Modeste laid each thread of cotton with a precision that would have made an ordinary workwoman desperate.

Her face expressed the pleasure she took in the smooth petals of the flower she was working.

The dwarf, seated between his mistress and Gobenheim, restrained his emotion, trying to find means to approach Modeste and whisper a word of warning in her ear.
By taking a position in front of Madame Mignon, Madame Latournelle, with the diabolical intelligence of conscientious duty, had isolated Modeste.
Madame Mignon, whose blindness always made her silent, was even paler than usual, showing plainly that she was aware of the test to which her daughter was about to be subjected.

Perhaps at the last moment she revolted from the stratagem, necessary as it might seem to her.

Hence her silence; she was weeping inwardly.