第85章

You make me feel badly.You are too clever a fellow, you are made of too good stuff, to spend your time in ups and downs over that class of goods.The idea of splitting hairs about Miss Nioche!

It seems to me awfully foolish.You say you have given up taking her seriously; but you take her seriously so long as you take her at all."Valentin turned round in his place and looked a while at Newman, wrinkling his forehead and rubbing his knees.

"Vous parlez d'or.But she has wonderfully pretty arms.

Would you believe I didn't know it till this evening?""But she is a vulgar little wretch, remember, all the same," said Newman.

"Yes; the other day she had the bad taste to begin to abuse her father, to his face, in my presence.I shouldn't have expected it of her;it was a disappointment; heigho!"

"Why, she cares no more for her father than for her door-mat," said Newman.

"I discovered that the first time I saw her.""Oh, that's another affair; she may think of the poor old beggar what she pleases.But it was low in her to call him bad names;it quite threw me off.It was about a frilled petticoat that he was to have fetched from the washer-woman's; he appeared to have neglected this graceful duty.She almost boxed his ears.He stood there staring at her with his little blank eyes and smoothing his old hat with his coat-tail.At last he turned round and went out without a word.

Then I told her it was in very bad taste to speak so to one's papa.

She said she should be so thankful to me if I would mention it to her whenever her taste was at fault; she had immense confidence in mine.

I told her I couldn't have the bother of forming her manners;I had had an idea they were already formed, after the best models.

She had disappointed me.But I shall get over it," said Valentin, gayly.

"Oh, time's a great consoler!" Newman answered with humorous sobriety.

He was silent a moment, and then he added, in another tone, "I wish you would think of what I said to you the other day.Come over to America with us, and I will put you in the way of doing some business.

You have a very good head, if you will only use it."Valentin made a genial grimace."My head is much obliged to you.

Do you mean the place in a bank?"

"There are several places, but I suppose you would consider the bank the most aristocratic."Valentin burst into a laugh."My dear fellow, at night all cats are gray!

When one derogates there are no degrees."Newman answered nothing for a minute.Then, "I think you will find there are degrees in success," he said with a certain dryness.

Valentin had leaned forward again, with his elbows on his knees, and he was scratching the pavement with his stick.

At last he said, looking up, "Do you really think I ought to do something?"Newman laid his hand on his companion's arm and looked at him a moment through sagaciously-narrowed eyelids."Try it and see.

You are not good enough for it, but we will stretch a point.""Do you really think I can make some money? I should like to see how it feels to have a little.""Do what I tell you, and you shall be rich," said Newman.

"Think of it." And he looked at his watch and prepared to resume his way to Madame de Bellegarde's box.

"Upon my word I will think of it," said Valentin."I will go and listen to Mozart another half hour--I can always think better to music--and profoundly meditate upon it."

The marquis was with his wife when Newman entered their box;he was bland, remote, and correct as usual; or, as it seemed to Newman, even more than usual.

"What do you think of the opera?" asked our hero.

"What do you think of the Don?"

"We all know what Mozart is," said the marquis; "our impressions don't date from this evening.Mozart is youth, freshness, brilliancy, facility--a little too great facility, perhaps.But the execution is here and there deplorably rough.""I am very curious to see how it ends," said Newman.

"You speak as if it were a feuilleton in the 'Figaro,' " observed the marquis."You have surely seen the opera before?""Never," said Newman."I am sure I should have remembered it.

Donna Elvira reminds me of Madame de Cintre; I don't mean in her circumstances, but in the music she sings.""It is a very nice distinction," laughed the marquis lightly.

"There is no great possibility, I imagine, of Madame de Cintre being forsaken.""Not much!" said Newman."But what becomes of the Don?""The devil comes down--or comes up, said Madame de Bellegarde, "and carries him off.I suppose Zerlina reminds you of me.""I will go to the foyer for a few moments," said the marquis, "and give you a chance to say that the commander--the man of stone--resembles me."And he passed out of the box.

The little marquise stared an instant at the velvet ledge of the balcony, and then murmured, "Not a man of stone, a man of wood." Newman had taken her husband's empty chair.

She made no protest, and then she turned suddenly and laid her closed fan upon his arm."I am very glad you came in," she said.

"I want to ask you a favor.I wanted to do so on Thursday, at my mother-in-law's ball, but you would give me no chance.

You were in such very good spirits that I thought you might grant my little favor then; not that you look particularly doleful now.

It is something you must promise me; now is the time to take you;after you are married you will be good for nothing.Come, promise!""I never sign a paper without reading it first," said Newt man.

"Show me your document."

"No, you must sign with your eyes shut; I will hold your hand.

Come, before you put your head into the noose.You ought to be thankful to me for giving you a chance to do something amusing.""If it is so amusing," said Newman, "it will be in even better season after I am married.""In other words," cried Madame de Bellegarde, "you will not do it at all.

You will be afraid of your wife."

"Oh, if the thing is intrinsically improper," said Newman, "I won't go into it.If it is not, I will do it after my marriage.""You talk like a treatise on logic, and English logic into the bargain!"exclaimed Madame de Bellegarde."Promise, then, after you are married.