- August 17. Nikolai & Co. go out for a ride. Since they’re about ten miles away from Bogucharovo, that’s where they end up going, hoping to chat up some servant girls.
- They find a bunch of the peasants milling about drunkenly and are told it’s a village meeting.
- Just then Marya’s servant rushes out to the soldiers and says that the princess wants to know who they are.
- Nikolai introduces himself as Count Rostov, and Alpatych comes out to him and gestures that they should move away from the drunkards to talk.
- Alpatych tells Nikolai that the serfs are preventing Marya from leaving. Nikolai is immediately up in arms, and Alpatych fills him in on the details – for instance, that Dron quit his post as the head guy and has joined the peasants once and for all.
- Nikolai goes into the main house and talks to Marya. She is relieved that he’s an aristocrat like her. He’s excited to get to be a big hero to this young woman.
- He vows to deal with the situation and get her on her way.
- She says that it’s no one’s fault and starts to cry.