Page 546 - war-and-peace

love, that childlike smile which had not once appeared on
his face since he left home now for the first time after eigh-
teen months again brightened his soul and his face.
‘No, but listen,’ she said, ‘now you are quite a man, aren’t
you? I’m awfully glad you’re my brother.’ She touched his
mustache. ‘I want to know what you men are like. Are you
the same as we? No?’
‘Why did Sonya run away?’ asked Rostov.
‘Ah, yes! That’s a whole long story! How are you going to
speak to herthou or you?’
‘As may happen,’ said Rostov.
‘No, call her you, please! I’ll tell you all about it some
other time. No, I’ll tell you now. You know Sonya’s my dear-
est friend. Such a friend that I burned my arm for her sake.
Look here!’
She pulled up her muslin sleeve and showed him a red
scar on her long, slender, delicate arm, high above the elbow
on that part that is covered even by a ball dress.
‘I burned this to prove my love for her. I just heated a
ruler in the fire and pressed it there!’
Sitting on the sofa with the little cushions on its arms,
in what used to be his old schoolroom, and looking into
Natasha’s wildly bright eyes, Rostov re-entered that world
of home and childhood which had no meaning for anyone
else, but gave him some of the best joys of his life; and the
burning of an arm with a ruler as a proof of love did not
seem to him senseless, he understood and was not surprised
at it.
‘Well, and is that all?’ he asked.

546 War and Peace