Pagina 22 di 3800

And having got rid of this young man who did not know how to

behave, she resumed her duties as hostess and continued to listen

and watch, ready to help at any point where the conversation

might happen to flag. As the foreman of a spinning mill, when he

has set the hands to work, goes round and notices here a spindle

that has stopped or there one that creaks or makes more noise

than it should, and hastens to check the machine or set it in

proper motion, so Anna Pavlovna moved about her drawing room,

approaching now a silent, now a too-noisy group, and by a word or

slight rearrangement kept the conversational machine in steady,

proper, and regular motion. But amid these cares her anxiety

about Pierre was evident. She kept an anxious watch on him when

he approached the group round Mortemart to listen to what was

being said there, and again when he passed to another group whose

center was the abbe.