He went to see Madame de Cintre the next day, and was informed by the servant that she was at home.He passed as usual up the large, cold staircase and through a spacious vestibule above, where the walls seemed all composed of small door panels, touched with long-faded gilding; whence he was ushered into the sitting-room in which he had already been received.
It was empty, and the servant told him that Madame la Comtesse would presently appear.He had time, while he waited, to wonder whether Bellegarde had seen his sister since the evening before, and whether in this case he had spoken to her of their talk.
In this case Madame de Cintre's receiving him was an encouragement.
He felt a certain trepidation as he reflected that she might come in with the knowledge of his supreme admiration and of the project he had built upon it in her eyes; but the feeling was not disagreeable.
Her face could wear no look that would make it less beautiful, and he was sure beforehand that however she might take the proposal he had in reserve, she would not take it in scorn or in irony.
He had a feeling that if she could only read the bottom of his heart and measure the extent of his good will toward her, she would be entirely kind.
She came in at last, after so long an interval that he wondered whether she had been hesitating.She smiled with her usual frankness, and held out her hand; she looked at him straight with her soft and luminous eyes, and said, without a tremor in her voice, that she was glad to see him and that she hoped he was well.He found in her what he had found before--that faint perfume of a personal shyness worn away by contact with the world, but the more perceptible the more closely you approached her.This lingering diffidence seemed to give a peculiar value to what was definite and assured in her manner; it made it seem like an accomplishment, a beautiful talent, something that one might compare to an exquisite touch in a pianist.
It was, in fact, Madame de Cintre's "authority," as they say of artists, that especially impressed and fascinated Newman; he always came back to the feeling that when he should complete himself by taking a wife, that was the way he should like his wife to interpret him to the world.
The only trouble, indeed, was that when the instrument was so perfect it seemed to interpose too much between you and the genius that used it.
Madame de Cintre gave Newman the sense of an elaborate education, of her having passed through mysterious ceremonies and processes of culture in her youth, of her having been fashioned and made flexible to certain exalted social needs.All this, as I have affirmed, made her seem rare and precious--a very expensive article, as he would have said, and one which a man with an ambition to have everything about him of the best would find it highly agreeable to possess.But looking at the matter with an eye to private felicity, Newman wondered where, in so exquisite a compound, nature and art showed their dividing line.
Where did the special intention separate from the habit of good manners?
Where did urbanity end and sincerity begin? Newman asked himself these questions even while he stood ready to accept the admired object in all its complexity; he felt that he could do so in profound security, and examine its mechanism afterwards, at leisure.
"I am very glad to find you alone," he said."You know Ihave never had such good luck before."
"But you have seemed before very well contented with your luck,"said Madame de Cintre."You have sat and watched my visitors with an air of quiet amusement.What have you thought of them?""Oh, I have thought the ladies were very elegant and very graceful, and wonderfully quick at repartee.But what I have chiefly thought has been that they only helped me to admire you."This was not gallantry on Newman's part--an art in which he was quite unversed.It was simply the instinct of the practical man, who had made up his mind what he wanted, and was now beginning to take active steps to obtain it.
Madame de Cintre started slightly, and raised her eyebrows; she had evidently not expected so fervid a compliment."Oh, in that case,"she said with a laugh, "your finding me alone is not good luck for me.
I hope some one will come in quickly."
"I hope not," said Newman."I have something particular to say to you.
Have you seen your brother?"
"Yes, I saw him an hour ago."
"Did he tell you that he had seen me last night?""He said so."
"And did he tell you what we had talked about?"Madame de Cintre hesitated a moment.As Newman asked these questions she had grown a little pale, as if she regarded what was coming as necessary, but not as agreeable.
"Did you give him a message to me?" she asked.
"It was not exactly a message--I asked him to render me a service.""The service was to sing your praises, was it not?"And she accompanied this question with a little smile, as if to make it easier to herself.
"Yes, that is what it really amounts to," said Newman.
"Did he sing my praises?"
"He spoke very well of you.But when I know that it was by your special request, of course I must take his eulogy with a grain of salt.""Oh, that makes no difference," said Newman."Your brother would not have spoken well of me unless he believed what he was saying.
He is too honest for that."
"Are you very deep?" said Madame de Cintre."Are you trying to please me by praising my brother? I confess it is a good way.""For me, any way that succeeds will be good.I will praise your brother all day, if that will help me.He is a noble little fellow.
He has made me feel, in promising to do what he can to help me, that I can depend upon him.""Don't make too much of that," said Madame de Cintre.
"He can help you very little."