The ball was very pretty, and every one very amiable." "It was on your conscience," said Newman, "that you had annoyed your mother and your brother." Madame de Cintre looked at him a moment without answering.

"That is true," she replied at last.

"I had undertaken more than I could carry out.

I have very little courage; I am not a heroine." She said this with a certain soft emphasis; but then, changing her tone, "I could never have gone through the sufferings of the beautiful Florabella," she added, not even for her prospective rewards.
Dinner was announced, and Newman betook himself to the side of the old Madame de Bellegarde.

The dining-room, at the end of a cold corridor, was vast and sombre; the dinner was simple and delicately excellent.
Newman wondered whether Madame de Cintre had had something to do with ordering the repast and greatly hoped she had.