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During Rostov's short stay in Moscow, before rejoining the army,

he did not draw closer to Sonya, but rather drifted away from

her. She was very pretty and sweet, and evidently deeply in love

with him, but he was at the period of youth when there seems so

much to do that there is no time for that sort of thing and a

young man fears to bind himself and prizes his freedom which he

needs for so many other things. When he thought of Sonya, during

this stay in Moscow, he said to himself, "Ah, there will be, and

there are, many more such girls somewhere whom I do not yet know.

There will be time enough to think about love when I want to, but

now I have no time." Besides, it seemed to him that the society

of women was rather derogatory to his manhood. He went to balls

and into ladies' society with an affectation of doing so against

his will. The races, the English Club, sprees with Denisov, and

visits to a certain house-that was another matter and quite the

thing for a dashing young hussar!