Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/424

THE AMERICAN asleep. But at the end of half an hour he was again conversing. "I'm rather sorry about that place in the bank. Who knows but I might have become another Rothschild? But I was n't meant for a banker; bankers are not so easy to kill. Don't you think I've been very easy to kill? It's not like a serious man. It's really very mortifying. It's like telling your hostess you must go, when you count upon her begging you to stay, and then finding she does no such thing. 'Really—so soon? You've only just come!' This beastly underbred life of ours does n't make me any such polite little speech."

Newman for some time said nothing, but at last he broke out. "It's a bad case—it's a bad case—it's the worst case I ever met. I don't want to say anything unpleasant, but I can't help it. I've seen men dying before—and I've seen men shot. I've seen men in the worst kind of holes—worse even than yours. But it always seemed more natural; they were of no account compared to you—and at any rate I did n't care. But now—damnation, damnation! You might have done something more to the purpose. It's about the meanest wind-up of a man's legitimate business I can imagine!"

Valentin feebly waved his hand to and fro. "Don't insist—don't insist! It's taking a mean advantage. For you see at the bottom—down at the bottom in a little place as small as the end of a wine-funnel—I agree with you! A few moments after this the doctor put his head through the half-opened door and, perceiving his charge was awake, came in to feel his pulse. He shook his head and declared he 394