The Awkward Exit and Hidden Motives — War and Peace

Guests thank Anna and drift out. Pierre, stout and absent-minded, takes a general's three-cornered hat and pulls at the plume until the general asks for it back. He cannot manage a graceful exit; his kind smile still disarms. Anna hopes he will change his opinions; he bows as if to say opinions are opinions and he remains decent.

In the hall Andrew shrugs through his cloak while Hippolyte whispers to pregnant Lise and lingers with her shawl too long. Anna and Lise murmur that the Anatole match is settled; Anna asks Lise to write and learn how the old prince looks at the matter. Andrew's eyes close in weary disgust. He snaps at Hippolyte in Russian, then softens to Pierre waiting outside. In the carriage the vicomte kisses his fingers over the little princess and pities the poor husband who gives himself the airs of a monarch.

At Bolkonski's study Pierre sprawls with Caesar's Commentaries, still arguing perpetual peace. Andrew rubs his hands, asks whether Pierre will be a guardsman or a diplomatist, and reminds him that his father expects a choice. Pierre cannot decide, doubts fighting Napoleon for England and Austria, and admires the abbe's possible Freemasonry. Andrew shrugs off childish ethics: if no one fought except on conviction, there would be no wars. Then he answers Pierre's real question. He goes to war because the life he is leading here does not suit him.