Collage 344

The count set out on this visit in a cheerless mood: deep in his heart he was frightened. Their last meeting, during the recruitment, when the count, in response to his invitation to dinner, had listened to a scathing reprimand for failing to provide men, had remained in Count Ilya Andreich's memory. Natasha, wearing her best dress, was, on the contrary, in a most cheerful mood. "It can't be that they won't come to love me," she thought, "everyone has always loved me. And I'm so ready to do everything they want for them, so ready to love him, because he's his father and her, because she's his sister, there's no reason why they shouldn't love me!"

Lynn Waskelis
from page 693-694 of original text
collage, ink
made 1/14/11
page 552-553 Pevear/Volokhonsky translation