Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/401

THE AMERICAN mean or base?" he rang out. "Have I given you any reason to change your opinion? Have you found out anything against me? Hanged if I can imagine!"

"Our opinion," said Madame de Bellegarde, "is quite the same as at first—exactly. We've no ill-will towards yourself; we're very far from accusing you of misconduct. Since your relations with us began you've been, I frankly confess, less eccentric than I expected. It's not your personal character that we object to, it's your professional—it's your antecedents. We really can't reconcile ourselves to a commercial person. We tried to believe in an evil hour it was possible, and that effort was our great misfortune. We determined to persevere to the end and to give you every advantage. I was resolved you should have no reason to accuse me of a want of loyalty. We let the thing certainly go very far—we introduced you to our friends. To tell the truth it was that, I think, that broke me down. I succumbed to the scene that took place the other night in these rooms. You must pardon me if what I say is disagreeable to you, but you've insisted, with violence, on an explanation."

"There's no better proof of our good faith," the Marquis superadded, "than our committing ourselves to you in the eyes of the world three evenings since. We endeavoured to bind ourselves—to tie our hands and cut off our retreat. Could we have done more?"

"But it was that," his mother subjoined, "that opened our eyes and broke our bonds. We should have been deeply uncomfortable with any such 371