‘Very good, be so kind as to wait a moment,’ he said to the general in Russian, with that French accent with which he always spoke when he meant to speak disdainfully, and noticing Boris, Prince Andrey took no further notice of the general (who ran after him with entreaties, begging him to hear something more), but nodded to Boris with a bright smile, as he turned towards him. At that moment Boris saw distinctly what he had had an inkling of before, that is, that quite apart from that subordination and discipline, which is written down in the drill-book, and recognised in the regiment and known to him, there was in the army another and more actual subordination, that which made this rigid, purple-faced general wait respectfully while Prince Andrey—of captain’s rank—found it more in accordance with his pleasure to talk to Lieutenant Drubetskoy. Boris felt more than ever determined to follow in future the guidance not of the written code laid down in the regulations, but of- this unwritten code. He felt now that simply because he had been recommended to Prince Andrey, he had become at one step superior to the general, who in other circumstances, at the front, could annihilate a mere lieutenant in the guards like him. Prince Andrey went up to him and shook hands.
‘Very sorry you didn’t find me in yesterday. I was busy the whole day with the Germans. We went with Weierother to survey the disposition. When Germans start being accurate, there’s no end to it! ’
Boris smiled, as though he understood, as a matter of common knowledge, what Prince Andrey was referring to. Bat it was the first time he had heard the name of Weierother, or even the word ‘disposition’ used in that sense.
‘Well, my dear boy, you still want an adjutant’s post? I have been thinking about you since I saw you.’
‘Yes,’ said Boris, involuntarily flushing for some reason, ‘I was thinking of asking the commander-in-chief; he has had a letter about me from Prince Kuragin; and I wanted to ask him simply because,’ he added, as
WA.R AND PEACE 229
though excusing himself, ‘I am afraid the guards won’t be in action.’
‘Very good, very good! we will talk it over later,’ said Prince Andrey, ‘only let me report on this gentleman’s business and I am at your disposal.’ While Prince Andrey was away reporting to the commander-in-chief on the business of the purple-faced general, that general, who apparently did not share Boris’s views as to the superior advantages of the unwritten code, glared at the insolent lieutenant, who had hindered his having his say out, so that Boris began to be uncomfortable. He turned away and waited with impatience for Prince Andrey to come out of the commander- in-chief's room.
‘Well, my dear fellow, I have been thinking about you,’ said Prince Andrey, when they had gone into the big room with the clavichord in it. ‘It’s no use your going to the commander-in-chief; he will say a lot of polite things to you, will ask you to dine with him’ (‘that wouldn’t come amiss in the service of that unwritten code,’ thought Boris), ‘but nothing more would come of it; we shall soon have a complete battalion of adjutants and orderly officers. But I tell you what we will do: I have a friend, a general adjutant and an excellent fellow, Prince Dolgorukov. And though you may not be aware of it, the fact is that Kutuzov and his staff and all of us are just now of no account at all. Everything now is concentrated about the Emperor, so we’ll go together to Dolgorukov. I have to go to see him, and I have already spoken of you to him. So we can see whether he may not think it possible to find a post for you on his staff, or' somewhere there nearer to the sun.’
Prince Andrey was always particularly keen over guiding a young man and helping him to attain worldly success. Under cover of this help for another, which he would never have accepted for himself, he was brought into the circle which bestowed success, and which attracted him. He very readily took up Boris’s cause, and went with him to Prince Dolgorukov.
It was late in the evening as they entered the palace at Olmiitz, occupied by the Emperors and their retinues.
