Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/63

 spend such very magnificent leisure as that. You should get introduced to the crowned heads."

Newman considered a moment and then with all his candour, "How does one do it?" he asked.

"Come, I like that!" cried Tristram. "It shows you're in earnest."

"Of course I'm in earnest. Did n't I say I wanted the best? I know the best can't be had for mere money, but I'm willing to take a good deal of trouble."

"You're not too shrinking, hey?"

"I have n't the least idea—I must see. I want the biggest kind of entertainment a man can get. People, places, art, nature, everything! I want to see the tallest mountains, and the bluest lakes, and the finest pictures, and the handsomest churches, and the most celebrated men, and the most elegant women."

"Settle down in Paris then. There are no mountains that I know of, higher than Montmartre, and the only lake's in the Bois de Boulogne and not particularly blue. But there's everything else: plenty of pictures and churches, no end of celebrated men, and several elegant women."

"But I can't settle down in Paris at this season, just as summer's coming on."

"Oh, for the summer go right up to Trouville."

"And what may Trouville be?"

"Well, a sort of French Newport—as near as they can come. All the Americans go."

"Is it anywhere near the Alps?"

"About as near as Newport to the Rocky Mountains."

"Oh, I want to see Mont Blanc," said Newman, 33