“I should not have believed anyone who told me that I was capable of such love,” said Prince Andréy. “It is not at all the same feeling that I knew in the past. The whole world is now for me divided into two halves: one half is she, and there all is joy, hope, light: the other half is everything where she is not, and there is all gloom and darkness.⁠ ⁠…”

“Darkness and gloom,” reiterated Pierre: “yes, yes, I understand that.”

“I cannot help loving the light, it is not my fault. And I am very happy! You understand me? I know you are glad for my sake.”

“Yes, yes,” Pierre assented, looking at his friend with a touched and sad expression in his eyes. The brighter Prince Andréy’s lot appeared to him, the gloomier seemed his own.

Prince Andréy needed his father’s consent to his marriage, and to obtain this he started for the country next day.