第41章

Newman perhaps discovered there what little there was, for he presently said, "You don't love your brother.""I beg your pardon," said Bellegarde, ceremoniously; "well-bred people always love their brothers.""Well, I don't love him, then!" Newman answered.

"Wait till you know him!" rejoined Bellegarde, and this time he smiled.

"Is your mother also very remarkable?" Newman asked, after a pause.

"For my mother," said Bellegarde, now with intense gravity, "I have the highest admiration.She is a very extraordinary woman.

You cannot approach her without perceiving it.""She is the daughter, I believe, of an English nobleman.""Of the Earl of St.Dunstan's."

"Is the Earl of St.Dunstan's a very old family?""So-so; the sixteenth century.It is on my father's side that we go back--back, back, back.The family antiquaries themselves lose breath.At last they stop, panting and fanning themselves, somewhere in the ninth century, under Charlemagne.

That is where we begin."

"There is no mistake about it?" said Newman.

"I'm sure I hope not.We have been mistaken at least for several centuries.""And you have always married into old families?""As a rule; though in so long a stretch of time there have been some exceptions.Three or four Bellegardes, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, took wives out of the bourgoisie--married lawyers' daughters."

"A lawyer's daughter; that's very bad, is it?" asked Newman.

"Horrible! one of us, in the middle ages, did better:

he married a beggar-maid, like King Cophetua.That was really better;it was like marrying a bird or a monkey; one didn't have to think about her family at all.Our women have always done well;they have never even gone into the petite noblesse.

There is, I believe, not a case on record of a misalliance among the women."Newman turned this over for a while, and, then at last he said, "You offered, the first time you came to see me to render me any service you could.

I told you that some time I would mention something you might do.

Do you remember?"

"Remember? I have been counting the hours.""Very well; here's your chance.Do what you can to make your sister think well of me."Bellegarde stared, with a smile."Why, I'm sure she thinks as well of you as possible, already.""An opinion founded on seeing me three or four times?

That is putting me off with very little.l want something more.

I have been thinking of it a good deal, and at last I have decided to tell you.I should like very much to marry Madame de Cintre."Bellegarde had been looking at him with quickened expectancy, and with the smile with which he had greeted Newman's allusion to his promised request.At this last announcement he continued to gaze; but his smile went through two or three curious phases.

It felt, apparently, a momentary impulse to broaden;but this it immediately checked.Then it remained for some instants taking counsel with itself, at the end of which it decreed a retreat.It slowly effaced itself and left a look of seriousness modified by the desire not to be rude.

Extreme surprise had come into the Count Valentin's face;but he had reflected that it would be uncivil to leave it there.

And yet, what the deuce was he to do with it? He got up, in his agitation, and stood before the chimney-piece, still looking at Newman.He was a longer time thinking what to say than one would have expected.

"If you can't render me the service I ask," said Newman, "say it out!""Let me hear it again, distinctly," said Bellegarde.

"It's very important, you know.I shall plead your cause with my sister, because you want--you want to marry her?

That's it, eh?"

"Oh, I don't say plead my cause, exactly; I shall try and do that myself.

But say a good word for me, now and then--let her know that you think well of me."At this, Bellegarde gave a little light laugh.

"What I want chiefly, after all," Newman went on, "is just to let you know what I have in mind.I suppose that is what you expect, isn't it?

I want to do what is customary over here.If there is any thing particular to be done, let me know and l will do it.I wouldn't for the world approach Madame de Cintre without all the proper forms.

If I ought to go and tell your mother, why I will go and tell her.

I will go and tell your brother, even.I will go and tell any one you please.As I don't know any one else, I begin by telling you.

But that, if it is a social obligation, is a pleasure as well.""Yes, I see--I see," said Bellegarde, lightly stroking his chin.

"You have a very right feeling about it, but I'm glad you have begun with me." He paused, hesitated, and then turned away and walked slowly the length of the room.

Newman got up and stood leaning against the mantel-shelf, with his hands in his pockets, watching Bellegarde's promenade.

The young Frenchman came back and stopped in front of him.

"I give it up," he said; "I will not pretend I am not surprised.

I am--hugely! Ouf! It's a relief."

"That sort of news is always a surprise," said Newman.

"No matter what you have done, people are never prepared.

But if you are so surprised, I hope at least you are pleased.""Come!" said Bellegarde."I am going to be tremendously frank.

I don't know whether I am pleased or horrified.""If you are pleased, I shall be glad," said Newman, "and Ishall be--encouraged.If you are horrified, I shall be sorry, but I shall not be discouraged.You must make the best of it.""That is quite right--that is your only possible attitude.

You are perfectly serious?"

"Am I a Frenchman, that I should not be?" asked Newman.

"But why is it, by the bye, that you should be horrified?"Bellegarde raised his hand to the back of his head and rubbed his hair quickly up and down, thrusting out the tip of his tongue as he did so.

"Why, you are not noble, for instance," he said.

"The devil I am not!" exclaimed Newman.

"Oh," said Bellegarde a little more seriously, "I did not know you had a title.""A title? What do you mean by a title?" asked Newman.