The young people, after returning from the theater, had had supper and were grouped round the clavichord.

As soon as Nicholas entered, he was enfolded in that poetic atmosphere of love which pervaded the Rostov household that winter and, now after Dolokhov's proposal and Iogel's ball, seemed to have grown thicker round Sonya and Natasha as the air does before a thunderstorm.

Sonya and Natasha, in the light-blue dresses they had worn at the theater, looking pretty and conscious of it, were standing by the clavichord, happy and smiling.

Vera was playing chess with Shinshin in the drawing room.

The old countess, waiting for the return of her husband and son, sat playing patience with the old gentlewoman who lived in their house.