A nervous Pierre nonetheless defeats Dolokhov in a duel and maintains his show marriage with Helene, who is now having an affair with Boris Drubetskoi. A meeting with Osip Bazdeev encourages him to join the Freemasons and to improve the welfare of his serfs. Dolokhov recuperates with the Rostovs, winning huge sums at cards from the foolish Nikolai and proposing to Sonya, who turns him down, confessing her love for Nikolai, who cannot respond. Natasha also rejects a proposal from her brother's friend Denisov but when Pierre introduces her to Andrei, who has quit the army and been living a reclusive life to punish himself for neglecting his late wife, both she and Andrei are mutually smitten.
—don @ minifie-1