In Paris Prince Andrei and Natasha made introductions to the Russian princess Zinaida Volkonskaya, who led them to a music teacher for Natasha. Only in her twenties, thin and elegant with hair of soft, brown curls, Zinaida had lived in Italy but had come to Paris with the celebrating Russians and was among the women closest to Tsar Alexander. Natasha went to hear Zinaida sing the role of Isabella in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri at a private Paris performance and could talk of nothing else to Prince Andrei for days. At night when she could not sleep, Natasha thought of how people spoke meanly of Zinaida taking part in theater, singing and writing because such things were not considered respectable for women of noble birth.

“What if such mean things were said of me?” she wondered, and in her sleepy state felt more scared of this than in her waking state.

“Why not take my music teacher, Boieldieu?” Zinaida generously proposed to Natasha.

He was a French composer who had once conducted the Imperial Opera of Saint Petersburg. She and Natasha went together to a first lesson for Natasha and discovered that they were both contraltos. Solfeggios began to seem to Natasha such simple things that no longer made her as proud as learning new, complex pieces with beautiful melodies under Boieldieu’s instruction.