Then, at last, "Every one 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.