In short, you come up to the mark, and, I can tell you, my mark was high." These observations seemed to make Madame de Cintre rather grave.

At last she said, "Depend upon it, I don't come up to the mark; your mark is too high.

I am not all that you suppose; I am a much smaller affair.

She is a magnificent woman, your ideal.

Pray, how did she come to such perfection ?" "She was never anything else," Newman said.
"I really believe," Madame de Cintre went on, "that she is better than my own ideal.