Helene understands that the question is very simple and easy from the ecclesiastical point of view, and that her directors are making difficulties only because they are apprehensive as to how the matter will be regarded by the secular authorities. So she decides that it is necessary to prepare the opinion of society. She provokes the jealousy of the elderly magnate and tells him what she has told her other suitor: that the only way for him to obtain a right over her is to marry her. He is at first as much taken aback by the suggestion of marriage with a woman whose husband is alive as the younger man had been, but Helene's imperturbable conviction that it is as simple and natural as marrying a maiden has its effect on him too. Had she shown the least sign of hesitation, shame, or secrecy, her cause would certainly have been lost. Instead, with good-natured naivete she tells her intimate friends, and these are all Petersburg, that both the prince and the magnate have proposed to her and that she loves both and is afraid of grieving either.
A rumour immediately spreads, not that Helene wants to be divorced from her husband, had such a report spread many would have opposed so illegal an intention, but simply that the unfortunate and interesting Helene is in doubt which of the two men she should marry. The question is no longer whether this is possible, but only which is the better match and how the matter will be regarded at court. Some rigid individuals see in the project a desecration of the sacrament of marriage, but there are not many such and they remain silent, while the majority are interested in Helene's good fortune. Whether it is right or wrong to remarry while one has a husband living they do not discuss, for that question has evidently been settled by people wiser than you or me, as they say, and to doubt it would be to risk exposing one's stupidity and incapacity to live in society. Only Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who has come to Petersburg that summer to see one of her sons, allows herself plainly to express an opinion contrary to the general one. Meeting Helene at a ball she stops her in the middle of the room and, amid general silence, says in her gruff voice that wives of living men have started marrying again. Perhaps you think you have invented a novelty? You have been forestalled. It is done in all the brothels. Though people are afraid of Marya Dmitrievna she is regarded in Petersburg as a buffoon, and of what she has said they only notice, and repeat in a whisper, the one coarse word, supposing the whole sting to lie in that word.
Prince Vasili, who of late very often forgets what he has said, remarks whenever he chances to see his daughter that he has a word to say to her. He has heard of certain projects. His father's heart rejoices. She has suffered so much. Consult only your own heart. That is all I have to say. Bilibin, one of those disinterested men friends who can never change into lovers, gives his view at a small gathering. If she marries the prince, the younger man, she forever loses the chance of marrying the other and will displease the court. If she marries the old count she will make his last days happy, and as widow of the Grand the prince would no longer be making a mesalliance by marrying her. Helene beams: that is a true friend, but she loves them both and would give her life for the happiness of them both. Bilibin shrugs. She would like to be married to all three at the same time. Will her husband agree? Oh, he loves me so, Helene says, who for some reason imagines that Pierre too loves her. He will do anything for me. Even divorce you? Bilibin asks. Helene laughs. Among those who venture to doubt is her mother, Princess Kuragina, tormented by jealousy. A Russian priest shows her a Gospel text which, as it seems to him, plainly forbids remarriage while the husband is alive. Armed with this, she drives to her daughter early one morning. Helene smiles blandly. When her mother quotes the verse, Helene switches from Russian, in which she always feels her case does not sound quite clear, into French: in her position she has obligations, and the Holy Father has the right to grant dispensations. Just then His Highness is announced. Helene refuses to see him, furious that he has not kept his word, then he enters anyway. The old princess rises respectfully and sidles out. Yes, she is right, the mother thinks, all her convictions dissipated by the appearance of His Highness. How is it that we in our irrecoverable youth did not know it? Yet it is so simple. By the beginning of August Helene's affairs are clearly defined. She writes to her husband, who, as she imagines, loves her very much, informing him of her intention to marry N.N. and of her having embraced the one true faith, asking him to carry out all the formalities necessary for a divorce. This letter is brought to Pierre's house when he is on the field of Borodino.
Coming Up in Chapter 237
Toward the end of the battle of Borodino, Pierre, having run down from Raevski's battery a second time, makes his way through a gully to Knyazkovo with a crowd of soldiers, reaches the dressing station, and seeing blood and hearing cries and groans hurries on, still entangled in the crowds of soldiers.
