In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 7, Chapters 7 and 8

Chapter 7

By evening, the hunting party is so far from home that Nikolai accepts "Uncle's" offer for the hunting party to stay with him.  They do send home for a 'trap' to take Natasha home.  Basically, they've called her an uber.  Uncle's serfs are very surprised to see Natasha being a lady on horseback and come and stare at her.  I think it's employed that Uncle and his housekeeper, Anisya Fedorovna, basically live as man and wife.  Uncle is very trusted around the neighbourhood, and is known not to be a gossip.  He decides family disputes, acts as executor, and resists the public appointments he keeps being offered.

They spend the evening having dinner and listening to someone play the balalayka, and then Uncle playing the guitar.  This is the chapter where we learn that Natasha can dance peasant dances, despite being a little countess, and this juxtaposition, of peasant and noble, mirrors other juxtapositions, such as, indeed, war and peace, according to that essay I started reading the other day.  Anyway, Nikolai pulls a face when Natasha alludes to Andrew, and Natasha thinks it's almost as if Nikolai believes Andrew wouldn't understand the evening, when she knows that he would.  Then she gets distracted by the music again and resolves to learn the guitar instead of the harp.  Petya has been asleep this entire time.

The traps arrive to pick up Natasha and Petya at 9pm.  Nikolai goes with them, and he and Natasha have a nice moment of sibling bonding.

Chapter 8

This chapter explains how the Rostovs are haemorrhaging money.  They have numerous staff or family or people in-between that live with them, they're still spending lots of money on hunting and entertaining, and so on.  Count Rostov enjoys gambling, but is almost as bad at it as Nikolai and his neighbours have noticed.  Count Rostov tries to ignore the problem while his wife tries to come up with a solution.  Her only idea is to have Nikolai marry an heiress, such as Julie Kuragina - that woman Maria is always writing to - who is now rich due to the death of her brothers.  The Countess has written to Julie's mother and has received a favourable response, as long as Julie and Nikolai like one another.   She tries to hint about this to him, but he asks her to tell him straight out and she does.  Wanting to seem noble, he asks "but if I loved a poor girl you wouldn't want me to give her up for money?".   The countess doesn't like the question put like that, and insists she only wants her son to be happy.  I think that's true, she just doesn't see how he can be happy if his family is destitute.  Nikolai is now feeling very loving towards Sonya, presumably because it seems romantic.

The countess doesn't force Nikolai to go to Moscow to visit Julie.  Instead, she watches him and Sonya grow closer.  The countess is very unhappy with Sonya, not least because Sonya is faultless, apart from being poor.  Andrew's return to Russia has been delayed because his wound has reopened.   Natasha begins to have fits of depression and feel very sorry for herself.  Basically, no one's happy.