Were you afraid of me ?" "You have seen her," said his wife, "but you have no perception of such merit as Claire's." "Ah, her name is Claire?
I give it up." "Does your friend wish to marry ?" asked Newman.
"Not in the least.

It is for you to make her change her mind.

It will not be easy; she has had one husband, and he gave her a low opinion of the species." "Oh, she is a widow, then ?" said Newman.
"Are you already afraid?
She was married at eighteen, by her parents, in the French fashion, to a disagreeable old man.

But he had the good taste to die a couple of years afterward, and she is now twenty-five." "So she is French ?" "French by her father, English by her mother.

She is really more English than French, and she speaks English as well as you or I--or rather much better.