessing his
thought; "but I know you wish to avo