Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/456

THE AMERICAN "I'm glad to see you," he answered; "I think you 're my friend."

Mrs. Bread looked at him opaquely. "I wish you well, sir; but it's vain wishing now."

"You know then how they've treated me?"

"Oh, sir," she dryly returned, "I know everything."

He frankly enough wondered. "Everything?"

Her eyes just visibly lighted. "I know at least too much."

"One can never know too much. I congratulate you on every scrap of it. I've come to see Madame de Bellegarde and her son," Newman added. "Are they at home? If they're not I 'll wait."

"My lady's always at home," Mrs. Bread replied, "and the Marquis is mostly with her."

"Please then tell them—one or the other, or both—that I'm here and that I should like to see them."

Mrs. Bread hesitated. "May I take a great liberty, sir?"

"You've never taken a liberty but you've justified it," said Newman with diplomatic urbanity.

She dropped her wrinkled eyelids as if she were curtseying; but the curtsey stopped there: the occasion was too grave. "You 've come to plead with them again, sir? Perhaps you don't know this—that the poor Countess returned this morning to Paris."

"Ah, she's gone!" And Newman, groaning, smote the pavement with his stick.

"She's gone straight to the convent—the 426