Part 45 (1/2)

said the marquis, toying with his watch-guard. ”But it is perhaps well to say a little more. We of course quite repudiate the charge of having broken faith with you. We left you entirely at liberty to make yourself agreeable to my sister. We left her quite at liberty to entertain your proposal. When she accepted you we said nothing. We therefore quite observed our promise. It was only at a later stage of the affair, and on quite a different basis, as it were, that we determined to speak. It would have been better, perhaps, if we had spoken before. But really, you see, nothing has yet been done.”

”Nothing has yet been done?” Newman repeated the words, unconscious of their comical effect. He had lost the sense of what the marquis was saying; M. de Bellegarde's superior style was a mere humming in his ears. All that he understood, in his deep and simple indignation, was that the matter was not a violent joke, and that the people before him were perfectly serious. ”Do you suppose I can take this?” he asked.

”Do you suppose it can matter to me what you say? Do you suppose I can seriously listen to you? You are simply crazy!”

Madame de Bellegarde gave a rap with her fan in the palm of her hand.

”If you don't take it you can leave it, sir. It matters very little what you do. My daughter has given you up.”

”She doesn't mean it,” Newman declared after a moment.

”I think I can a.s.sure you that she does,” said the marquis.

”Poor woman, what d.a.m.nable thing have you done to her?” cried Newman.

”Gently, gently!” murmured M. de Bellegarde.

”She told you,” said the old lady. ”I commanded her.”

Newman shook his head, heavily. ”This sort of thing can't be, you know,”

he said. ”A man can't be used in this fas.h.i.+on. You have got no right; you have got no power.”

”My power,” said Madame de Bellegarde, ”is in my children's obedience.”

”In their fear, your daughter said. There is something very strange in it. Why should your daughter be afraid of you?” added Newman, after looking a moment at the old lady. ”There is some foul play.”

The marquise met his gaze without flinching, and as if she did not hear or heed what he said. ”I did my best,” she said, quietly. ”I could endure it no longer.”

”It was a bold experiment!” said the marquis.

Newman felt disposed to walk to him, clutch his neck with his fingers and press his windpipe with his thumb. ”I needn't tell you how you strike me,” he said; ”of course you know that. But I should think you would be afraid of your friends--all those people you introduced me to the other night. There were some very nice people among them; you may depend upon it there were some honest men and women.”

”Our friends approve us,” said M. de Bellegarde, ”there is not a family among them that would have acted otherwise. And however that may be, we take the cue from no one. The Bellegardes have been used to set the example not to wait for it.”

”You would have waited long before any one would have set you such an example as this,” exclaimed Newman. ”Have I done anything wrong?” he demanded. ”Have I given you reason to change your opinion? Have you found out anything against me? I can't imagine.”

”Our opinion,” said Madame de Bellegarde, ”is quite the same as at first--exactly. We have no ill-will towards yourself; we are very far from accusing you of misconduct. Since your relations with us began you have been, I frankly confess, less--less peculiar than I expected. It is not your disposition that we object to, it is your antecedents. We really cannot reconcile ourselves to a commercial person. We fancied in an evil hour that we could; it was a great misfortune. We determined to persevere to the end, and to give you every advantage. I was resolved that you should have no reason to accuse me of want of loyalty. We let the thing certainly go very far; we introduced you to our friends. To tell the truth, it was that, I think, that broke me down. I succ.u.mbed to the scene that took place on Thursday night in these rooms. You must excuse me if what I say is disagreeable to you, but we cannot release ourselves without an explanation.”

”There can be no better proof of our good faith,” said the marquis, ”than our committing ourselves to you in the eyes of the world the other evening. We endeavored to bind ourselves--to tie our hands, as it were.”

”But it was that,” added his mother, ”that opened our eyes and broke our bonds. We should have been most uncomfortable! You know,” she added in a moment, ”that you were forewarned. I told you we were very proud.”

Newman took up his hat and began mechanically to smooth it; the very fierceness of his scorn kept him from speaking. ”You are not proud enough,” he observed at last.

”In all this matter,” said the marquis, smiling, ”I really see nothing but our humility.”

”Let us have no more discussion than is necessary,” resumed Madame de Bellegarde. ”My daughter told you everything when she said she gave you up.”

”I am not satisfied about your daughter,” said Newman; ”I want to know what you did to her. It is all very easy talking about authority and saying you commanded her. She didn't accept me blindly, and she wouldn't have given me up blindly. Not that I believe yet she has really given me up; she will talk it over with me. But you have frightened her, you have bullied her, you have HURT her. What was it you did to her?”

”I did very little!” said Madame de Bellegarde, in a tone which gave Newman a chill when he afterwards remembered it.

”Let me remind you that we offered you these explanations,” the marquis observed, ”with the express understanding that you should abstain from violence of language.”

”I am not violent,” Newman answered, ”it is you who are violent! But I don't know that I have much more to say to you. What you expect of me, apparently, is to go my way, thanking you for favors received, and promising never to trouble you again.”