The next time that he dined in the Avenue d'Iena was a Sunday, a day on which Mr.Tristram left the cards unshuffled, so that there was a trio in the evening on the balcony.
The talk was of many things, and at last Mrs.Tristram suddenly observed to Christopher Newman that it was high time he should take a wife.
"Listen to her; she has the audacity!" said Tristram, who on Sunday evenings was always rather acrimonious.
"I don't suppose you have made up your mind not to marry?"Mrs.Tristram continued.
"Heaven forbid!" cried Newman."I am sternly resolved on it.""It's very easy," said Tristram; "fatally easy!""Well, then, I suppose you do not mean to wait till you are fifty.""On the contrary, I am in a great hurry.""One would never suppose it.Do you expect a lady to come and propose to you?""No; I am willing to propose.I think a great deal about it.""Tell me some of your thoughts."
"Well," said Newman, slowly, "I want to marry very well.""Marry a woman of sixty, then," said Tristram.
" 'Well' in what sense?"
"In every sense.I shall be hard to please.""You must remember that, as the French proverb says, the most beautiful girl in the world can give but what she has.""Since you ask me," said Newman, "I will say frankly that I want extremely to marry.It is time, to begin with: before I know it I shall be forty.
And then I'm lonely and helpless and dull.But if I marry now, so long as Ididn't do it in hot haste when I was twenty, I must do it with my eyes open.
I want to do the thing in handsome style.I do not only want to make no mistakes, but I want to make a great hit.I want to take my pick.
My wife must be a magnificent woman."
"Voila ce qui s'appelle parler!" cried Mrs.Tristram.
"Oh, I have thought an immense deal about it.""Perhaps you think too much.The best thing is simply to fall in love.""When I find the woman who pleases me, I shall love her enough.
My wife shall be very comfortable."
"You are superb! There's a chance for the magnificent women.""You are not fair." Newman rejoined."You draw a fellow out and put him off guard, and then you laugh at him.""I assure you," said Mrs.Tristram, "that I am very serious.
To prove it, I will make you a proposal.Should you like me, as they say here, to marry you?""To hunt up a wife for me?"
"She is already found.I will bring you together.""Oh, come," said Tristram, "we don't keep a matrimonial bureau.
He will think you want your commission."
"Present me to a woman who comes up to my notions," said Newman, "and I will marry her tomorrow.""You have a strange tone about it, and I don't quite understand you.
I didn't suppose you would be so coldblooded and calculating."Newman was silent a while."Well," he said, at last, "I want a great woman.I stick to that.That's one thing ICAN treat myself to, and if it is to be had I mean to have it.
What else have I toiled and struggled for, all these years?
I have succeeded, and now what am I to do with my success?
To make it perfect, as I see it, there must be a beautiful woman perched on the pile, like a statue on a monument.
She must be as good as she is beautiful, and as clever as she is good.
I can give my wife a good deal, so I am not afraid to ask a good deal myself.She shall have everything a woman can desire;I shall not even object to her being too good for me;she may be cleverer and wiser than I can understand, and I shall only be the better pleased.I want to possess, in a word, the best article in the market.""Why didn't you tell a fellow all this at the outset?" Tristram demanded.
"I have been trying so to make you fond of ME!""This is very interesting," said Mrs.Tristram.
"I like to see a man know his own mind."
"I have known mine for a long time," Newman went on.
"I made up my mind tolerably early in life that a beautiful wife was the thing best worth having, here below.
It is the greatest victory over circumstances.When I say beautiful, I mean beautiful in mind and in manners, as well as in person.
It is a thing every man has an equal right to; he may get it if he can.
He doesn't have to be born with certain faculties, on purpose;he needs only to be a man.Then he needs only to use his will, and such wits as he has, and to try.""It strikes me that your marriage is to be rather a matter of vanity.""Well, it is certain," said Newman, "that if people notice my wife and admire her, I shall be mightily tickled.""After this," cried Mrs.Tristram, "call any man modest!""But none of them will admire her so much as I.""I see you have a taste for splendor."
Newman hesitated a little; and then, "I honestly believe I have!" he said.
"And I suppose you have already looked about you a good deal.""A good deal, according to opportunity."
"And you have seen nothing that satisfied you?""No," said Newman, half reluctantly, "I am bound to say in honesty that I have seen nothing that really satisfied me.""You remind me of the heroes of the French romantic poets, Rolla and Fortunio and all those other insatiable gentlemen for whom nothing in this world was handsome enough.
But I see you are in earnest, and I should like to help you.""Who the deuce is it, darling, that you are going to put upon him?"Tristram cried."We know a good many pretty girls, thank Heaven, but magnificent women are not so common.""Have you any objections to a foreigner?" his wife continued, addressing Newman, who had tilted back his chair.and, with his feet on a bar of the balcony railing and his hands in his pockets, was looking at the stars.
"No Irish need apply," said Tristram.
Newman meditated a while."As a foreigner, no," he said at last;"I have no prejudices."
"My dear fellow, you have no suspicions!" cried Tristram.
"You don't know what terrible customers these foreign women are;especially the 'magnificent' ones.How should you like a fair Circassian, with a dagger in her belt?"Newman administered a vigorous slap to his knee."I would marry a Japanese, if she pleased me," he affirmed.
"We had better confine ourselves to Europe," said Mrs.Tristram.