Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/259

THE AMERICAN I have something in common. I've come into this family by marriage; you want to come into it in the same way."

"Oh no, I don't want to come into it at all," he interrupted—"not a wee mite! I only want to take Madame de Cintré out of it."

"Well, to cast your nets you have to go into the water. Our positions are alike; we shall be able to compare notes. What do you think of my husband? It 's a strange question, is n't it? But I shall ask you some stranger ones yet."

"Perhaps a stranger one will be easier to answer," Newman said. "You might try me."

"Oh, you get off very well; the old Comte de la Rochefidèle, yonder, could n't do it better. I told them that if we only gave you a chance you 'd be one of our plus fins causeurs. I know something about men. Besides, you and I belong to the same camp. I'm a ferocious modern. I'm more modern than you, you know—because I've been through this and come out, very far out; which you have n't. Oh, you don't know what this is! Vous allez bien voir. By birth I'm vielle roche; a good little bit of the history of France is the history of my family. Oh, you never heard of us, of course! Ce que c'est que la gloire de race. We're much better than the Bellegardes, at any rate. But I don't care a pin for my pedigree—I only want to belong to my time. So, being a reactionary—from the reaction—I 'm sure I go beyond you. That 's what you look, you know—that you're not reactionary enough. But I like clever people, wherever they come from, and 229