________________________________________________
_ Helene understood that the question was very simple and easy from
the ecclesiastical point of view, and that her directors were making
difficulties only because they were apprehensive as to how the
matter would be regarded by the secular authorities.
So she decided that it was necessary to prepare the opinion of
society. She provoked the jealousy of the elderly magnate and told him
what she had told her other suitor; that is, she put the matter so
that the only way for him to obtain a right over her was to marry her.
The elderly magnate was at first as much taken aback by this
suggestion of marriage with a woman whose husband was alive, as the
younger man had been, but Helene's imperturbable conviction that it
was as simple and natural as marrying a maiden had its effect on him
too. Had Helene herself shown the least sign of hesitation, shame,
or secrecy, her cause would certainly have been lost; but not only did
she show no signs of secrecy or shame, on the contrary, with
good-natured naivete she told her intimate friends (and these were all
Petersburg) that both the prince and the magnate had proposed to her
and that she loved both and was afraid of grieving either.
A rumor immediately spread in Petersburg, not that Helene wanted
to be divorced from her husband (had such a report spread many would
have opposed so illegal an intention) but simply that the
unfortunate and interesting Helene was in doubt which of the two men
she should marry. The question was no longer whether this was
possible, but only which was the better match and how the matter would
be regarded at court. There were, it is true, some rigid individuals
unable to rise to the height of such a question, who saw in the
project a desecration of the sacrament of marriage, but there were not
many such and they remained silent, while the majority were interested
in Helene's good fortune and in the question which match would be
the more advantageous. Whether it was right or wrong to remarry
while one had a husband living they did not discuss, for that question
had evidently been settled by people "wiser than you or me," as they
said, and to doubt the correctness of that decision would be to risk
exposing one's stupidity and incapacity to live in society.
Only Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, had come to Petersburg that
summer to see one of her sons, allowed herself plainly to express an
opinion contrary to the general one. Meeting Helene at a ball she
stopped her in the middle of the room and, amid general silence,
said in her gruff voice: "So wives of living men have started marrying
again! Perhaps you think you have invented a novelty? You have been
forestalled, my dear! It was thought of long ago. It is done in all
the brothels," and with these words Marya Dmitrievna, turning up her
wide sleeves with her usual threatening gesture and glancing sternly
round, moved across the room.
Though people were afraid of Marya Dmitrievna she was regarded in
Petersburg as a buffoon, and so of what she had said they only
noticed, and repeated in a whisper, the one coarse word she had
used, supposing the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word.
Prince Vasili, who of late very often forgot what he had said and
repeated one and the same thing a hundred times, remarked to his
daughter whenever he chanced to see her:
"Helene, I have a word to say to you," and he would lead her
aside, drawing her hand downward. "I have heard of certain projects
concerning... you know. Well my dear child, you know how your father's
heart rejoices to know that you... You have suffered so much....
But, my dear child, consult only your own heart. That is all I have to
say," and concealing his unvarying emotion he would press his cheek
against his daughter's and move away.
Bilibin, who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever
man, and who was one of one of the disinterested friends so
brilliant a woman as Helene always has- men friends who can never
change into lovers- once gave her his view of the matter at a small
and intimate gathering.
"Listen, Bilibin," said Helene (she always called friends of that
sort by their surnames), and she touched his coat sleeve with her
white, beringed fingers. "Tell me, as you would a sister, what I ought
to do. Which of the two?"
Bilibin wrinkled up the skin over his eyebrows and pondered, with
a smile on his lips.
"You are not taking me unawares, you know," said he. "As a true
friend, I have thought and thought again about your affair. You see,
if you marry the prince"- he meant the younger man- and he crooked one
finger, "you forever lose the chance of marrying the other, and you
will displease the court besides. (You know there is some kind of
connection.) But if you marry the old count you will make his last
days happy, and as widow of the Grand... the prince would no longer be
making a mesalliance by marrying you," and Bilibin smoothed out his
forehead.
"That's a true friend!" said Helene beaming, and again touching
Bilibin's sleeve. "But I love them, you know, and don't want to
distress either of them. I would give my life for the happiness of
them both."
Bilibin shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that not even he
could help in that difficulty.
"Une maitresse-femme!* That's what is called putting things
squarely. She would like to be married to all three at the same time,"
thought he.
*A masterly woman.
"But tell me, how will your husband look at the matter?" Bilibin
asked, his reputation being so well established that he did not fear
to ask so naive a question. "Will he agree?"
"Oh, he loves me so!" said Helene, who for some reason imagined that
Pierre too loved her. "He will do anything for me."
Bilibin puckered his skin in preparation for something witty.
"Even divorce you?" said he.
Helene laughed.
Among those who ventured to doubt the justifiability of the proposed
marriage was Helene's mother, Princess Kuragina. She was continually
tormented by jealousy of her daughter, and now that jealousy concerned
a subject near to her own heart, she could not reconcile herself to
the idea. She consulted a Russian priest as to the possibility of
divorce and remarriage during a husband's lifetime, and the priest
told her that it was impossible, and to her delight showed her a
text in the Gospel which (as it seemed to him) plainly remarriage
while the husband is alive.
Armed with these arguments, which appeared to her unanswerable,
she drove to her daughter's early one morning so as to find her alone.
Having listened to her mother's objections, Helene smiled blandly
and ironically.
"But it says plainly: 'Whosoever shall marry her that is
divorced...'" said the old princess.
"Ah, Maman, ne dites pas de betises. Vous ne comprenez rein. Dans ma
position j'ai des devoirs,"* said Helene changing from Russian, in
which language she always felt that her case did not sound quite
clear, into French which suited it better.
*"Oh, Mamma, don't talk nonsense! You don't understand anything.
In my position I have obligations.
"But, my dear...."
"Oh, Mamma, how is it you don't understand that the Holy Father, who
has the right to grant dispensations..."
Just then the lady companion who lived with Helene came in to
announce that His Highness was in the ballroom and wished to see her.
"Non, dites-lui que je ne veux pas le voir, que je suis furieuse
contre lui, parce qu'il m' a manque parole."*
*"No, tell him I don't wish to see him, I am furious with him for
not keeping his word to me."
"Comtesse, a tout peche misericorde,"* said a fair-haired young
man with a long face and nose, as he entered the room.
*"Countess, there is mercy for every sin."
The old princess rose respectfully and curtsied. The young man who
had entered took no notice of her. The princess nodded to her daughter
and sidled out of the room.
"Yes, she is right," thought the old princess, all her convictions
dissipated by the appearance of His Highness. "She is right, but how
is it that we in our irrecoverable youth did not know it? Yet it is so
simple," she thought as she got into her carriage.
By the beginning of August Helene's affairs were clearly defined and
she wrote a letter to her husband- who, as she imagined, loved her
very much- informing him of her intention to marry N.N. and of her
having embraced the one true faith, and asking him to carry out all
the formalities necessary for a divorce, which would be explained to
him by the bearer of the letter.
And so I pray God to have you, my friend, in His holy and powerful
keeping- Your friend Helene.
This letter was brought to Pierre's house when he was on the field
of Borodino. _
Read next: Book Eleven: 1812: Chapter 8
Read previous: Book Eleven: 1812: Chapter 6
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