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"You think so?" rejoined Anna Pavlovna in order to say something

and get away to attend to her duties as hostess. But Pierre now

committed a reverse act of impoliteness. First he had left a lady

before she had finished speaking to him, and now he continued to

speak to another who wished to get away. With his head bent, and

his big feet spread apart, he began explaining his reasons for

thinking the abbe's plan chimerical.

"We will talk of it later," said Anna Pavlovna with a smile.