a retired
naval officer, was speaking in one of the rooms, and a small crowd was
pressing round him. Pierre went up to the circle that had formed round
the speaker and listened. Count Ilya Rostov, in a military uniform of
Catherine's time, was sauntering with a pleasant smile among the crowd,
with all of whom he was acquainted. He too approached that group and
listened with a kindly smile and nods of approval, as he always did,
to what the speaker was saying. The retired naval man was speaking very
boldly, as was evident from the expression on the faces of the listeners
and from the fact that some people Pierre knew as the meekest and
quietest of men walked away disapprovingly or expressed disagreement
with him. Pierre pushed his way into the middle of the group, listened,
and convinced himself that the man was indeed a liberal, but of views
quite different from his own. The naval officer spoke in a particularly
sonorous, musical, and aristocratic baritone voice, pleasantly
swallowing his r's and generally slurring his consonants: the voice of
a man calling out to his servant, "Heah! Bwing me my pipe!" It was
indicative of dissipation and the exercise of authority.

"What if the Smolensk people have offahd to waise militia for the
Empewah? Ah we to take Smolensk as our patte'n? If the noble awistocwacy
of the pwovince of Moscow thinks fit, it can show its loyalty to our
sov'weign the Empewah in other ways. Have we fo'gotten the waising of
the militia in the yeah 'seven? All that did was to enwich the pwiests'
sons and thieves and wobbahs...."

Count Ilya Rostov smiled blandly and nodded approval.

"And was our militia of any use to the Empia? Not at all! It only wuined
our farming! Bettah have another conscwiption... o' ou' men will wetu'n
neithah soldiers no' peasants, and we'll get only depwavity fwom them.
The nobility don't gwudge theah lives--evewy one of us will go and bwing
in more wecwuits, and the sov'weign" (that was the way he referred to
the Emperor) "need only say the word and we'll all die fo' him!" added
the orator with animation.

Count Rostov's mouth watered with pleasure and he nudged Pierre, but
Pierre wanted to speak himself. He pushed forward, feeling stirred,
but not yet sure what stirred him or what he would say. Scarcely had he
opened his mouth when one of the senators, a man without a tooth in his
head, with a shrewd though angry expression, standing near the first
speaker, interrupted him.