The Author of Beltraffio

ically repudiated for the sake of grander acquaintance. "We were all very well so long as we had no rivals-we were better than nothing. But now that you have become the fashion, and have your pic

n that Mrs. Tristram moralized over Newman's so-called neglect, which was in reality a most exemplary constancy. Of course

she appeared but half-pleased at its swiftness. She had succeeded too well; she had played her game too cleverly and she wished to mix up the cards. Newman had told her, in due season, that her friend was "satisfactory." The epithet was not romantic, but Mrs. Tristram had no difficulty in perceiving that, in essentials, the feeling which lay beneath it was. Indeed, the mild, expansive brevity with which it was uttered, and a certain look, at once appealing and inscrutable, that issued from Newman's half-closed eyes as he leaned his head against the back of his chair, seemed to her the most eloquent attestation of a mature sentiment that she had ever encountered. Newman was, according to the French phrase, only abounding in her own sense, but his temperate raptures exerted a singular effect upon the ardor which she herself had so freely manifested a few months before. She now seemed inclined to take a purely critical view of Madame de Cintré, and wished to have it understood that she did not in the least answer for her being a compendium of all the virtues. "No woman was ever so good as that woman seems," she said. "Remember what Shakespeare calls De

there is nothing to congratulat

mph. It is a great triumph that she did not silence you at t

that," obse

no idea you would go over the ground so fast. I never dreamed you would offer yourself after five or six morning-calls. As

mains to

s of her; but you will never begin to know through what a strange sea of feeling she passed before she accepted you. As she stood there in front of you the other day, she plunged into it. She said 'Why not?' to something which, a few hours earlier, had been inconceivable. She turned about on a thousand gathered prejudices and traditions as on a pivot, and looked where she had never look

sfaction in hearing that there was something fine in it. He had not the least doubt of it himself, but he had al

u are already introduced," he said, "and you have begun to be talked about. My sister has mentioned your successive visits to my mother, and it was an accident that my mother was

dame de Cintré has related to your mothe

you have made a great fortune in trade, you are a little eccentric, and you frankly admire our dear Claire. My sister-in-law, whom you remember seeing in Mada

laugh at me, e

ke you, don't hope to purchase favor

on of the walls and the ceiling; with a great deal of faded and carefully repaired tapestry in the doorways and chair-backs; a Turkey carpet in light colors, still soft and deep, in spite of great antiquity, on the floor, and portraits of each of Madame de Bellegarde's children, at the age of ten, suspended against an old screen of red silk. The room wa

a pair of cold blue eyes which had kept much of the freshness of youth. Madame de Bellegarde looked hard at him, and returned his hand-shake with a sort of British positiveness which reminded him that she was

aid Madame de Bellegarde. "You have

ng; "Madame de Cintré and I a

ast," said Madam

should like," sa

ambitious," answ

s I am," said

he was a possible adversary and trying to take her measure. Their eyes remained in contact for some mom

which probably had been thought to give the finishing touch to the aristocratic prettiness of the Lady Emmeline Atheling as represented, forty years before, in several Books of Beauty. Madame de Cintré's face had, to Newman's eye, a range of expression as delightfully vast as the wind-streaked, cloud-flecked distance on a Western prairie. But her mother's white, intense, respectable countenance, with its formal gaze, and its circumscribed smile, suggested a document signed and sealed; a thing of parchment, ink, and ruled lines. "She is a woman of

e said presently. "I have

l in Paris," said

was very pretty! such a wonderful complexion! She presented me a note of introduction from someone-I forgot whom-and she sent with it a note of her own. I kept her letter a long time afterwards, it was so strangely express

or a ball. She was, in a singular way, at once ugly and pretty; she had protuberant eyes, and lips strangely red. She reminded Newman of his friend, Mademoiselle Nioche; this was

nd," he said very gravely. "You might as well

assertion. The mirror descended low, and yet it reflected nothing but a large unclad flesh surface. The young mar

llegarde in the same tone, "but it

n-law. And then, turning to Madame de Bellegard

id the old lady. "But I might

t an ugly word! W

Newman ventured to say, s

nslation," said the young marquise. And th

a s

mply. And with another look at her

, who was apparently wondering what was

And then he added with a fri

know my house-I know my fr

at deal," said Newm

s presumably the first time she ha

what I have," she

ckly-framed panes, to the sallow tints of two or three portraits in pastel, of the last century, which hung between them. He ought, obviously, to have answered

against the chimney-piece, "what do you think of my dear

very far," said Madame de Bellegarde. "I can

tters," said Valentin to Newman. "If yo

day," said Newman, looking at the

; he will bring you into troub

like him," said

uses y

perf

n?" said Madame de Bellega

all come to that!"

e de Bellegarde. "He is much better tha

lentin, reflectively. "But we shall very

been the author of our hero's discomfiture the first time he tried to present himself to Madame de Cintré. Valentin d

Mr. Newman," he said very b

n," said the marquis with a low b

late marquis had been a very amiable foreigner, with an inclination to take life easily and a sense that it was difficult for the husband of the stilted little lady by the fire to do so

s long, lean face, his high-bridged nose and his small, opaque eye he looked much like an Englishman. His whiskers were fair and glossy, and he had a large dimple, of unmistakably British origin, in the middle of his handsome chin. He was "distinguished" to the tips of his polished nails

ently been waiting for her husband to take her to her ba

od idea," mur

Bellegarde. "Only, you must allow me first the p

hall meet again. Indeed, if you would like to converse with me I will gladly name an hour." He

man, half askance, with eyes from which a particular ray of observation made its way through a general meaningless smile. "It is very kind of you to m

business overboard for the present. I am 'l

oined M. de Bellegarde. "'Loafing.'

erican," said Mad

great ethnologist

. "Ah, you collect negroes' s

his other whisker. Then, turning to Newman, with sustained

one thing and another. Of course I g

nterests you?" inq

d Newman. "I am not particular. Manu

been your

rtune in the shortest possible time." Newman made this last remark very deliberately; he

agreeably. "I hope you

ne in a reasonable time.

ish you great enjoyment of yours." And M. de Belleg

patronized; he was conscious of no especial impulse to introduce a discord into so noble a harmony. Only he felt himself suddenly in personal contact with the forces with which his friend Valentin had told him that he would have to contend, and he became sensible of their intensity. He wished to make some answering manifestation, to stretch himself out at

iving all in rooms next door to each other. But I am not an idler. I try to be, but I can't manage it; it goes against the grain. My business habits are too deep-seated. Then, I haven't any house to call my own, or anything in the way of a family. My sisters are five thousand miles away, my mother died when I was a youngster, and I haven't any wife;

alentin stood looking at him fixedly, with his hands in his pockets, and then he slowly, with a half-si

iving when you were a mer

more-a s

llegarde; "but you must do yourself the justice to

school. I thought it was a grand way to keep it. But I picke

ters?" asked old M

isters. Spl

the hardships of life

girls do in our Western country. One of them is married to

lso of india-rubber?"

ses," said young Madame de Bellegarde, who

se in which his brother-in-law lived was a large wooden structure,

n when they go to play in the Tuileries in damp weather," said th

"if he did, you may be ver

couraged," said M. de Bell

esitating, yet thinking rapidly; he wished to make his point, and yet to do so forced him to speak out in a way that was disagreeable to him. Neve

ect, but I am no matchm

then, with perfect sincerity, "I shou

hing sharply in French, and fixed her eyes on her son. At this moment the

ter-in-law. "Claire bids me to request you not

cried the young marquise

lf an hour ago, and she is sticking the l

de, sternly. "She has not been into the world these three years. Does s

alentin, "and I told her that such a beautiful woman-she is

mother, my brother," said M. de Belleg

ed it back, however, and her long white arms were uncovered. In her dense, fair hair there glittered a dozen diamonds. She looked serious and, Newman thought, rather pale; but she glanced round her, and, when she saw him, smiled and put out her hand. He thought her tremendously handsome. He had a chance to look at her full in the

think of me

to myself, to go to the Duchess de Lusignan's, that you told me you were going nowhere and that one must be consis

er," said Madame de Cintré. And she

rbain de Bellegarde; "especially when one i

, if you are going into a room with Madame de Cintr

the room. Valentin rendered the same service to young Madame de Bellegarde, who had apparently been reflecting on the fact that the ball-dress of her sister-in-law was much less brilliant than her own, and yet had failed to derive absolute comfort fro

, stood before her a few moments in silence. "Yo

ange," said Mada

Newman rejoined, smili

e wh

consent, some d

to her feet. "That real

ll you f

ooked at him a moment and then sho

it, then? Will

ask. I am a very proud

very rich,"

probable she was weighing the reasons in favor of resenting the brutal

regations of dollars put on when they are translated into francs. He added a few remarks of

nk," she said finally. "I will be the same. I would rather

But, for the present, you have suffered me lo