"That quite set her up again."
"What a checkered career!" said Newman. "Are you very fond of children?"
He was certain that she was, but he wished to make her say it.
"I like to talk with them," she answered; "we can talk with them so much
more seriously than with grown persons. That is great nonsense that I
have been telling Blanche, but it is a great deal more serious than most
of what we say in society."
"I wish you would talk to me, then, as if I were Blanche's age," said
Newman, laughing. "Were you happy at your ball, the other night?"
"Ecstatically!"
"Now you are talking the nonsense that we talk in society," said Newman.
"I don't believe that."
"It was my own fault if I was not happy. The ball was very pretty, and
every one very amiable."
"It was on your conscience," said Newman, "that you had annoyed your
mother and your brother."
Madame de Cintre looked at him a moment without answering. "That is
true," she replied at last. "I had undertaken more than I could carry
out. I have very little courage; I am not a heroine." She said this with
a certain soft emphasis; but then, changing her tone, "I could never
have gone through the sufferings of the beautiful Florabella," she
added, not even for her prospective rewards.
Dinner was announced, and Newman betook himself to the side of the old
Madame de Bellegarde.
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