In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 11 Chapter 7

This delay was because the new semester has started and, also, I have fresher's flu from working during welcome week.

Chapter 7

Helene is pretty sure that the church is fine with her preferred outcome, they're just worried about what people are going to think, so she starts making sure society will be on her side.  She creates a situation where both suitors have proposed to her, so society stops talking about her divorcing Pierre because they're distracted by which suitor she should marry.  A friend of hers, Bilibin, suggests that she could first marry the older suitor then, when he dies, marry the younger one.  He also asks what Pierre makes of all this, and Helene replies that he loves her and wants her to be happy because, for some reason, she thinks this is true.

Helene's mother does not approve of her shenanigans, and has consulted with her own priest who has found a text in the Gospel which clearly states that remarriage is not possible while the husband remains alive.  Helene says it doesn't count because the Pope is willing to give her a dispension.  She explains it in French because it sounds better.  This wins her mother to her side, and Helene writes a letter explaining the whole thing to Pierre, still feeling sure that he loves her and will be very happy to grant her a divorce for her own happiness.  Pierre receives it on the field of Borodino.