It admitted him into a wide, graveled court, surrounded on three sides with closed windows, and with a doorway facing the street, approached by three steps and surmounted by a tin canopy.
The place was all in the shade; it answered to Newman's conception of a convent.

The portress could not tell him whether Madame de Cintre was visible; he would please to apply at the farther door.

He crossed the court; a gentleman was sitting, bareheaded, on the steps of the portico, playing with a beautiful pointer.

He rose as Newman approached, and, as he laid his hand upon the bell, said with a smile, in English, that he was afraid Newman would be kept waiting; the servants were scattered, he himself had been ringing, he didn't know what the deuce was in them.

He was a young man, his English was excellent, and his smile very frank.
Newman pronounced the name of Madame de Cintre.
"I think," said the young man, "that my sister is visible.