"Your only reason is that you love me!" he murmured with an eloquent gesture, and for want of a better reason Madame de Cintre reconciled herself to this one.
Newman came back the next day, and in the vestibule, as he entered the house, he encountered his friend Mrs.Bread.She was wandering about in honorable idleness, and when his eyes fell upon her she delivered him one of her curtsies.

Then turning to the servant who had admitted him, she said, with the combined majesty of her native superiority and of a rugged English accent, "You may retire; I will have the honor of conducting monsieur." In spite of this combination, however, it appeared to Newman that her voice had a slight quaver, as if the tone of command were not habitual to it.

The man gave her an impertinent stare, but he walked slowly away, and she led Newman up-stairs.

At half its course the staircase gave a bend, forming a little platform.

In the angle of the wall stood an indifferent statue of an eighteenth-century nymph, simpering, sallow, and cracked.