When he was a baby I was too young; they wouldn't trust me with him. But
his wife told her own maid, Mamselle Clarisse, the opinion she had of
me. Perhaps you would like to hear it, sir."
"Oh, immensely," said Newman.
"She said that if I would sit in her children's schoolroom I should do
very well for a penwiper! When things have come to that I don't think I
need stand upon ceremony."
"Decidedly not," said Newman. "Go on, Mrs. Bread."
Mrs. Bread, however, relapsed again into troubled dumbness, and all
Newman could do was to fold his arms and wait. But at last she appeared
to have set her memories in order. "It was when the late marquis was an
old man and his eldest son had been two years married. It was when the
time came on for marrying Mademoiselle Claire; that's the way they talk
of it here, you know, sir. The marquis's health was bad; he was very
much broken down. My lady had picked out M. de Cintre, for no good
reason that I could see. But there are reasons, I very well know, that
are beyond me, and you must be high in the world to understand them. Old
M. de Cintre was very high, and my lady thought him almost as good
as herself; that's saying a good deal. Mr. Urbain took sides with his
mother, as he always did. The trouble, I believe, was that my lady would
give very little money, and all the other gentlemen asked more.
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