The Weight of Money and Friendship — War and Peace

Anna Mikhaylovna has driven off with Boris to visit the dying Count Bezukhov, leaving Countess Rostova alone with her friend's humiliation. Upset and out of sorts, she scolds her maid with exaggerated politeness, calling her my dear and threatening another place, then sends for her husband.

Count Rostov waddles in with a guilty look, boasting about the saute of game and the thousand rubles he paid for the cook Taras. She points to a mess on his waistcoat, then asks for five hundred rubles. He bustles for his pocketbook and shouts for Dmitri, the house-bred manager of his affairs, in the tone of a man sure the room will rush to obey. He orders seven hundred clean notes, not the tattered ones of last time. Dmitri starts to mention a difficulty, sees the count's breathing quicken, and promises them at once. The count kisses his wife's hand and wanders back to his study while she sighs that money causes so much sorrow in the world, yet she needs this sum now.

When Anna returns with news that Bezukhov is so ill one would not know him, the countess blushes, lifts the clean notes from under her handkerchief, and presses them on her for Boris's outfit. They embrace and weep as old friends who should not have to think about something as base as cash. The tears are painful and pleasant at once.