‘Oh, you know whom,’ said Pierre, with a meaning look from under s brows, ‘Prince Fyodor and all of them. Zeal in educational and philan- ropic work is all very good of course. Their object is excellent and all ie rest of it; but in present circumstances what is wanted is something se.’
At that moment Nikolay noticed the presence of his nephew. His face II; he went up to him.
‘Why are you here?’
‘Oh, let him be,’ said Pierre, taking hold of Nikolay’s arm; and he ,ent on. ‘That’s not enough, I told them; something else is wanted now. /hile you stand waiting for the string to snap every moment; while every ne is expecting the inevitable revolution, as many people as possible lould join hands as closely as they can to withstand the general catas- •ophe. All the youth and energy is being drawn away and dissipated. >ne lured by women, another by honours, a third by display or money— ley are all going over to the wrong side. As for independent, honest men, ke you and me—there are none of them left. I say: enlarge the scope f the society: let the mot d’ordre be not loyalty only, but independence nd action.’
Nikolay, leaving his nephew, had angrily moved out a chair, and sat own in it. As he listened to Pierre, he coughed in a dissatisfied way, and rowned more and more.
‘But action with what object?’ he cried. ‘And what attitude do you ike up to the government?’
‘Why, the attitude of supporters! The society will perhaps not even ie a secret one, if the government will allow it. So far from being hostile o the government, we are the real conservatives. It is a society of entlemen, in the full significance of the word. It is simply to prevent
WAR AND PEACE Pugatchov from coming to massacre my children and yours, to preve Araktcheev from transporting me to a military settlement, that we a joining hands, with the sole object of the common welfare and security
‘Yes; but it’s a secret society, and consequently a hostile and mi chievous society, which can only lead to evil.’
‘Why so? Did the Tugend-bund which saved Europe’ (people did n< yet venture to believe that Russia had saved Europe) ‘lead to evil? Tugend-bund it is, an alliance of virtue; it is love and mutual help; it what Christ preached on the cross . .
Natasha, coming into the room in the middle of the conversatio looked joyfully at her husband. She was not rejoicing in what he w; saying. It did not interest her indeed, because it seemed to her that w T as all so excessively simple, and that she had known it long ago. SI fancied this, because she knew all that it sprang from—all Pierre’s sou But she was glad looking at his eager, enthusiastic figure.
Pierre was watched with even more rapturous gladness by the bo with the slender neck in the laydown collar, who had been forgotten b all of them. Every word Pierre uttered set his heart in a glow, and h fingers moving nervously, he unconsciously picked up and broke t pieces the sticks of sealing-wax and pens on his uncle’s table.
‘It’s not at all what you imagine, but just such a society as the Germa Tugend-bund is what I propose.’
‘Well, my boy, that’s all very well for the sausage-eaters—a Tugenc bund —but I don’t understand it, and I can’t even pronounce it,’ Den sov’s loud, positive voice broke in. ‘Everything’s rotten and corrupt; ■ agree there; only your Tugend-bund I don’t understand, but if one i>| dissatisfied,—a bunt now’ (i.e. riot or mutiny), ‘je suis votre homme.
Pierre smiled, Natasha laughed; but Nikolay knitted his brows mor than ever, and began arguing with Pierre that no revolution was to b expected, and that the danger he talked of had no existence but in hi imagination. Pierre maintained his view, and as his intellectual facultie were keener and more resourceful, Nikolay was soon at a loss for ai answer. This angered him still more, as in his heart he felt convinced not by reasoning, but by something stronger than reasoning, of the in dubitable truth of his own view.
‘Well, let me tell you,’ he said, getting up and nervously setting hi pipe down in the corner, and then flinging it away; ‘I can’t prove it.you You say everything is all rotten, and there will be a revolution; I don’ see it; but you say our oath of allegiance is a conditional thing, and a; to that, let me tell you, you are my greatest friend, you know that, bu you make a secret society, you begin working against the government— whatever it may be, I know it’s my duty to obey it. And if Araktcb^ bids me march against you with a squadron and cut you down, I shan’ hesitate for a second, I shall go. And then you may think what you like about it.’
An awkward silence followed these words. Natasha was the first to break it by defending her husband and attacking her brother. Hei
WAR AND PEACE 1103
(Fence was weak and clumsy. But it attained her object. The con- ysation was taken up again, and no longer in the unpleasantly hostile tie in which Nikolay’s last words had been spoken.
