ly, to have answered that the contentment of his
hostess was quite natural--she had a great deal; but the idea did not
occur to him during the pause of some moments which followed.

"Well, my dear mother," said Valentin, coming and leaning against the
chimney-piece, "what do you think of my dear friend Newman? Is he not
the excellent fellow I told you?"

"My acquaintance with Mr. Newman has not gone very far," said Madame de
Bellegarde. "I can as yet only appreciate his great politeness."

"My mother is a great judge of these matters," said Valentin to Newman.
"If you have satisfied her, it is a triumph."

"I hope I shall satisfy you, some day," said Newman, looking at the old
lady. "I have done nothing yet."

"You must not listen to my son; he will bring you into trouble. He is a
sad scatterbrain."

"Oh, I like him--I like him," said Newman, genially.

"He amuses you, eh?"

"Yes, perfectly."

"Do you hear that, Valentin?" said Madame de Bellegarde. "You amuse Mr.
Newman."

"Perhaps we shall all come to that!" Valentin exclaimed.

"You must see my other son," said Madame de Bellegarde. "He is much
better than this one. But he will not amuse you."

"I don't know--I don't know!" murmured Valentin, reflectively. "But we
shall very soon see. Here comes Monsieur mon frere."

The door had just opened to give ingress to a gentleman who stepped
forward and whose face Newman remembered. He had been the author of our
hero's discomfiture the first time he tried to present himself to Madame
de Cintre. Valentin de Bellegarde went to meet his brother, looked at
him a moment, and then, taking him by the arm, led him up to Newman.

"This is my excellent friend Mr. Newman," he said very blandly. "You
must know him."

"I am delighted to know Mr. Newman," said the marquis with a low bow,
but without offering his hand.

"He is the old woman at second-hand," Newman said to himself, as he
returned M. de Bellegarde's greeting. And this was the starting-point of
a speculative theory, in his mind, that the 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. But if he had taken little comfort in his wife he had
taken much in his two younger children, who were after his own heart,
while Madame de Bellegarde had paired with her eldest-born.

"My brother has spoken to me of you," said M. de Bell