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And I like being here; it is a place to come to, every day; it is better than sitting in a little dark, damp room, on a court, or selling buttons and whalebones over a counter." "Of course it is much more amusing," said Newman. "But for a poor girl isn't it rather an expensive amusement?" "Oh, I am very wrong, there is no doubt about that," said Mademoiselle Noemie.
M. Nioche at last took his daughter's paint-box in one hand and the bedaubed canvas, after giving it a solemn, puzzled stare, in the other, and led the way to the door. Mademoiselle Noemie made the young men the salute of a duchess, and followed her father. "Well," said Newman, "what do you think of her?" "She is very remarkable.
M. Nioche lives in the same house, up six pair of stairs, across the court, in and out of whose ill-swept doorway Miss Noemie has been flitting for the last five years. The little glove-cleaner was an old acquaintance; she used to be the friend of a friend of mine, who has married and dropped such friends. I often saw her in his society.
"It doesn't please me," said Newman. "The young lady in the yellow dress is not pretty." "Ah, you are a great connoisseur," murmured Mademoiselle Noemie. "In pictures? Oh, no; I know very little about them." "In pretty women, then." "In that I am hardly better." "What do you say to that, then?" the young girl asked, indicating a superb Italian portrait of a lady.
"I am sorry to hear it," said Newman. "Can't you leave the poor fellow alone?" "No, he has given me cause. The box is not his. Noemie came in alone and installed herself. I went and spoke to her, and in a few moments she asked me to go and get her fan from the pocket of her cloak, which the ouvreuse had carried off.
"I am not a regular professor," he admitted. "I can't nevertheless tell him that I'm a professor," he said to his daughter. "Tell him it's a very exceptional chance," answered Mademoiselle Noemie; "an homme du monde one gentleman conversing with another! Remember what you are what you have been!" "A teacher of languages in neither case! Much more formerly and much less to-day!
Come over to America and I will get you a place in a bank." "It is easy to say drop her," said Valentin, with a light laugh. "You can't drop a pretty woman like that. One must be polite, even with Noemie. Besides, I'll not have her suppose I am afraid of her." "So, between politeness and vanity, you will get deeper into the mud? Keep them both for something better.
His face being now presented to our hero, the latter recognized the irregular features, the hardly more regular complexion, and the amiable expression of Lord Deepmere. Noemie, on finding herself suddenly confronted with Newman, who, like M. Nioche, had risen from his seat, faltered for a barely perceptible instant.
"You are very happy," said Mademoiselle Noemie, gravely. "Je le veux bien!" said Newman, proving that he had learned more French than he admitted. "And how long shall you stay in Paris?" the young girl went on. "Only a few days more." "Why do you go away?" "It is getting hot, and I must go to Switzerland." "To Switzerland? That's a fine country. I would give my new parasol to see it!
He put down the roughly-besmeared canvas and addressed a little click with his tongue, accompanied by an elevation of the eyebrows, to Newman. "Where have you been all these months?" asked Mademoiselle Noemie of our hero. "You took those great journeys, you amused yourself well?" "Oh, yes," said Newman. "I amused myself well enough."
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