She now seemed inclined to take a purely
critical view of Madame de Cintre, and wished to have it understood that
she did not in the least answer for her being a compendium of all the
virtues. "No woman was ever so good as that woman seems," she said.
"Remember what Shakespeare calls Desdemona; 'a supersubtle Venetian.'
Madame de Cintre is a supersubtle Parisian. She is a charming woman, and
she has five hundred merits; but you had better keep that in mind." Was
Mrs. Tristram simply finding out that she was jealous of her dear friend
on the other side of the Seine, and that in undertaking to provide
Newman with an ideal wife she had counted too much on her own
disinterestedness? We may be permitted to doubt it. The inconsistent
little lady of the Avenue d'Iena had an insuperable need of changing
her place, intellectually. She had a lively imagination, and she was
capable, at certain times, of imagining the direct reverse of her
most cherished beliefs, with a vividness more intense than that of
conviction. She got tired of thinking aright; but there was no serious
harm in it, as she got equally tired of thinking wrong. In the midst of
her mysterious perversities she had admirable flashes of justice. One
of these occurred when Newman related to her that he had made a formal
proposal to Madame de Cintre.
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