- Pierre goes over to the Rostovs’ house. He keeps getting fatter and fatter and now has trouble climbing the stairs.
- He sees Natasha singing to herself, and she seems like she’s really doing a lot better.
- They talk about how great Nikolai is. Then Natasha tells Pierre that he is super-important to her to the -nth degree and asks his opinion about whether Andrei will ever forgive her.
- Pierre doesn’t answer and mostly just thinks about how he loves her.
- Petya runs into the room and asks Pierre about joining the army instead of going to college.
- Pierre says it’s no problem, since they are trying to enlist as many people as possible.
- The Count and Countess come to dinner. They decide to put off reading Alexander’s proclamation until after the meal and instead chitchat about random things.
- After dinner, Sonya reads the proclamation out loud. Basically it’s a call to arms and a pep talk trying to boost morale. The Rostovs are into it.
- Petya announces that he wants to join up. Countess Rostov freaks out, and his dad is all, um, no.
- Meanwhile, Natasha keeps looking at Pierre, and he is going kind of nuts with the love and stuff. He goes home and on the way decides not to visit the Rostovs anymore.