.«
    »I am afraid it will be hard,« said Newman gravely.
    »I don't think it will be easy. In a general way I don't see why a widow
should ever marry again. She has gained the benefits of matrimony - freedom and
consideration - and she has got rid of the drawbacks. Why should she put her
head into the noose again? Her usual motive is ambition; if a man can offer her
a great position, make her a princess or an ambassadress, she may think the
compensation sufficient.«
    »And - in that way - is Madame de Cintré ambitious?«
    »Who knows?« said Bellegarde, with a profound shrug. »I don't pretend to say
all that she is or all that she is not. I think she might be touched by the
prospect of becoming the wife of a great man. But in a certain way, I believe,
whatever she does will be the improbable. Don't be too confident, but don't
absolutely doubt. Your best chance for success will be precisely in being, to
her mind, unusual, unexpected, original. Don't try to be any one else; be simply
yourself, out and out. Something or other can't fail to come of it; I am very
curious to see what.«
    »I am much obliged to you for your advice,« said Newman. »And,« he added,
with a smile, »I am glad, for your sake, I am going to be so amusing.«
    »It will be more than amusing,« said Bellegarde; »it will be inspiring. I
look at it from my point of view, and you from yours. After all, anything for a
change! And only yesterday I was yawning so as to dislocate my jaw, and
declaring that there was nothing new under the sun! If it isn't new to see you
come into the family as a suitor, I am very much mistaken. Let me say that, my
dear fellow; I won't call it anything else, bad or good; I will simply call it
new.« And overcome with a sense of the novelty thus foreshadowed, Valentin de
Bellegarde threw himself into a deep armchair before the fire, and with a fixed
intense smile, seemed to read a vision of it in the flame of the logs. After
awhile he looked up. »Go ahead, my boy; you have my good wishes,« he said. »But
it is really a pity
