n what degree the offense was venial.
Newman knew that the marquise disliked his telegrams, though he could
see no sufficient reason for it. Madame de Cintre, on the other hand,
liked them, and, most of them being of a humorous cast, laughed at them
immoderately, and inquired into the character of their authors. Newman,
now that his prize was gained, felt a peculiar desire that his triumph
should be manifest. He more than suspected that the Bellegardes were
keeping quiet about it, and allowing it, in their select circle, but a
limited resonance; and it pleased him to think that if he were to take
the trouble he might, as he phrased it, break all the windows. No man
likes being repudiated, and yet Newman, if he was not flattered, was
not exactly offended. He had not this good excuse for his somewhat
aggressive impulse to promulgate his felicity; his sentiment was of
another quality. He wanted for once to make the heads of the house of
Bellegarde FEEL him; he knew not when he should have another chance.
He had had for the past six months a sense of the old lady and her son
looking straight over his head, and he was now resolved that they should
toe a mark which he would give himself the satisfaction of drawing.

"It is like seeing a bottle emptied when the wine is poured too slowly,"
he said to Mrs. Tristram. "They make me want to joggle their elbows and
force them to spill their wine."

To this Mrs. Tristram answered that he had better leave them alone
and let them do things in their own way. "You must make allowances for
them," she said. "It is natural enough that they should hang fire a
little. They thought they accepted you when you made your application;
but they are not people of imagination, they could not project
themselves into the future, and now they will have to begin again. But
they are people of honor, and they will do whatever is necessary."

Newman spent a few moments in narrow-eyed meditation. "I am not hard on
them," he presently said, "and to prove it I will invite them all to a
festival."

"To a festival?"

"You have been laughing at my great gilded rooms all winter; I will show
you that they are good for something. I will give a party. What is the
grandest thing one can do here? I will hire all the great singers from
the opera, and all the first people from the Theatre Francais, and I
will give an entertainment."

"And whom will you invite?"

"You, first of all. And then the old lady and her s