 »I am asking
questions, not answering them. You have come to Paris for your pleasure?«
    Newman was silent awhile. Then, at last, »Everyone asks me that!« he said
with his mild slowness. »It sounds so awfully foolish.«
    »But at any rate you had a reason.«
    »Oh, I came for my pleasure!« said Newman. »Though it is foolish, it is
true.«
    »And you are enjoying it?«
    Like any other good American, Newman thought it as well not to truckle to
the foreigner. »Oh, so-so,« he answered.
    M. de Bellegarde puffed his cigar again in silence. »For myself,« he said at
last, »I am entirely at your service. Anything I can do for you I shall be very
happy to do. Call upon me at your convenience. Is there anyone you desire to
know - anything you wish to see? It is a pity you should not enjoy Paris.«
    »Oh, I do enjoy it!« said Newman, good-naturedly. »I'm much obliged to you.«
    »Honestly speaking,« M. de Bellegarde went on, »there is something absurd to
me in hearing myself make you these offers. They represent a great deal of
good-will, but they represent little else. You are a successful man and I am a
failure, and it's a turning of the tables to talk as if I could lend you a
hand.«
    »In what way are you a failure?« asked Newman.
    »Oh, I'm not a tragical failure!« cried the young man with a laugh. »I have
not fallen from a height, and my fiasco has made no noise. You, evidently, are a
success. You have made a fortune, you have built up an edifice, you are a
financial, commercial power, you can travel about the world until you have found
a soft spot, and lie down in it with the consciousness of having earned your
rest. Is not that true? Well, imagine the exact reverse of all that, and you
have me. I have done nothing - I can do nothing!«
    »Why not?«
    »It's a long story. Some day I will tell you. Meanwhile, I'm right, eh? You
are a success? You have made a fortune? It's none of my business, but, in short,
you are rich?«
    »That's
