Count Ilya laughed as he nudged the blushing Sonya and pointed out her former admirer.
‘Didn’t you recognize him?’ he asked. ‘But what’s he doing here?’ he asked, turning to Shinshin. ‘I thought he’d gone off somewhere.’
‘Yes, he did,’ answered Shinshin. ‘He went down to the Caucasus, then he ran away, and I believe he became a minister with some sort of ruling prince down in Persia, and he went and killed the Shah’s brother. Anyway, all the Moscow ladies are crazy about him! “Dolokhov – the man from Persia” – that’s all you need to say. Nowadays you hear nothing but Dolokhov. They all kowtow to him. It’s a rare treat to be asked to meet him,’ said Shinshin. ‘Dolokhov and Anatole Kuragin, they’ve got the ladies swooning all right.’
Into the adjoining box walked a gorgeous tall woman with a huge pile of hair, superb arms and shoulders ostentatiously exposed and a double string of large pearls round her neck. She took some time to settle down, with much rustling of her thick silk evening-dress.
Natasha couldn’t resist staring at this lady’s neck and shoulders, her pearls and her elaborate hairstyle and admiring the beauty of those shoulders and pearls. When she turned for a second look the lady glanced round, met the eyes of Count Ilya Rostov and gave him a nod and a smile. It was Countess Bezukhov, Pierre’s wife. The count, who knew everyone in society, leant across and addressed a few words to her.
‘Have you been here long, Countess?’ he began. ‘I’ve been meaning to call in and kiss your hand. I’m in town on business and I’ve brought my girls with me. I hear Semyonova’s a wonderful actress,’ the count went on. ‘Your good husband never used to forget us. Is he here?’
‘Yes, he did say he’d drop in,’ said Hélène, with a close eye on Natasha.
Count Ilya sat back in his place.
‘Lovely woman, isn’t she?’ he whispered to Natasha.
‘Out of this world!’ said Natasha. ‘It would be easy to fall in love with her!’
At that moment the final chords of the overture rang out, and the conductor rapped on the stand with his baton. Late-comers scurried to their seats in the stalls, and the curtain rose.
Immediately a hush fell on boxes and stalls, and all the men, old and young, in evening-dress or uniform, and all the women with jewels draped across their exposed flesh turned with eager anticipation to watch the stage. Natasha too turned to watch.
CHAPTER 9
The stage consisted of flat boards down the middle with painted cardboard representing trees at both sides and cloth-covered boards at the back. Several young girls in red tops and white skirts were sitting in the middle of the stage. One very fat girl in a white silk dress sat to one side on a low bench with green cardboard glued on the back of it. They were all singing something. When they had finished their song the woman in white came forward to the prompter’s box, and a man with fat legs squeezed into silk tights, with a feather in his hat and a dagger in his belt, came up to her and burst into song with much waving of his arms.
The man in tights sang alone, then she sang alone, then they both held back while the music played on and the man fingered the hand of the woman in white, obviously waiting for the right moment to start up again and sing a piece with her. They did sing together, after which the theatre erupted in applause and loud shouting, while the man and woman on the stage, representing two lovers, beamed as they held out their arms and took bows.
