Thomas Newcome

“ In America, Newman reflected, lads of twenty-five and thirty have old heads and young hearts, or at least young morals; here they have young heads and very aged hearts, morals the most grizzled and wrinkled.
“What I envy you is your liberty,” observed M. de Bellegarde, “your wide range, your freedom to come and go, your not having a lot of people, who take themselves awfully seriously, expecting something of you. I live,” he added with a sigh, “beneath the eyes of my admirable mother.”
“It is your own fault; what is to hinder your ranging?” said Newman. ”

“ Noémie Nioche." But Mr. Newman, unlike his companion, read the name with perfect gravity; all French names to him were equally incommodes.
"And precisely—how it happens!—here's my father; he has come to escort me home," said Mademoiselle Noémie. "He speaks English beautifully. He 'll arrange with you." And she turned to welcome a little old gentleman who came shuffling up and peering over his glasses at Newman. ”

“ GREAT leader of men, an influential ecclesiastic, a man of saintly life, a spiritual force of great power, a master of English prose, has passed away from us with John Henry Newman. To modern England he has been as one of the dead from the night Father Dominic, the Passionist, passed over his threshold at Littlemore, and he has himself written the biography of that dead self in one of the masterpieces of English literature. ”

“ But the old lady, with the serenity of supreme power, let her son make her epigrams for her. She only smiled, almost sweetly, shaking her head and repeating, “But once, Mr. Newman; but once!”
Nothing that Newman had ever seen or heard gave him such a sense of marble hardness as this movement and the tone that accompanied it. “Could anything compel you?” he asked. “Do you know of anything that would force you?”
“This language, sir,” said the marquis, “addressed to people in bereavement and grief is beyond all qualification.” ”

“ There is yonder statue in St. Peter’s, of which the toe is worn away with kisses, and which sits, and will sit eternally, prim and cold. As the young man grew, it seemed to the father as if each day separated them more and more. He himself became more melancholy and silent. His friend the civilian marked the ennui, and commented on it in his laughing way. Sometimes he announced to the club that Tom Newcome was in love: then he thought it was not Tom’s heart but his liver that was affected, and recommended blue pill. O thou fond fool! who art thou, to know any man’s heart save thine alone? ”

“ There is nothing very gay in this solemn old Louvre. But we will see what we can find. You speak French to-day like a charm. My father has done wonders.”
“Oh, I am a bad subject,” said Newman. “I am too old to learn a language.”
“Too old? Quelle folie!” cried Mademoiselle Noémie, with a clear, shrill laugh. “You are a very young man. And how do you like my father?”
“He is a very nice old gentleman. He never laughs at my blunders.”
“He is very comme il faut, my papa,” said Mademoiselle Noémie, “and as honest as the day. Oh, an exceptional probity! You could trust him with millions.” ”

“ Pious youths in Oxford were carried away by them, and began to flock around the standard of Newman. Newman himself became a party chief—encouraging, organising, persuading. His long black figure, swiftly passing through the streets, was pointed at with awe; crowds flocked to his sermons; his words were repeated from mouth to mouth; 'Credo in Newmannum' became a common catchword. Jokes were made about the Church of England, and practices, unknown for centuries, began to be revived. Young men fasted and did penance, recited the hours of the Roman Breviary, and confessed their sins to Dr. Pusey. ”

“ Newman asked with interest about Mademoiselle Noémie, and M. Nioche at first, for answer, simply looked at him in lachrymose silence.
"Don't press me on that subject, sir. I sit and watch her, but I can do nothing."
"Do you mean she gives you serious cause—?"
"I don't know, sir, what I mean! I can't follow her. I don't understand her. She has something in her head; who can say what's in the head of a little person so independent, so dreadful—and so pleasing? She's too deep for her poor papa." ”

“ NEWMAN, THOMAS (1692–1758) , dissenting minister, son of Thomas Newman (1665–1742) , was born in 1692 in London. The father, a pious tradesman, born ‘in Cloth Fair near Smithfield, London, at the most malignant period of the plague in 1665,’ was apprenticed to a linendraper, and, being apprehensive that James II would deprive the protestants of their liberty and the scriptures, he transcribed the whole Bible into shorthand, sitting up two nights a week for six months to do it. ”

“ I want you to feel I'm strong, because if you do that will be enough. There; I have said what I had on my heart. It was better to get it off. I'm very sorry if it worries you; but the air's clearer—don't you already see? If I've made a mistake we had better not have met at all; and I can't think that, Madame de Cintré, can you?" Newman asked. "Don't answer me now, if you don't wish it. Think about it; think about it only a little at a time, if you want. ”

“ But when we reflect that Sir Thomas More was ready to die for the doctrine of Transubstantiation, we cannot but feel some doubt whether the doctrine of Transubstantiation may not triumph over all opposition. More was a man of eminent talents. He had all the information on the subject that we have, or that, while the world lasts, any [pg 438] human being will have.... No progress that science has made, or will make, can add to what seems to us the overwhelming force of the argument against the Real Presence. ”

“ Since his conversion, Newman's life had been a long series of misfortunes and disappointments. When he had left the Church of England, he was its most distinguished, its most revered member, whose words, however strange, were listened to with a profound attention, and whose opinions, however dubious, were followed in all their fluctuations with an eager and indeed a trembling respect. He entered the Church of Rome, and found himself forthwith an unimportant man. ”

“ And if Madame de Cintré does see her way you must just come and live with her."
The old woman looked at him with grave lifeless eyes. "It may seem a heartless thing to say, sir, when one has been forty years in a house, but I promise you I should like to leave this place."
"Why, it's just the time to promise," said Newman with ingenuity. "After forty years one wants a big change. That's what I'm going in for," he smiled.
"You're very kind indeed, sir,"—and this faithful servant dropped another curtsey and seemed disposed to retire. ”

“ If this strange gentleman should be saying anything improper to his daughter M. Nioche would entreat him huskily, as a particular favour, to forbear; but he would admit at the same time that he was very presumptuous to ask for particular favours.
"Monsieur has bought my picture," said Mademoiselle Noémie. "When it's finished you'll carry it to him in a cab."
"In a cab!" cried M. Nioche; and he stared, in a bewildered way, as if he had seen the sun rising at midnight.
"Are you the young lady's father?" said Newman. "I think she said you speak English." ”

“ The wrong occasion was a part of his pastime in Europe as well as the right, and his tour was altogether a pastime. But there is sometimes nothing like the imagination of those people who have none, and Newman now and then, in an unguided stroll through a foreign city, before some lonely, sad-towered church or some angular image of one who had rendered civic service in an unknown past, had felt a singular deep commotion. ”

“ She led him about with her, introduced him to fifty people, and took extreme satisfaction in her conquest. Newman accepted every proposal, shook hands universally and promiscuously, and seemed equally unfamiliar with trepidation or with elation. Tom Tristram complained of his wife’s avidity, and declared that he could never have a clear five minutes with his friend. ”

“ Her presence of mind, her perfect equilibrium, struck Newman as portentous, and he inclined to agree with Valentin that the young lady was very remarkable. "No, to tell the truth, I did n't come for you," he said, "and I did n't expect to find you. I was told," he added in a moment, "that you had left your good father."
"Quelle horreur!" she cried with the brightest of all her smiles. "Does one ever leave one's good father? You've the happy proof of the contrary."
"Yes, convincing proof," said Newman with his almost embarrassed eyes on M. Nioche. ”

“ Newman gave ear to his bargain and he went on. “He would rather his daughter were a good girl than a bad one, but if the worst comes to the worst, the old man will not do what Virginius did. Success justifies everything. If Mademoiselle Noémie makes a figure, her papa will feel—well, we will call it relieved. And she will make a figure. The old gentleman’s future is assured.”
“I don’t know what Virginius did, but M. Nioche will shoot Miss Noémie,” said Newman. ”

“ You inspire me with boundless confidence, but I can't help making you an appeal. After all you're a man, and so fine a one; you're young and at liberty. Let me beseech you then to respect an innocence—!"
Newman had wondered what was coming, yet had already burst into mirth. He was on the point of pronouncing his own innocence the more exposed, but he contented himself with promising to treat the young lady with nothing less than veneration. He found her, awaiting him, seated on the great divan of the Salon Carré. ”

“ When Newman learned that his social position was to be taken into account, he professed himself utterly incompetent, and begged Tristram to relieve him of the care. “I didn’t know I had a social position,” he said, “and if I have, I haven’t the smallest idea what it is. Isn’t a social position knowing some two or three thousand people and inviting them to dinner? I know you and your wife and little old Mr. Nioche, who gave me French lessons last spring. Can I invite you to dinner to meet each other? ”

“ I am not intellectual.”
“One doesn’t expect it of you,” Mrs. Tristram answered. Then in a moment, “Besides, you are!”
“Well, I mean to have a good time, whether or no,” said Newman. “I am not cultivated, I am not even educated; I know nothing about history, or art, or foreign tongues, or any other learned matters. But I am not a fool, either, and I shall undertake to know something about Europe by the time I have done with it. I feel something under my ribs here,” he added in a moment, “that I can’t explain—a sort of a mighty hankering, a desire to stretch out and haul in.” ”

“ But I maintain he must be brave. A stout heart, sir!” And he offered Newman his hand.
“I shall not come to see you; I shall come to see Madame de Cintré,” said Newman.
“You will need all the more courage.”
“Ah, Valentin!” said Madame de Cintré, appealingly.
“Decidedly,” cried Madame de Bellegarde, “I am the only person here capable of saying something polite! Come to see me; you will need no courage,” she said.
Newman gave a laugh which was not altogether an assent, and took his leave. ”

“ I was familiar with the names they constantly quoted—Newman, Keble, Froude, et cetera, but it was Newman they disputed over. The stranger seemed to dislike Newman. He said he was no better than a Calvinist, and had been brought up by his Calvinistic mother on Watts and Romaine and such teachers, that he was pale and thin, had a poor presence, and was more like a Wesleyan preacher than a pillar of the Church. ”

“ He gave a hardly perceptible shrug, took his neat umbrella from the servant in the vestibule, and, with his gentlemanly walk, passed out. Newman stood listening till he heard the door close; then he slowly exclaimed, “Well, I ought to begin to be satisfied now!” ”

“ Newman laughed, "that will be a great advantage to her!" And then he said good-bye and offered the poor foolish old man his hand.
M. Nioche took it and leaned back against the wall, holding it a moment and looking up at him. "I suppose you think my wits are going. Very likely; I've always a pain in my head. That's why I can't explain, I can't present the case. And she's so strong, she makes me walk as she will—anywhere! But there's this—there's this." And he stopped, still staring up at his visitor. ”

“ And Newman paused a moment. "You've something on your mind and on your conscience, your mother and you—some thing in your life that you've kept as much as possible in the dark because it would n't look well in the light of day. You've a skeleton, as they say, in your closet." M. de Bellegarde continued to look at him hard, but it was a question if his eyes betrayed anything; the expression of his eyes was always so strange. Newman paused again and then went on. ”

“ Newman rejoined. "A visit to London in the Season is certainly a sign of prosperity."
M. Nioche, in answer to this superior dig, lifted the puppy up to his face again, peering at his critic from his small blank eye-holes. There was something inane in the movement, and Newman hardly knew if he were taking refuge in an affected failure of reason or whether he had in fact paid for his base accommodation by the loss of his wits. In the latter case, just now, he felt little more tenderly to the foolish old man than in the former. ”

“ Newman cried. "Have I done anything wrong or mean or base?" he rang out. "Have I given you any reason to change your opinion? Have you found out anything against me? Hanged if I can imagine!"
"Our opinion," said Madame de Bellegarde, "is quite the same as at first—exactly. We've no ill-will towards yourself; we're very far from accusing you of misconduct. Since your relations with us began you've been, I frankly confess, less eccentric than I expected. It's not your personal character that we object to, it's your professional—it's your antecedents. ”