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“Stolypin gave a deep bass guffaw as he munched a piece of bread and cheese. Gervais laughed softly with a hissing chuckle, and Speranski in a high-pitched staccato manner.” – Tolstoy uses a group of three for comedic effect to show how banal and silly these men are – at least to Andrei.

Why such a sudden shift in Andrei? He’s met Natasha, someone real, and now he sees how fake everything else is.