Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/247

THE AMERICAN her. "But in the end the young prince married the beautiful Florabella, 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 mentioned 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," Madame de Cintré insisted. "That quite set her up again."

"What a strong constitution and what a chequered career!" said Newman. "Are you very fond of children?" He was certain she must be, but wished to make her say it.

"I like to talk with them; we can talk with them so much more seriously than with grown persons. That's great nonsense I've been telling Blanche, but it has much more value than most of what we say in society."

"I wish you would talk to me then as if I were Blanche's age," Newman laughed. "Were you happy at your ball the other night?"

"Extravagantly!"

"Now you're talking the nonsense that we talk in society," said Newman. "I don't believe that."

"It was my own fault if I was n't happy. The ball was very pretty and every one very amiable."

"It was on your conscience," he presently risked, "that you had annoyed your mother and your brother." 217