Once separated for the evening, Anatole fell right asleep. The charmed women did not.

Marya considered, “Is he really to be my husband? This stranger who is so kind.” However, she soon feels the force of evil near her as a Satanic image mixed with Anatole’s. She rang for her maid, asking her to sleep in her room. Lise grumbled how uncomfortable she was in bed. Anatole’s presence reminded her of when she was not impacted by pregnancy and loneliness. Amélie Bourienne walked about the winter garden, working out this scenario where she would allow herself to be seduced, then try to win Anatole with a story about how her poor mother’s ghost shamed her. Conveying this would hopefully guilt Anatole into marrying her. Such projection contrasts with Marya, who would never so play with spirits.

Bolkonsky could not sleep and reflected, “The first man that turns up—she forgets her father and becomes so unlike herself!” He is disappointed Marya did not have the pride to see Anatole’s nature. He considers casting off Bourienne and aims to reveal the truth, in part, to convince Marya not to leave Bald Hills.

The next morning, Anatole and Amélie recognized how much each had to “say” to the other. They took the opportunity to rendezvous in the garden when Marya went to meet her father.

Marya was told, “I have a proposition and refer it to you. Prince Vasíli finds you to his taste as a daughter-in-law and makes a proposal to you on his protégé’s behalf.” Marya asks for her father’s input but realizes he does not approve. He informs her Anatole will take her dowry and bring Bourienne into the marriage. Marya become despondent and her father feigned speaking in jest. He advises Marya to take an hour to pray over the matter and adds, “Remember that your happiness depends on your decision. He receives his orders from his father and will marry you or anybody; but you are free to choose.”

Mary wishes to accept but what her father said had an impact. An invisible force led her into the conservatory, where she recognized the whispering of Amélie. A few steps away, she saw Anatole fully embracing the French woman. Marya was shocked. Amélie screamed and ran off. Anatole composed himself, bowed with a smirk, as if inviting Marya to join in a laugh and retreated.

Marya was summoned an hour later as she comforted Amélie. She gazed at Amélie with tender affection and stroked her hair. Amélie was apologetic, “You who are so pure… can never understand being so carried away.” Marya responded, “I love you more than ever and will do all I can for your happiness.” She then she went to address Anatole’s father.

Vasíli was optimistic. “My dear! My son’s fate is in your hands. Decide, my gentle Marie, whom I have always loved as a daughter!” Bolkonsky put the matter bluntly, “Do you wish or not to be Prince Anatole Kurágin’s wife? Reply and then I reserve the right to state my opinion.” Marya answered, “My desire is never to leave you, Father.” Vasíli did not relent, “Will you not give us a little hope of touching your heart? Say ‘perhaps’... The future is so long.” Marya continued, “Prince, I have said all in my heart. I thank you for the honor but shall never be your son’s wife.” Bolkonsky then steered Vasíli out the door and sends Marya to her room. “Well, so that’s finished, my dear fellow! I am very glad to have seen you.”

Marya contemplated, “My vocation is to be content with another kind of happiness, of love and self-sacrifice. Cost what it may, I will arrange poor Amélie’s happiness as she loves Anatole so passionately and repents. I will give her the means; I will ask my father and Andrei. I shall be so happy when she is his wife. She has been so unfortunate, alone and helpless! And how she must love him if she could so forget herself! Perhaps I might have done the same!”

Marya comes from her room to meet Anatole and is quickly smitten by his attractiveness. He introduced himself and stood smiling with his chest expanded. He was hardly eloquent but had the invaluable faculty of composure. He knew he inspired curiosity, awe and lust. Marie wished to convey that she did not expect to interest him.

The conversation became genial thanks to Lise. Speaking French, she drew all into her stories. Shaking a finger at Anatole, she reveals, “I have heard of your doings in Paris!” With Paris referenced, Bourienne jumped in and Anatole thought, “la petite est gentile.”

Bolkonsky remained in his study, considering how Vasíli is a shallow soul with his son likely in the same mold. Their presence brought up whether he could part from the daughter he cherished. “Why should she marry? To be unhappy?” He thought of Lise, thinking a better husband than his son could not be found. Still, Lise was not content. He realized some women remain happier and have more agency unmarried. He also demanded any suitor be worthy. As Vasíli stepped in to drag Pierre into marriage, Bolkonsky is preparing to keep Marya out.

Upon meeting his guests, Bolkonsky noticed Anatole flirting with Bourienne and already felt Marya was playing the fool. He went up to Vasíli, exchanged pleasantries and discussed news of the war, but soon broke off to chastise his daughter for her new look, reducing her to tears.

Bolkonsky then addressed Anatole and spoke in a way where Anatole felt compelled to hold back laughter. “My dear boy…So, you wish to serve the Tsar and the country? It is wartime, such a fine fellow must serve. Well, are you off to the front?” In responding, Anatole must ask his father what unit he is attached to, which confirms Bolkonsky’s suspicions of his quality.

Nevertheless, as soon as Vasíli got Bolkonsky alone, Vasíli announced his hopes. Bolkonsky said he would ask Marya tomorrow in everyone’s presence. If she is willing, Anatole can “stay on,” but still notes “I’ll see,” implying he would be the final arbiter. Vasíli adds “I will tell you frankly, Anatole is no genius, but he is an honest, goodhearted lad, excellent son, and would be no less a relative.”

Anatole remains busy entertaining the women of the House. Attributable to their loneliness, all were charmed. Even Marya forgot her plainness. Anatole seemed out of a dream: kind, confident, masculine, and magnanimous. Aspirations of a family rose in Marya’s imagination. “Am I too cold with him? I remain reserved because in the depth of my soul I feel too near to him already.” In contrast, Anatole thought, “Poor girl, she’s devilish ugly!”

Bourienne’s passions were also spurred. Without any status, relatives, or even a country, she did not intend to devote her life to serving Bolkonsky. She dreamed of a prince like this who would appreciate her looks and fall in love. Her aunt had told her about such scenarios. It was not calculation that guided her as she didn’t have the sense to plan. She just wished to try to please the man before her. Anatole was cognizant of his power and the feeling that most intensely rose was a passionate lust for Bourienne.

Mary was soon asked to play on the clavichord. Her favorite sonata bore her into animated poetic world. In her lovely eyes there was a look of hope and joy. Anatole faced Marie but concentrated on Bourienne. Mary would look at Bourienne, thinking, “How happy I am now, and how happy I may be with such a friend and such a husband!

When it came to retire, Anatole kissed Marya’s hand. He did the same to Bourienne, which was a breach of protocol. She flushed as Marya considered, “Is it possible Amélie thinks I could be jealous of her, and not value her devotion.” Lastly, Anatole went up to Lise and they had a playful interaction to close the night.

In August of 1908, when 80 years old, Tolstoy penned the open letter, “The Blessings of Love,” referring to the Love which embodies the Almighty. Tolstoy wrote much, later-in-life, about his religious convictions, but this episode will focus on this relatively short letter addressed to “Good People Everywhere.”

Tolstoy explicitly introduces the concept of divine Love in War & Peace through Mayra reaching out in prayer when she faces the temptation for physical pleasure when Anatole pays a courting visit. She feels the Lord has placed in her heart the direction to orient herself around heavenly Love. She is reminded to focus on the Lord’s command of Love: meaning commitment to others as demonstrated by God’s willingness to sacrifice his Son.

Tolstoy begins his missive with special appeal to those “fighting on behalf of one government or another, which nobody needs.” He specifically reaches out to his “Dear Brothers” including: “King, Minister, Merchant, Worker, and Peasant.”

He notes that the further he reaches in life, the more it becomes clear that we need to focus on this transcendent Love. Tolstoy proffers that our earthly toils distract us from this obligation; but it is what the Lord desires for our short indeterminate lifespans, which lie between the voids of pre-birth and post-death. Tolstoy, believing his end was immanent, was acknowledging the transience and fragility of terrestrial life. He did not dread the prospect of death, but viewed it as natural and beneficial, like one day passing into another.

He writes that our lives have such potential for joy, where we can appreciate the heavens and nature, with a stewardship for what is before us. Instead, we wind up creatures constructing buildings, factories and roads, often for the latest commerce system that mass produces items Tolstoy believes nobody needs. Such industrial demands create pollution and sicken workers (physically and mentally), who dwell in the slums of the early 20th century. In mining pursuits, Tolstoy emphasizes, somewhat metaphorically, how workers descend into the earth to extract stones and iron. This stands in contrast to looking upwards and outwards – towards the divine.

Instead of living joyfully and being prone to God’s bounty, we hate, kill, harass and accumulate. Some utilitarian masters-of-the-day claim to be guided by a greater good. Others are influenced by habit, tradition, or imitation. However, without focus on the divine, so many have been reduced to fighting like animals, and live a perversion of what life should be.

Ultimately, we must do what coincides with the demands of our soul, namely to act in the spirit of brotherly Love.

Tolstoy proposes: let the those fighting for so-called freedom or order, put a tinge of their efforts toward living out this Love. He is confident everyone will see the fruits of their labor and experience a bliss. Even if you try it for a day, it will make you unlikely to turn back. For Love transcends death. He appears to be referencing popular Gospel teachings, such as to live to accumulate treasures in heaven, instead of riches on earth, which will inevitably perish. For divine Love is eternal.

Tolstoy concludes that all of his fame, wealth, and devices of social life are trivial compared to the Love the soul demands. Therefore, we are to live with sacrificial intent. Such a life is open to us and calls.