Then she said something to which he listened deferentially, but which he completely failed to understand.
"Madame de la Rochefidele says that she is convinced that she must have seen Americans without knowing it," Madame de Cintre explained.

Newman thought it probable she had seen a great many things without knowing it; and the old lady, again addressing herself to utterance, declared--as interpreted by Madame de Cintre--that she wished she had known it.
At this moment the old gentleman who had been talking to the elder Madame de Bellegarde drew near, leading the marquise on his arm.

His wife pointed out Newman to him, apparently explaining his remarkable origin.

M.de la Rochefidele, whose old age was rosy and rotund, spoke very neatly and clearly, almost as prettily, Newman thought, as M.
Nioche.

When he had been enlightened, he turned to Newman with an inimitable elderly grace.
"Monsieur is by no means the first American that I have seen," he said.
"Almost the first person I ever saw--to notice him--was an American." "Ah ?" said Newman, sympathetically.
"The great Dr.Franklin," said M.de la Rochefidele.