FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   788   789   790   791   792   793   794   795   796   797   798   799   800   801   802   803   804   805   806   807   808   809   810   811   812  
813   814   815   816   817   818   819   820   821   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   >>   >|  
there was an order to the contrary, but that if she stayed they would serve her as before and obey her in everything. At the moment when Rostov and Ilyin were galloping along the road, Princess Mary, despite the dissuasions of Alpatych, her nurse, and the maids, had given orders to harness and intended to start, but when the cavalrymen were espied they were taken for Frenchmen, the coachman ran away, and the women in the house began to wail. "Father! Benefactor! God has sent you!" exclaimed deeply moved voices as Rostov passed through the anteroom. Princess Mary was sitting helpless and bewildered in the large sitting room, when Rostov was shown in. She could not grasp who he was and why he had come, or what was happening to her. When she saw his Russian face, and by his walk and the first words he uttered recognized him as a man of her own class, she glanced at him with her deep radiant look and began speaking in a voice that faltered and trembled with emotion. This meeting immediately struck Rostov as a romantic event. "A helpless girl overwhelmed with grief, left to the mercy of coarse, rioting peasants! And what a strange fate sent me here! What gentleness and nobility there are in her features and expression!" thought he as he looked at her and listened to her timid story. When she began to tell him that all this had happened the day after her father's funeral, her voiced trembled. She turned away, and then, as if fearing he might take her words as meant to move him to pity, looked at him with an apprehensive glance of inquiry. There were tears in Rostov's eyes. Princess Mary noticed this and glanced gratefully at him with that radiant look which caused the plainness of her face to be forgotten. "I cannot express, Princess, how glad I am that I happened to ride here and am able to show my readiness to serve you," said Rostov, rising. "Go when you please, and I give you my word of honor that no one shall dare to cause you annoyance if only you will allow me to act as your escort." And bowing respectfully, as if to a lady of royal blood, he moved toward the door. Rostov's deferential tone seemed to indicate that though he would consider himself happy to be acquainted with her, he did not wish to take advantage of her misfortunes to intrude upon her. Princess Mary understood this and appreciated his delicacy. "I am very, very grateful to you," she said in French, "but I hope it was all a misunderstand
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   788   789   790   791   792   793   794   795   796   797   798   799   800   801   802   803   804   805   806   807   808   809   810   811   812  
813   814   815   816   817   818   819   820   821   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Rostov

 

Princess

 
looked
 

helpless

 

trembled

 

radiant

 

glanced

 

happened

 

sitting

 

grateful


gratefully

 

noticed

 

inquiry

 

caused

 

misfortunes

 

plainness

 
appreciated
 

understood

 

delicacy

 

glance


forgotten

 

intrude

 

father

 

misunderstand

 
funeral
 

voiced

 

advantage

 
French
 

turned

 
fearing

apprehensive
 
annoyance
 

escort

 

bowing

 

acquainted

 

respectfully

 

express

 
rising
 
deferential
 

readiness


struck

 
Father
 
coachman
 

espied

 

Frenchmen

 

Benefactor

 
anteroom
 

bewildered

 

passed

 

exclaimed