She hoped that Newman would never be afraid of her,
however he might be with the others, for, really, she went very far
indeed. "Strong people"--le gens forts--were in her opinion equal,
all the world over. Newman listened to her with an attention at once
beguiled and irritated. He wondered what the deuce she, too, was
driving at, with her hope that he would not be afraid of her and her
protestations of equality. In so far as he could understand her, she was
wrong; a silly, rattling woman was certainly not the equal of a sensible
man, preoccupied with an ambitious passion. Madame de Bellegarde stopped
suddenly, and looked at him sharply, shaking her fan. "I see you don't
believe me," she said, "you are too much on your guard. You will not
form an alliance, offensive or defensive? You are very wrong; I could
help you."
Newman answered that he was very grateful and that he would certainly
ask for help; she should see. "But first of all," he said, "I must help
myself." And he went to join Madame de Cintre.
"I have been telling Madame de la Rochefidele that you are an American,"
she said, as he came up. "It interests her greatly. Her father went over
with the French troops to help you in your battles in the last century,
and she has always, in consequence, wanted greatly to see an American.
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