After that you may talk of your own fete." The old lady spoke with a certain quick eagerness, smiling more agreeably as she went on.
It seemed to Newman a handsome proposal, and such proposals always touched the sources of his good-nature.

He said to Madame de Bellegarde that he should be glad to come on the 25th or any other day, and that it mattered very little whether he met his friends at her house or at his own.

I have said that Newman was observant, but it must be admitted that on this occasion he failed to notice a certain delicate glance which passed between Madame de Bellegarde and the marquis, and which we may presume to have been a commentary upon the innocence displayed in that latter clause of his speech.
Valentin de Bellegarde walked away with Newman that evening, and when they had left the Rue de l'Universite some distance behind them he said reflectively, "My mother is very strong--very strong." Then in answer to an interrogative movement of Newman's he continued, "She was driven to the wall, but you would never have thought it.

Her fete of the 25th was an invention of the moment.

She had no idea whatever of giving a fete, but finding it the only issue from your proposal, she looked straight at the dose--excuse the expression--and bolted it, as you saw, without winking.