“It shows you are in earnest.” 

 “Of course I am in earnest. Didn’t I say I wanted the best? I know the best can’t be had for mere money, but I rather think money will do a good deal. In addition, I am willing to take a good deal of trouble.” 

 “You are not bashful, eh?” 

 “I haven’t the least idea. I want the biggest kind of entertainment a man can get. People, places, art, nature, everything! I want to see the tallest mountains, and the bluest lakes, and the finest pictures and the handsomest churches, and the most celebrated men, and the most beautiful women.” 

 “Settle down in Paris, then. There are no mountains that I know of, and the only lake is in the Bois du Boulogne, and not particularly blue. But there is everything else: plenty of pictures and churches, no end of celebrated men, and several beautiful women.” 

 “But I can’t settle down in Paris at this season, just as summer is coming on.” 

 “Oh, for the summer go up to Trouville.” 

 “What is Trouville?” 

 “The French Newport. Half the Americans go.” 

 “Is it anywhere near the Alps?” 

 “About as near as Newport is to the Rocky Mountains.” 

 “Oh, I want to see Mont Blanc,” said Newman, “and Amsterdam, and the Rhine, and a lot of places. Venice in particular. I have great ideas about Venice.” 

 “Ah,” said Mr. Tristram, rising, “I see I shall have to introduce you to my wife!” 

 

CHAPTER III

 He performed this ceremony on the following day, when, by appointment, Christopher Newman went to dine with him. Mr. and Mrs. Tristram lived behind one of those chalk-colored façades which decorate with their pompous sameness the broad avenues manufactured by Baron Haussmann in the neighborhood of the Arc de Triomphe. Their apartment was rich in the modern conveniences, and Tristram lost no time in calling his visitor’s attention to their principal household treasures, the gas-lamps and the furnace-holes. “Whenever you feel homesick,” he said, “you must come up here. We’ll stick you 

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