After she recovers from her false guilt over her father’s death, Mary looks for a way to flee from the French, and offers Andrew’s grain to the starving peasants.
After she recovers from her false guilt over her father’s death, Mary looks for a way to flee from the French, and offers Andrew’s grain to the starving peasants.
Book 10, Chapter 10
After she recovers from her false guilt over her father’s death, Mary looks for a way to flee from the French, and offers Andrew’s grain to the starving peasants.
Summary:
Mary shut herself up in her room and did not admit anyone after her father’s funeral. A maid came to the door to say that Alpátych was asking for orders about their departure. (This was before his talk with Dron.) At that point, Mary did not mean to go away and begged to be left in peace. Mademoiselle Bourienne comes to her and suggests they stay put, but the idea of being captured by the French is repulsive to Mary. Mary rejects Mademoiselle Bourienne’s advice, and decides she must leave at once. Alpátych is away, and there seems to be no one who can help her. But then, Dron comes to see her and she asks him for horses. Dron says there are no horses, and that the peasants are starving. Apparently surprised to learn this, Mary tells Dron to give Andrew’s grain to whoever needs it. Motivated only by her desire to help, Mary asks Dron for nothing in return.
quote from the chapter:
They, the French, would settle in this house: M. le Général Rameau would occupy Prince Andrew’s study and amuse himself by looking through and reading his letters and papers. Mademoiselle Bourienne would do the honors of Boguchárovo for him. I should be given a small room as a favor, the soldiers would violate my father’s newly dug grave to steal his crosses and stars, they would tell me of their victories over the Russians, and would pretend to sympathize with my sorrow… thought Princess Mary, not thinking her own thoughts but feeling bound to think like her father and her brother. For herself she did not care where she remained or what happened to her, but she felt herself the representative of her dead father and of Prince Andrew. Involuntarily she thought their thoughts and felt their feelings. What they would have said and what they would have done she felt bound to say and do. She went into Prince Andrew’s study, trying to enter completely into his ideas, and considered her position.
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