First Kiss in the Conservatory — War and Peace

Natasha runs only as far as the conservatory, stamps with impatience, then hides among the flower tubs when she hears Boris's discreet steps. He pauses, brushes dust from his uniform, checks his handsome face in the mirror, smiles, and nearly leaves by the other door. She decides to make him search instead of calling out. Hardly has he gone when Sonya storms in flushed and crying. Nicholas finds her, insists she alone is everything, and kisses her. Natasha watches from cover, scarcely breathing, and thinks how nice it is.

She summons Boris, leads him to the hiding place among the tubs, picks up the thrown-down doll, and tells him to kiss it. He looks kindly and does not. She whispers whether he would like to kiss her, jumps onto a tub to be higher than he, clasps his neck, and kisses him full on the lips. He blushes, says he loves her, and asks to wait four years before he asks for her hand.

She counts thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen on her fingers, accepts the bargain forever till death itself, and walks off on his arm into the sitting room, glowing. A child has copied an adult repair scene and turned it into a promise that will outgrow her long before it expires.