sort of spiritual zeal, the zeal
of the propagandist. Its ardor was in part the result of that general
discomfort which the sight of all uninvested capital produced in him; so
fine an intelligence as Bellegarde's ought to be dedicated to high uses.
The highest uses known to Newman's experience were certain transcendent
sagacities in the handling of railway stock. And then his zeal was
quickened by his personal kindness for Valentin; he had a sort of pity
for him which he was well aware he never could have made the Comte de
Bellegarde understand. He never lost a sense of its being pitiable that
Valentin should think it a large life to revolve in varnished boots
between the Rue d'Anjou and the Rue de l'Universite, taking the
Boulevard des Italiens on the way, when over there in America one's
promenade was a continent, and one's Boulevard stretched from New York
to San Francisco. It mortified him, moreover, to think that Valentin
lacked money; there was a painful grotesqueness in it. It affected him
as the ignorance of a companion, otherwise without reproach, touching
some rudimentary branch of learning would have done. There were things
that one knew about as a matter of course, he would have said in such a
case. Just so, if one pretended to be easy in the world, one had money
as a matter of course, one had made it! There was something almost
ridiculously anomalous to Newman in the sight of lively pretensions
unaccompanied by large investments in railroads; though I may add that
he would not have maintained that such investments were in themselves a
proper ground for pretensions. "I will make you do something," he said
to Valentin; "I will put you through. I know half a dozen things in
which we can make a place for you. You will see some lively work. It
will take you a little while to get used to the life, but you will work
in before long, and at the end of six months--after you have done a
thing or two on your own account--you will like it. And then it will
be very pleasant for you, having your sister over there. It will be
pleasant for her to have you, too. Yes, Valentin," continued Newman,
pressing his friend's arm genially, "I think I see just the opening for
you. Keep quiet and I'll push you right in."

Newman pursued this favoring strain for some time longer. The two
men strolled about for a quarter of an hour. Valentin listened and
questioned, many of his questions making Newman laugh loud at the
naivete of his ign