 very pleasant for you, having your sister over there. It will be
pleasant for her to have you, too. Yes, Valentin,« continued Newman, pressing
his friend's arm genially, »I think I see just the opening for you. Keep quiet,
and I'll push you right in.«
    Newman pursued this favouring strain for some time longer. The two men
strolled about for a quarter of an hour. Valentin listened and questioned, many
of his questions making Newman laugh loud at the naïveté of his ignorance of the
vulgar processes of money-getting; smiling himself, too, half ironical and half
curious. And yet he was serious; he was fascinated by Newman's plain prose
version of the legend of El Dorado. It is true, however, that though to accept
an opening in an American mercantile house might be a bold, original, and in its
consequences extremely agreeable thing to do, he did not quite see himself
objectively doing it. So that when the bell rang to indicate the close of the
entr'acte, there was a certain mock-heroism in his saying, with his brilliant
smile: »Well, then, put me through; push me in! I make myself over to you. Dip
me into the pot and turn me into gold.«
    They had passed into the corridor which encircled the row of baignoires, and
Valentin stopped in front of the dusky little box in which Mademoiselle Nioche
had bestowed herself, laying his hand on the door-knob. »Oh, come, are you going
back there?« asked Newman.
    »Mon Dieu, oui,« said Valentin.
    »Haven't you another place?«
    »Yes, I have my usual place, in the stalls.«
    »You had better go and occupy it, then.«
    »I see her very well from there, too,« added Valentin serenely; »and
to-night she is worth seeing. But,« he added in a moment, »I have a particular
reason for going back just now.«
    »Oh, I give you up,« said Newman. »You are infatuated!«
    »No, it is only this. There is a young man in the box whom I shall annoy by
going in, and I want to annoy him.«
    »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; Noémie came in alone and
installed herself.
