Prince Vasíli is not a man who sits down and plots injuries. Getting on has become a habit, and dozens of schemes form, ripen, or fall apart as he meets people. He does not say to himself that Pierre is rich and must marry his daughter; when he meets a man of position his instinct simply tells him the man can be useful. After Count Bezúkhov's death he keeps Pierre at hand in Moscow, procures him the rank of Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and insists the young man come to Petersburg and stay in his house. With weary assurance he has Pierre sign a deed throwing thirty thousand rubles to the eldest princess, so she will not speak of the inlaid portfolio, and he retains several thousand rubles of Ryazán quitrent as what was due from old accounts. Pierre, suddenly Count Bezúkhov, is so beset with papers, offices, and people who once ignored him that only in bed is he alone. Flattery about his kindness and intelligence makes him believe what he had always half hoped was true. The angry eldest princess weeps, knits him a striped scarf, and grows still kinder after the deed. The pretty youngest sister with the mole confuses him with smiles.
In Petersburg the Guards, Dólokhov, Anatole, and Prince Andrew are gone, so there is no one for the old nights or the older friend's talk. Dinners and balls fill the days, mostly at Vasíli's with stout Princess Kurágina and beautiful Hélène. Anna Pávlovna now finds everything Pierre says charmant. A pink note invites him to an "At Home" and adds that he will find the beautiful Hélène there. For the first time he feels a link other people already recognise, and the thought both alarms and pleases him. She stations him with Hélène beside a timid aunt and a snuffbox, praises the girl's tact, and warns him not to leave Vasíli's while his Petersburg house is refitted. Leaning for the box, Pierre sees not marble dignity but living neck, perfume, and the creak of a corset. The old illusion will not return. He knows, as if already at the altar, that she must be his wife, and he also feels, without knowing why, that it may be a bad thing.
At home he cannot sleep. He tells himself she is stupid, that Anatole's scandal with her was ugly, that Hippolyte is her brother and Vasíli her father. Another current of thought dreams she will love him and become quite different. Hints from Anna Pávlovna, Vasíli, and a thousand looks seize him with terror that he is already bound to something wrong. While he repeats that conviction, her image rises again in all its womanly beauty.
Coming Up in Chapter 51
In November 1805 Prince Vasili has to go on a tour of inspection in four provinces, pick up his son Anatole, and take him to visit Prince Nicholas Bolkonski. But first he must settle matters with Pierre, who spends whole days in Vasili's house, absurd and excited in Helene's presence, yet has not proposed.
