She began to think of some other tenderness; at least, that is what I thought.

She looked about her as if expecting some event or some being.

I noticed it, and I could not help being anxious.
"Always, now, it happened that, in talking with me through a third party (that is, in talking with others, but with the intention that I should hear), she boldly expressed,--not thinking that an hour before she had said the opposite,--half joking, half seriously, this idea that maternal anxieties are a delusion; that it is not worth while to sacrifice one's life to children.

When one is young, it is necessary to enjoy life.

So she occupied herself less with the children, not with the same intensity as formerly, and paid more and more attention to herself, to her face,--although she concealed it,--to her pleasures, and even to her perfection from the worldly point of view.