登陆注册
15396100000057

第57章

Three days after his introduction to the family of Madame de Cintre, Newman, coming in toward evening, found upon his table the card of the Marquis de Bellegarde.On the following day he received a note informing him that the Marquise de Bellegarde would be grateful for the honor of his company at dinner.

He went, of course, though he had to break another engagement to do it.He was ushered into the room in which Madame de Bellegarde had received him before, and here he found his venerable hostess, surrounded by her entire family.

The room was lighted only by the crackling fire, which illuminated the very small pink slippers of a lady who, seated in a low chair, was stretching out her toes before it.

This lady was the younger Madame de Bellegarde.Madame de Cintre was seated at the other end of the room, holding a little girl against her knee, the child of her brother Urbain, to whom she was apparently relating a wonderful story.

Valentin was sitting on a puff, close to his sister-in-law, into whose ear he was certainly distilling the finest nonsense.

The marquis was stationed before the fire, with his head erect and his hands behind him, in an attitude of formal expectancy.

Old Madame de Bellegarde stood up to give Newman her greeting, and there was that in the way she did so which seemed to measure narrowly the extent of her condescension.

"We are all alone, you see, we have asked no one else,"she said, austerely.

"I am very glad you didn't; this is much more sociable," said Newman.

"Good evening, sir," and he offered his hand to the marquis.

M.de Bellegarde was affable, but in spite of his dignity he was restless.

He began to pace up and down the room, he looked out of the long windows, he took up books and laid them down again.Young Madame de Bellegarde gave Newman her hand without moving and without looking at him.

"You may think that is coldness," exclaimed Valentin; "but it is not, it is warmth.It shows she is treating you as an intimate.

Now she detests me, and yet she is always looking at me.""No wonder I detest you if I am always looking at you!" cried the lady.

"If Mr.Newman does not like my way of shaking hands, I will do it again."But this charming privilege was lost upon our hero, who was already making his way across the room to Madame de Cintre.

She looked at him as she shook hands, but she went on with the story she was telling her little niece.She had only two or three phrases to add, but they were apparently of great moment.

She deepened her voice, smiling as she did so, and the little girl gazed at her with round eyes.

"But in the end the young prince married the beautiful Florabella,"said Madame de Cintre, "and carried her off to live with him in the Land of the Pink Sky.There she was so happy that she forgot all her troubles, and went out to drive every day of her life in an ivory coach drawn by five hundred white mice.Poor Florabella," she exclaimed to Newman, "had suffered terribly.""She had had nothing to eat for six months," said little Blanche.

"Yes, but when the six months were over, she had a plum-cake as big as that ottoman," said Madame de Cintre.

"That quite set her up again."

"What a checkered career!" said Newman."Are you very fond of children?"He was certain that she was, but he wished to make her say it.

"I like to talk with them," she answered; "we can talk with them so much more seriously than with grown persons.

That is great nonsense that I have been telling Blanche, but it is a great deal more serious than most of what we say in society.""I wish you would talk to me, then, as if I were Blanche's age,"said Newman, laughing."Were you happy at your ball, the other night?""Ecstatically!"

"Now you are talking the nonsense that we talk in society," said Newman.

"I don't believe that."

"It was my own fault if I was not happy.The ball was very pretty, and every one very amiable.""It was on your conscience," said Newman, "that you had annoyed your mother and your brother."Madame de Cintre looked at him a moment without answering.

"That is true," she replied at last."I had undertaken more than I could carry out.I have very little courage;I am not a heroine." She said this with a certain soft emphasis;but then, changing her tone, "I could never have gone through the sufferings of the beautiful Florabella," she added, not even for her prospective rewards.

Dinner was announced, and Newman betook himself to the side of the old Madame de Bellegarde.The dining-room, at the end of a cold corridor, was vast and sombre; the dinner was simple and delicately excellent.Newman wondered whether Madame de Cintre had had something to do with ordering the repast and greatly hoped she had.Once seated at table, with the various members of the ancient house of Bellegarde around him, he asked himself the meaning of his position.

Was the old lady responding to his advances? Did the fact that he was a solitary guest augment his credit or diminish it?

Were they ashamed to show him to other people, or did they wish to give him a sign of sudden adoption into their last reserve of favor?

Newman was on his guard; he was watchful and conjectural;and yet at the same time he was vaguely indifferent.

Whether they gave him a long rope or a short one he was there now, and Madame de Cintre was opposite to him.

She had a tall candlestick on each side of her;she would sit there for the next hour, and that was enough.

The dinner was extremely solemn and measured; he wondered whether this was always the state of things in "old families."Madame de Bellegarde held her head very high, and fixed her eyes, which looked peculiarly sharp in her little, finely-wrinkled white face, very intently upon the table-service.The marquis appeared to have decided that the fine arts offered a safe subject of conversation, as not leading to startling personal revelations.

Every now and then, having learned from Newman that he had been through the museums of Europe, he uttered some polished aphorism upon the flesh-tints of Rubens and the good taste of Sansovino.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 七星极

    七星极

    一座寺院的毁灭,揭开了一个千年的阴谋;一个预言咒师的预言改变了一个平庸的少年的命运。。。少年昊辰不畏命运的压迫,不畏阴谋的可怕,毅然走上复仇之路。。且看他如何掌七星,破无极修武境界:元极玄极武极术极灵极幻极皇极郡极...
  • 追情浪子

    追情浪子

    不思飞燕两分张天涯何处是断肠名垂千古有如何此生独恨意难缘一个十三岁的少年因为一场意外的寻师之旅,从此卷入了一件件离奇事件当中,少年能否拨开层层迷雾,找到最终的真相,而迷阵上面的十六个字又代表了什么那?一切就此这里开始,(境界:不入流,三流,二流,一流人级,一流地级。一流天级,人乙。地乙,天乙,人甲,地甲。天甲)
  • 网游之绝对武力

    网游之绝对武力

    这是一个世界上最大型角色扮演游戏,也是一个开放性极强的游戏。无限真实又虚幻的虚拟世界里有无限的可能,每个人其实都不平庸,只是没有发挥自己才能的舞台而已,这里没有所谓操作,没有流派!完全就是自己控制自己演绎着属于自己的传说!
  • 继承者们:我的校花女友

    继承者们:我的校花女友

    她是全家人的掌心宝贝,是全世界第一世家的继承人,是全世界第一帮派的帮主......当然,她也有个他。。他是个孤儿,性格怪异,知道他遇到了她。
  • 感召营销:口碑传播的内在诀窍

    感召营销:口碑传播的内在诀窍

    本书首次系统地提出感召营销的理念,深入剖析感召营销的精髓,并对如何启动感召营销,以及感召营销的五个步骤进行提炼和论述。同时还对口碑传播进行了总结与提炼。
  • 逆天神尊:废柴五小姐

    逆天神尊:废柴五小姐

    她,天界战神,却被自己的亲妹妹与未婚夫害死,一朝重生成羽涅大陆的废柴小姐。废柴?草包?傻子?这些词可从来不属于她!天生丑颜?谁又知,丑颜下是怎样的惊才绝艳!习神功,炼灵丹,这一次,她一定要杀进九霄之巅,取那对狗男女的项上人头!
  • 邪魁蛇王的苏甜心

    邪魁蛇王的苏甜心

    “墨离殇粗来吃肉了!”啥米?有肉吃?“喂喂喂,墨离殇你压在我身上干嘛?”“干你!”“你给我下去,啊!——那~轻点,嗯哼……”
  • 龙血耀帝

    龙血耀帝

    一个少年,从小遭受侮辱,被人骂,但他也有自己的苦衷,幸得龙族宝物,一次又一次的打败对手,为了爱情,杀上了天庭,续写传奇故事(求收藏,求推荐)
  • 不朽鬼圣

    不朽鬼圣

    这是一个修炼的世界!各种修炼法门层出不穷!修天道!修仙道!修人道!修武道!四大修炼正宗,分足鼎力,引领一方!修鬼道!被世人斥为邪门歪道,大加讨伐,势不两立!但常言道:人有人道,鬼有鬼道!虽殊途但却同归!最终的追求都是那永恒的不朽!修炼一途,孰正孰邪?!不在何种手段,而在人心!
  • 最好的人生,是做足八分刚刚好

    最好的人生,是做足八分刚刚好

    从健康角度来说,饭不宜吃得过饱,八分为最好。其实,我们为人处事从智慧与和谐的角度来说,遵循八分饱的尺度也是最合适的。所谓人生的八分饱智慧,指的是为人处事行止有度,屈伸合拍。八分饱的人生智慧,讲究的是一种和谐、有弹性的生活方式。遵循八分智慧的人,不会认为自己所提倡的是绝对的真理,他们只是在努力地接近生活的内核,并希望能窥探到八分真相。因此,八分饱的人生智慧,本身就是一种“在路上”的智慧。