- The next day Pierre is hanging out at home, thinking about how awesome his new life is going to be, when he gets a visit from his father-in-law, Prince Vassily.
- Vassily tries to use the same tricks as before to browbeat Pierre into getting back together with Helene. He talks fast and doesn’t let Pierre interrupt. (Pierre is a slow talker and thus easy to talk over.) Vassily has a semi-threatening manner, knowing that Pierre hates confrontation and will usually do whatever people want him to just to avoid saying no.
- But Pierre bucks up as much as he can and whispers that Vassily is an uninvited visitor and needs to leave.
- Vassily is totally thrown by this completely unexpected turn of events and leaves.
- A week later, Pierre gives a lot of money for charity through his Masonic brothers, then leaves for his country estates with some letters of introduction to the Masons in the cities of Odessa (a resort city on the Black Sea) and Kiev (the capital of Ukraine).