第6章

"I suppose you speak French as well as English?""Better!" said Mr.Tristram, roundly."It's a splendid language.

You can say all sorts of bright things in it.""But I suppose," said Christopher Newman, with an earnest desire for information, "that you must be bright to begin with.""Not a bit; that's just the beauty of it."The two friends, as they exchanged these remarks, had remained standing where they met, and leaning against the rail which protected the pictures.

Mr.Tristram at last declared that he was overcome with fatigue and should be happy to sit down.Newman recommended in the highest terms the great divan on which he had been lounging, and they prepared to seat themselves.

"This is a great place; isn't it?" said Newman, with ardor.

"Great place, great place.Finest thing in the world."And then, suddenly, Mr.Tristram hesitated and looked about him.

"I suppose they won't let you smoke here."Newman stared."Smoke? I'm sure I don't know.

You know the regulations better than I."

"I? I never was here before!"

"Never! in six years?"

"I believe my wife dragged me here once when we first came to Paris, but I never found my way back.""But you say you know Paris so well!"

"I don't call this Paris!" cried Mr.Tristram, with assurance.

"Come; let's go over to the Palais Royal and have a smoke.""I don't smoke," said Newman.

"A drink, then."

And Mr.Tristram led his companion away.They passed through the glorious halls of the Louvre, down the staircases, along the cool, dim galleries of sculpture, and out into the enormous court.

Newman looked about him as he went, but he made no comments, and it was only when they at last emerged into the open air that he said to his friend, "It seems to me that in your place I should have come here once a week.""Oh, no you wouldn't!" said Mr.Tristram."You think so, but you wouldn't.You wouldn't have had time.You would always mean to go, but you never would go.There's better fun than that, here in Paris.

Italy's the place to see pictures; wait till you get there.

There you have to go; you can't do anything else.

It's an awful country; you can't get a decent cigar.

I don't know why I went in there, to-day; I was strolling along, rather hard up for amusement.I sort of noticed the Louvre as I passed, and I thought I would go in and see what was going on.

But if I hadn't found you there I should have felt rather sold.

Hang it, I don't care for pictures; I prefer the reality!"And Mr.Tristram tossed off this happy formula with an assurance which the numerous class of persons suffering from an overdose of "culture" might have envied him.

The two gentlemen proceeded along the Rue de Rivoli and into the Palais Royal, where they seated themselves at one of the little tables stationed at the door of the cafe which projects into the great open quadrangle.

The place was filled with people, the fountains were spouting, a band was playing, clusters of chairs were gathered beneath all the lime-trees, and buxom, white-capped nurses, seated along the benches, were offering to their infant charges the amplest facilities for nutrition.

There was an easy, homely gayety in the whole scene, and Christopher Newman felt that it was most characteristically Parisian.

"And now," began Mr.Tristram, when they had tested the decoction which he had caused to be served to them, "now just give an account of yourself.

What are your ideas, what are your plans, where have you come from and where are you going? In the first place, where are you staying?""At the Grand Hotel," said Newman.

Mr.Tristram puckered his plump visage."That won't do!

You must change."

"Change?" demanded Newman."Why, it's the finest hotel I ever was in.""You don't want a 'fine' hotel; you want something small and quiet and elegant, where your bell is answered and you--your person is recognized."

"They keep running to see if I have rung before I have touched the bell,"said Newman "and as for my person they are always bowing and scraping to it.""I suppose you are always tipping them.That's very bad style.""Always? By no means.A man brought me something yesterday, and then stood loafing in a beggarly manner.

I offered him a chair and asked him if he wouldn't sit down.

Was that bad style?"

"Very!"

"But he bolted, instantly.At any rate, the place amuses me.

Hang your elegance, if it bores me.I sat in the court of the Grand Hotel last night until two o'clock in the morning, watching the coming and going, and the people knocking about.""You're easily pleased.But you can do as you choose--a man in your shoes.

You have made a pile of money, eh?"

"I have made enough"

"Happy the man who can say that? Enough for what?""Enough to rest awhile, to forget the confounded thing, to look about me, to see the world, to have a good time, to improve my mind, and, if the fancy takes me, to marry a wife."Newman spoke slowly, with a certain dryness of accent and with frequent pauses.This was his habitual mode of utterance, but it was especially marked in the words I have just quoted.

"Jupiter! There's a programme!" cried Mr.Tristram.

"Certainly, all that takes money, especially the wife;unless indeed she gives it, as mine did.And what's the story?

How have you done it?"

Newman had pushed his hat back from his forehead, folded his arms, and stretched his legs.He listened to the music, he looked about him at the bustling crowd, at the plashing fountains, at the nurses and the babies.

"I have worked!" he answered at last.

Tristram looked at him for some moments, and allowed his placid eyes to measure his friend's generous longitude and rest upon his comfortably contemplative face."What have you worked at?" he asked.

"Oh, at several things."

"I suppose you're a smart fellow, eh?"

Newman continued to look at the nurses and babies; they imparted to the scene a kind of primordial, pastoral simplicity."Yes," he said at last, "I suppose I am." And then, in answer to his companion's inquiries, he related briefly his history since their last meeting.