Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/304

THE AMERICAN "Well, sir," she went on, "I suppose you won't be vexed to hear that the sooner everything's over the better."

"The sooner we're married, you mean? The better for me, certainly."

"The better for every one."

"The better for you perhaps. You know you're coming to live with us," said Newman.

"I'm extremely obliged to you, sir, but it's not of my poor self I was thinking. I only wanted, if I might take the liberty, to recommend you to lose no time."

"Who are you afraid of?"

Mrs. Bread looked up the staircase and then down, and then looked at the undusted nymph as if she possibly had sentient ears. "I'm afraid of every one."

"What an uncomfortable state of mind! said Newman. Does 'every one' wish to prevent my marriage?"

"I'm afraid of already having said too much," Mrs. Bread replied. "I won't take it back, but I won't say any more." And she kept her course up the staircase again and led him into her mistress's salon.

Newman indulged in a brief and silent imprecation when he found this lady not alone. With her sat her mother, and toward the middle of the room stood young Madame de Bellegarde in bonnet and mantle. The old Marquise, who leant back in her chair clasping the knob of each arm, looked at him hard and without moving. She seemed barely conscious of his greeting; she might have had too much else to think 274