Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/362

THE AMERICAN But you've been somehow upset and are still worried. Something's the matter."

"Nothing, I repeat, that need make you unhappy. I've completely recovered my balance—if I had lost it: which I had n't! Some day I 'll tell you what it was; not now. I can't now," she insisted.

"Well, I confess," Newman returned, "I don't want to hear anything out of key. I'm satisfied with everything—most of all with you. I've seen all the ladies and talked with a great many of them; but I'm really satisfied with you." The charming woman covered him for a moment with her bright mildness, and then turned her eyes away into the starry night. So they stood silent a moment, side by side. "Say you're really satisfied with me," Newman said.

He had to wait a moment for the answer; but it came at last, low yet distinct. "I'm very very happy."

It was presently followed by a few words from another source which made them both turn round. "I'm sadly afraid Madame la Comtesse will take a chill. I've ventured to bring a shawl." Mrs. Bread stood there softly solicitous, holding a white drapery in her hand.

"Thank you, ma bonne," said Madame de Cintré; "the sight of those cold stars gives one a sense of frost. I won't take your shawl, but we'll go back into the house."

She passed back and Newman followed her, Mrs. Bread standing respectfully aside to make way for them. Newman paused an instant before the old woman and she glanced up at him with a silent 332