THE DAREDEVIL

By

MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS

Author of "The Melting of Molly, " "Miss Selina Lue, " "Over ParadiseRidge, etc. "

1916

[Illustration]

Frontispiece from Painting by E. Sophonisba Hergesheimer

ToJessie Morson GrahameWho expects "the best" of me

 CONTENTS

 I SPARKLING WAVES OVER HIGH EXPLOSIVES

 II VIVE LA FRANCE!

 III THAT MR. G. SLADE OF DETROIT

 IV THE IMPOSSIBLE UNCLE ROBERT

 V "HERE'S MY BOY, GOVERNOR"

 VI "WE BOTH NEED YOU"

 VII THE GIRL BUNCH

 VIII IN THE DRESS OF MAGNIFICENCE

 IX "O'ER THE LAND OF THE FREE--"

 X VITRIOL AND THE HOODOO

 XI BUSINESS AND PIE

 XII THE BEAUTIFUL MADAM WHITWORTH

 XIII BROTHERS BY BLOODSHED

 XIV TO BEAR MEN AND TO SAVE THEM

 XV "BEHOLD, I AM A SPY!"

 XVI "IMMEDIATELY I COME TO YOU!"

 XVII THE TALL TIMBERS OF OLD HARPETH

 XVIII THE CAMP HEAVEN

 XIX ALL IS LOST

 XX "YOU ARE--MYSELF!"

CHAPTER I

SPARKLING WAVES OVER HIGH EXPLOSIVES

Was there ever a woman who did not very greatly desire for herself, atlong moments, the doublet and hose of a man, perhaps also his sword, as well as his attitude in the viewing of life? I think not. To a verysmall number of those ladies of great curiosity it has been grantedthat they climb to those ramparts of the life of a man; but it wasneedful that they be stout of limb and sturdy of heart to sustainthemselves upon that eminence and not be dashed below upon the rocksof a strange land. I, Roberta, Marquise de Grez and Bye, have obtainedglimpses into a far country and this is what I bring on returning, notas a spy, but, shall I say, laden with spices and forbidden fruit?

And for me it has been a very fine dash into the wilds of a land ofstrangeness, and I do not know that I have yet found myself completelyreturned unto my estate of a woman. 

I first began to realize that I was set out upon a great journey whenI stood at the rail of the very large ship and watched it plow its waythrough the waves which they told us with their splendor hid cruelmines. I felt the future might be like unto those great waves, and itmight be that it would break in sparkling crests over high explosives. I found them!

I had seen a fear of those explosives of life come in my dyingfather's eyes, and here I stood at his command out on the ocean inquest of a woman's fate in a strange country. 

"Get back to America, Bob, and go straight to your Uncle Robert atHayesville in the Harpeth Valley. He cut me loose because he didn'tunderstand, when I married your mother out of the French opera inParis. When I named you Roberta for him he returned the letter I sentbut with a notice of a thousand dollars in Monroe and Company for you. I didn't tell him when your mother died. God, I've been bitter! Butthese German bullets have cut the life out of me and I see moreplainly. Get the money and take Nannette and the kiddie on the firstboat. There's starvation and--maybe worse in Paris for you. Take--themoney--and--get--to--brother Robert. God of America--take--themand--guide--"

And that was all. I held him in my arms for a long time, while oldNannette and small Pierre wept beside me, and then I laid him upon hispillow and straightened the little tricolor that the good Sister ofthe old gray convent in which he lay had given me to place in his handwhen he had begged for it. My mother's country had meant my mother tohim and he had given his life for her and France in the trenches ofthe Vosges. And thus at his bidding I was on the very high seas ofadventure. From this thought of him I was very suddenly recalled byold Nannette who came upon the deck from below. 

"_Le bon Dieu_, " she sighed, as she settled herself in hersteamer chair and took out the lace knitting. "Is it not of a goodnessthat I have tied in my stocking the necessary francs that we may landin that America, where all is of such a good fortune? And also by myskill we have one hundred and fifty francs above that need which mustbe almost an hundred of their huge and wasteful dollars. All is wellwith us. " And as she spoke she pulled up the collar of Pierre's softblue serge blouse around his pale thin face and eased the cushionbehind his crooked small back. 

"Is--is that all which remains of the fifteen hundred dollars we foundto be in that bank, Nannette?" I asked of her with a greatuncertainty. My mother's fortune, descended from her father, theMarquis de Grez and Bye, and the income of my father from hisgovernment post, had made life easy to live in that old house by theQuay, where so many from the Faubourg St. Germaine came to hear hersing after her fortune and children took her from the Opera--and to gofor the summers in the gray old Chateau de Grez--but of the investmentof francs or dollars and cents I had no knowledge, in spite of myclaims to be an American girl of much progress. My mother had laughedand very greatly adored my assumption of an extreme American manner, copied as nearly as possible after that of my father, and had failedto teach to me even that thrift which is a part of the dot of everyFrench girl from the Faubourg St. Germaine to the Boulevard St. Michel. But even in my ignorance the information of Nannette as to thesmallness of our fortune gave to me an alarm. 

"What will you, Mademoiselle? It was necessary that I purchase theraiment needful to the young Marquis de Grez according to his state, and for the Marquise his sister also. It was not to be contemplatedthat we should travel except in apartments of the very best in theship. Is not gold enough in America even for sending in great sums forrelief of suffering? Have I not seen it given in the streets of Paris?Is it not there for us? Do you make me reproaches?" And Nannette beganto weep into the fine lawn of her nurse's handkerchief. 

"No, no, Nannette; I know it was of a necessity to us to have theclothes, and of course we had to travel in the first class. Do nothave distress. If we need more money in America I will obtain it. " Imade that answer with a gesture of soothing upon her old shoulderswhich I could never remember as not bent in an attitude of hoveringover Pierre or me. 

"_Eh bien_!" she answered with a perfect satisfaction at myassumption of all the responsibilities of our three existences. 

And as I leaned against the deck rail and looked out into a future aslimitless as that water ahead of us into which the great ship wasplowing, I made a remark to myself that had in it all the wisdom ofthose who are ignorant. 

"The best of life is not to know what will happen next. "

"Ah, that was so extraordinary coming from a woman that you mustpardon me for listening and making exclamation, " came an answer in anice voice near at my elbow. The words were spoken in as perfectEnglish as I had learned from my father, but in them I observed to bean intonation that my French ear detected as Parisian. "Also, Mademoiselle, are you young women of the new era to be without thatvery delightful but often danger-creating quality of curiosity?" As Iturned I looked with startled eyes into the grave face of a man lessthan forty years, whose sad eyes were for the moment lighting with agreat tenderness which I did not understand. 

"I believe the quality which will be most required of the women of theera which is mine, is--is courage and then more courage, Monsieur, " Imade answer to him as if I had been discussing some question with himin my father's smoking room at the Chateau de Grez, as I often came into do with my father and his friends after the death of my mother whenthe evenings seemed too long alone. They had liked that I so came attimes, and the old Count de Breaux once had remarked that femininesympathy was the flux with which men made solid their minds into aunanimous purpose. He had been speaking of that war a few weeks afterLouvaine and I had risen and had stood very tall and very haughtybefore him and my father. 

"The women of France are to come after this carnage to mold a nationfrom what remains to them, Monsieur, " I had said to him as I lookedstraight into his face. "Is not the courage of women a war supply uponwhich to rely?"

"God! what are the young women--such women as she--going to do in theyears that come after the deluge, Henri of America?" he had made amuttering question to my father as his old eyes smouldered over me inthe fire-light. 

From the memory of the smoking room at the Chateau de Grez my mindsuddenly returned to the rail of the ship and the Frenchman beside me, who was looking into my face with the same kindly question as to myfuture that had been in the eyes of my old godfather and which hadstirred my father's heart to its American depths and made him send meback to his own country. 

"Ah, yes, that courage is a good weapon with which to adventure inthis America of the Grizzled Bear, Mademoiselle, " I found the strangeman saying to me with a nice amusement as well as interest. 

"My father had shot seven grizzlies before his twenty-first birthday. We have the skins, four of them, in the great hall of the Chateau deGrez--or--or we did have them before--before--" My voice faltered andI could not continue speaking for the tears that rose in my throat andeyes. 

Quickly the man at my side turned his broad shoulders so that heshould shield me from the laughing and exclaiming groups of peopleupon the deck near us. 

"Before Ypres, Mademoiselle?" he asked with tears also in the depthsof his voice. 

"Yes, " I answered. "And I am now going into the great America with mycrippled brother and his nurse--alone. It is the land of my father andI have his courage--I _must_ have also that of a French woman. Ihave it, Monsieur, " and as I spoke I drew myself to my full, broad-shouldered height, which was almost equal to that of the manbeside me. 

"Mademoiselle, I salute the courage born of an American who foughtbefore the guns of the Marne and of a French woman who sent himthere!" And as he spoke thus he removed from his head his silk deckcap and held it at his shoulder in a way that I knew was a salute froma French officer to the memory of a brother. "And also may I bepermitted to present myself, as it is a sad necessity that you travelwithout one from whom I might request the introduction?" he asked ofme with a beautiful reverence. 

After a search in his pocket for a few seconds he at last discovered acase of leather and presented to me a card. As he handed it to me hiscolor rose up under his black eyes and grave trouble looked frombetween their long black lashes. I glanced down at the card and read:

 Capitaine, le Count Armond de Lasselles, Paris, France. 44th Chasseurs de le Republique Francaise. 

"Monsieur le Count, I know, I know why it is that you go to America!"I made exclamation as I clasped to my breast my hands and my eyesshone with excitement. "I have read it in _Le Matin_ just the daybefore yesterday. You go to buy grain against the winter of starvationin the Republique. No man is so great a financier as you and so bravea soldier, with your wound not healed from the trenches in the Vosges. Monsieur, I salute you!" and I bent my head and held out my hand tohim. 

"We're to expect nimble wits as well as courage of you young--shall Isay _American_ women?" he laughed as he bent over my hand. "Nowshall I not be led for introduction to the small brother and the oldnurse?" he asked with much friendly interest in his kind eyes. 

It was a very wonderful thing to observe the wee Pierre listen to thenarration of Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, concerning the actionsof a small boy who had run out of a night of shot and shell into theheart of his regiment and who had now lived five months in thetrenches with them. Pierre's small face is all of France and in hisheart under his bent chest burns a soul all of France. It is as if inher death, at his birth, my beautiful mother had stamped her race uponhim with the greater emphasis. 

"Is it that the small Gaston is a daredevil like is my Bob?" hequestioned as we all made a laughter at the story of the Count deLasselles concerning the sortie of the small idol from the trenches inthe dead of one peaceful night to return with a very wide thickflannel shirt of one of the _Boches_, which he had caught hangingupon a temporary laundry line back of the German trenches. 

At that English "daredevil" word I was in my mind again back in theold Chateau de Grez and into my own childhood. 

"You young daredevil, you, hold tight to that vine until I get a gripon your wrist, or you'll dash us both on the rocks below, " was theexact sentence with which my father bestowed my title upon me as hehung by his heels out of a window of the old vine-covered Chateau deGrez. 

"It is one large mistake that my _jeune fille_ is born what youcall a boy in heart. _Helas_!" sobbed my beautiful young Frenchmother as she regarded us from the garden below. 

"If you were a boy I'd thrash you within an inch of your life, but asyou are a girl I suppose it is permissible for me to admire yourpluck, Mademoiselle Roberta, " said my father as he landed me in themusic room by his side while an exchange of excited sentences went onbetween my mother and old Nannette in the garden below. "What were youdoing out on that ledge, anyway? It is more than a hundred feet to theground and the rocks. "

"I was making the hunt through Yellowstone Park that you have relatedto me, father, and I prefer that you give me a boy's punishment. If Ihave a boy's what you call 'pluck, ' I should have a boy's what youcall 'thrashing. ' Monsieur, I make that demand. I am the Marquise deGrez and Bye, and it may be that as you are an American you do notunderstand fully the honor of the house of Grez. " I can remember thatas I spoke I drew my ten-year old body up to its full height, whichmust have been over that of twelve years, and looked my fatherstraight in the face with a glance of extreme hauteur as near as waspossible to that of the portrait of the old Marquis de Grez, who diedfighting on the field of Flanders. 

"_Eh, la la_, what is it I have produced for you, Henri ofAmerica? It is not a proper _jeune fille_, nor do I know whatpunishment to impose upon her; but with you I must laugh, " with whichmy beautiful mother from the doorway threw herself into the arms ofher young American husband and her laughter of silver mingled with hisdeep laugh of a great joy. 

"Don't worry, Celeste; Bob is just a clear throw-back to hergreat-grandmother, Nancy Donaldson, who shot two Indians and a bear indefense of her kiddies one afternoon while my maternal grandsire wasin the stockades presiding over the council in which was laid down thefirst broad draft for the formation of the Commonwealth of Harpeth. I'm sorry, dear, that she is so vigorously American that she has toclimb the Rocky Mountains even here in the garden spot of France. Justnow she is French enough to be dealing with me in the terms of thatjolly old boy of Flanders fame in the hall downstairs; but cheer up, sweetheart, she's a wild, daredevil American and I'm going to send herback to the plains as soon as she speaks her native tongue with lessFrench accent. Then the rest of us can be happily French foreverafter. "

"I will speak as you do, my father, from this moment forth, " Ianswered him with something that was wild and fierce and free risingin my child's heart. "I will not be a _grande dame_ of France. Iam a woman of America. I speak only United States. " And I clung to myfather's arm as he drew me to him and embraced both my laughing motherand me, before I was delivered to old Nannette who, with affectionateFrench grumblings, led me away to the nursery for repairs. 

The scene had become fixed in my memory, for from it had sprung afriendship of a great closeness with my wonderful American father whomlove had chained in France. When he rode the great hunter that hadcome across to him from a friend in Kentucky I demanded to clingbehind him or to sit the saddle in front of him, even at times runningat his side as long as my breath held out, to rise on his stirrup, like the great terrifying Scotchmen do in battles, and cling asKentuck made flight over wall or fence. My very slim and strong handscould not be kept from the steering wheel of his long blue racing car, and I could bring down a hare out of the field with any gun hepossessed as unerringly as could he. I lived his life with him hour byhour, learned to think as he thought, to speak his easy transatlanticspeech, and did equal trencher duty with him at all times, so thatmuscle and brawn were packed on my tall, broad woman's body with thesame compactness as it was packed upon his, by the time I had reachedmy twenty-first birthday. By that time he and I had been alonetogether for eight long years, for my mother had left us with tiny, misshapen Pierre as a heart burden but with only each other to becompanions. 

The efforts of some of my mother's distant relatives and friends tomake me into the traditional young French Marquise had resulted ingiving to me a very beautiful _grande dame_ manner to use when Istood in need of it, which I took a care was not too often. Because Ihad been born to a woman's estate I considered I must manage wellbeautiful skirts and lacy fans, but no oftener than was necessary, Idecided. I went for the most of my days habited in Englishknickerbockers under short corduroy skirts, worn with a many-pocketedhunting blouse. On the night of my presentation at the salon of mydistant relative, the old Countess de Rochampierre, I had to apologizeto a young Russian attaché for searching with desperation for the bitof lace called a handkerchief, among the laces and ruffles of myevening gown in the regions where I had been accustomed to findsensible pockets. 

"And is it possible that Mademoiselle Americaine hunts as well as shemakes the dance?" was his delighted answer to my explanation, whichled into a half-hour description of a raw morning in the field justthree days before in England, where my father and I had gone over fora week's hunting with Lord Gordon Leigh at Leigholm. 

"And then some, " I returned answer with delight at his sympathy in mynarration of the sport. I liked very well the American slang that myfather's friends were always glad to teach to me, and that gave to himboth amusement and delight when I used it in his presence. 

Also I liked well that young Russian and he came many times to theChateau de Grez and Bye before he left to join his regiment of RussianCossacks in the Carpathians. 

And this time it was from the Carpathians that I returned to the shipdeck to find wee Pierre laughing again over the very small dog thatbrought into the French trenches a very large and stupid sheep fromthe flock back of the German trenches. 

"And your medal of honor, Monsieur le Capitaine; is it permitted thatI lay for a little moment just one finger upon it?" Pierre asked ofhim as the great soldier stood tall above the steamer chair and gaveto the little Frenchman the salute of an officer. 

Nannette sobbed into her lace and I turned my head away as the tallman bent and laid the frail little hand against his decoration whichhe wore almost entirely hidden under the pocket of his tweed Norfolkof English manufacture. Only French eyes like wee Pierre's could haveseen it pinned there hidden over his heart. I think he wore it to givehim a large courage for his mission that meant bread or starvation toso many of his people. 

"Ah, Monsieur le Capitaine, " I said to him with a softness of tears inmy throat, "I would that there was some little thing that I might doto serve France. I do so long to go into those awful trenches withthat red cross on my arm, as it is not permitted to me to carry a gun, which I can use much better than many men now handling them withbullets against the enemy; but it is necessary that I obey thecommands of my soldier father and take to a safety the small Pierre. "And as we spoke he walked beside me to the prow of the large ship sothat to us was a view of the heavens of blue beyond which lay ourAmerica. 

"My child, there is a great service which you can render France, " heanswered me as we stopped to watch the great white waves flung asidefrom the ship. "France needs friends in America, great powerfulfriends who will help her in contracting for food and all othermunitions. A beautiful woman can do much in winning those friends. Yougo to your uncle, who is one of those in power in a State in thatfruitful valley of the Mississippi from which I hope that mylieutenant, Count de Bourdon, whom I sent on that mission, will getmany mules to carry food to the hungry boys in the trenches when mudis too deep for gasoline. Make of him and everyone your friend andthrough you the friend of our struggling country. Tell them of France, laugh with them for the joy to come when France, all France, withAlsace and beautiful Lorraine, is free; and make them weep with youfor her struggles. Who knows but that through you may come somewonderful strength added to your old country from the new, whose bloodruns in your veins as well?"

"All of that I will do, _mon Capitaine_. I so enlist myself. " Andas I spoke I drew myself up unto the greatest height possible to me. "I will be of the army that feeds, rather than of that which kills. "

"_Mon Dieu_, child, what is possible to you to do has no limit. Also, I say to you, watch and be on your guard for aught that may harmFrance. In America are spies. I have been warned. Also there are thosewho practice deceptions in contracts. It is for the purpose to soguard that I come to America. "

"I also will so guard, " I made answer to my Capitaine, the Count deLasselles, as we again came in our walk to the side of wee Pierre andold Nannette. 

CHAPTER II

VIVE LA FRANCE

And after that first day there were many hours that the Capitaine, theCount de Lasselles, spent with little Pierre and the good Nannette, asshe sat knitting always with the sun on the water reddening her roundcheeks, while I had much pleasure with many friends who came to meupon the ship. 

A very fine young man who was named William Raines, from the State ofSaint Louis, instructed me in several beautiful dances, but I do notthink he was held in the esteem which he deserved by another of hisAmerican brothers by the name of Peter Scudder, whose home was in thetown of Philadelphia. 

"Dancing with Scudder must be like going to your grandmother's funeralover the old State Road in a rockaway, " was the comment that Mr. William Raines made upon his friend Mr. 

Peter Scudder, and what Mr. Scudder said of him was of the sameunkindness. 

"Raines' dancing is extremely like Saint Louis: delightfully rapid butcrude, " was his comment. 

I should have been regretful of the unkindness between those two verynice Americans but for a beautiful good to France that was broughtabout by the desire of each to please me more than the other. 

The many ladies upon the ship had been of exceeding kindness to mebecause of the loveliness of small Pierre's dark face and the pity ofhis crooked back. Old Nannette was of a very great popularity with allof those ladies and she spent many hours in recounting the glories ofthe old Chateau de Grez and Bye and the family which had inhabited itsince the fourteenth century. So it came about that many friends weremade for France among them. 

Now that Mr. William Raines had a very nice idea to invite in my honorall of the ladies who were friends to me, and many distinguishedgentlemen of politics and of universities and other large affairs, whowere returning from business in Europe to more business in America, tobe present while a young boy of France, who was among those in thesteerage going to the freedom of America with his mother who had beenwidowed at Ypres, sang in a very lovely voice many French folk songsand songs of war to all present. And at that singing many tears flowedand so much money was put into the hands of the boy that a future forthe very sad little French family was assured in America. And I alsowept. I was taken into the embrace of all of those kind American womenand assured of so much care and affection in that land of my father, that I felt of a very great richness in spite of the small sum ofmoney in the heel of Nannette's rough stocking. And as I received allof these beautiful attentions I perceived the eyes of my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, fixed upon me with a deep gratitude and pride. It was all of a great pleasure to me except that I did not like verywell to be so distinguished by a young man, which made the French_grande dame_ in me to shrink. 

"_Mais, vive la France_, " I murmured to myself and was happyagain. 

But, alas! At the joy of all this entertainment there was one sadness. It was of my dear friend, Mr. Peter Scudder. There was no pleasure, but great seriousness, in his face during the whole afternoon. 

"Don't mind him; poor Pete's chewing a grouch, " was what his goodfriend Mr. William Raines answered to my lament over his sadness. Andthat sadness lasted for three days, up unto the day before we came toa sight of the Lady of Liberty of America. Then his face found a greatradiance and I perceived that he was full of much business. I foundhim with a notebook, in deep consultation with my Capitaine, the Countde Lasselles, and then in earnest consultation with many of the othergentlemen. I had much wonder; but at the dinner that night, which wasthe last before we made the landing to America, I discovered all ofhis good actions. While we were at the last of the coffee, Mr. PeterScudder arose and made a bow to the capitaine of the ship, beside whomI sat, which salutation did not in any way include me, and then turnedto the direction of my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. 

"Sir, " he said in that very nice voice which it is said is ofPhiladelphia, "I have the honor to ask you if you will take charge ofa fund of five thousand dollars, which has been given by thepassengers of this boat, to be sent immediately to a field hospital ofFrance, preferably the nearest in need to the battlefield of theMarne. " And with no more of a speech than that he seated himself anddid not so much as make a glance in my direction when he mentioned thebattlefield on which my father had died. I think that Mr. PeterScudder is a very great gentleman and I sat very still and white, withmy head held high and tears rising from the depths of France in myheart. 

"My honored friends, " answered my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, as he rose from his place at the foot of the table and stood tall andslim in the manner of a great soldier, "it is impossible that I say toyou my gratitude for this expression of your friendship for mycountry. So many dollars will bring life and an end of suffering tomany hundreds of my brave boys, but the good will and sympathy itrepresents from America to France will do still more. The fund shallgo to the place you request and I now beg to offer to you a toast thatwill be of an understanding to you. " And at that moment he raised hisglass of champagne and said:

"To the destiny of those born of American and French bloodcommingled!"

All those present arose to their feet and drank that toast with lovinglooking at me, and I did not know what I should do until that good oldgray boat capitaine patted me upon the shoulder and said across hisempty glass:

"God bless and keep you, child!"

"I thank everybody, " I answered as I went into the embrace of my verylarge lady friend from the State of Cincinnati, and then into theembrace of the other ladies. 

"I've been knitting all day for two months but I'm going to begin tosit up at night, " sobbed the lady from a queer Keokuk name as I tookher into my embrace on account of her extreme smallness. 

It was at a very late hour, just before retiring, that I ascended tothe deck with my Capitaine to view the effect of a very young moon onthe waves of the ocean. 

"Is it that you think now your soldier of France has done your commandwell, _mon Capitaine_?" I asked of him. 

"Most extremely well, and entirely in the mode of a woman. Those twoyoung men have made of themselves very noble competitors for yourfavor, but remember that it is of a truth that only a 'daredevil'would bring together such high explosives. I salute you!" he madeanswer to me with a laugh which ended in a sigh. "Child, littlechild, " he continued as he bent over my hand to kiss it as he did eachnight before he conducted me to the head of the stairs leading downinto my cabin, "above all take unto yourself all that is possible ofjoy in the present, for we do not know what the supply will be for thefuture. Perhaps it will be like the harvests of France--burned up in aworld-conflagration. "

"Ah, but, _mon Capitaine_, will you not dance with me onceto-night for a joy. It will be our last on the ship before we landto-morrow. You have never danced with me and to-morrow you are lostfrom me into the wilds of that English Canada. " And as I spoke I heldout my arms to him and began to hum the music of that remarkableChin-Chin fox dance that I had been dancing below with Mr. WilliamRaines and which the band had just begun to play again. Of course, Iknew that I must be very lovely in that young moonlight in one of thefrocks that Nannette had purchased from her very talented cousin, the_couturière_ on Rue Leopold, and I could see no reason why Ishould not make a happiness for the great gentleman of France as wellas the young boy from Philadelphia and also the one from Saint Louis. 

"You _are_ a daredevil, Mademoiselle, to propose the dance topowder-stained Armond Lasselles, but the joy of you is of a greatnessand I feel from it a healing in the night of my soul. "

And he reached out in the moonlight and took me into his arms anddanced me along that deck with a grace that it would not be possiblefor either the one from Philadelphia or the one from Saint Louis toimitate. That nice but very ponderous lady from the State ofCincinnati who regarded us from her steamer chair, enjoyed it as muchas did I, and she clapped her large hands as Monsieur le Capitaineswung me around into the quietness beyond one of the tall chimneys forsmoke from the engine. 

"This is good-bye, _mon enfant_, for I leave the ship at dawnwith the tug, so that I do avoid those reporters from newspapers andthe contract conspirators. I have advised Nannette that you go to theRitz-Carlton to await your Uncle if he be not upon the dock. I go tothe grain fields of Canada and then to the West of America.... I wouldthat it could be _au revoir_. Upon a day that shall come, beautiful lady, perhaps it will be permitted to me to... _Non, vivela France! A lies vite, chérie _... Go while I--I--_Vive laFrance_!"

And tears came across my eyes as I did his bidding and left him--toFrance. In my heart was a desire to cling to him in a great fear atbeing alone to care for the good Nannette and the small Pierre, but Iknew he must travel fast and far on his quest and that for France Imust let him go without--a backward look. Would I find in the greatland of America such another gallant gentleman to care for the fate ofthe small Pierre and Nannette and me? What did I know of this cruelUncle? Nothing but his hardness of heart. I dreaded the sight of himthat I should find upon the arrival of the ship at the dock, whichwould be an answer to the letter I had sent to him to inform him of mycoming, and I spent my long night in hate of him. 

With the arrival of the morning came more mines that exploded for meunder the waves of my life that had danced with so little concernthrough the days upon the ship. A rain was falling and my friend ofFrance was gone from me at the beginning of day in a boat that iscalled tug. Upon Nannette had fallen a rheumatism and the small Pierrewas in the midst of shivering chills when we at last were permitted bythe very unpleasant officer of America to go from the ship. 

"_Helas_, it was all of the gold that he took from me for anentry into this savage land where one piece of money is as five ofthat of France. There remains but a few sous and a gold piece, " sobbedNannette as she came from her interview with the immigration officerwhile I stood beside Pierre, deposited by a deck steward on a pile ofour steamer blankets. 

"Did it take all--all of the money to land, Nannette? Not all!" Icried as I stretched out my hand to her. I did not know as I now do, that the money would have been returned to Nannette had she waitedwith patience and not made a hurry of returning to her nurslings. 

"All, Mademoiselle, " were the words with which she answered me, andfor some very long moments I stood dazed and struggled in the waves ofthat adventure I had thought to be life. 

"I beg your pardon, Marquise, but here is a letter the dock stewardfailed to find you to deliver, " came in the pleasant voice of that Mr. William Raines as he raised a very fine hat that made him much betterto look upon than the cap of the steamer, and handed me a largeletter. I took it and came with my head out from under the wave whichhad dashed over me. 

"Is there anything I can do to help you through the customs?" thencame the nice voice of that Mr. Peter Scudder of Philadelphia from theother side of me. 

"No, with much gratitude to you both; I must wait the arrival of myUncle, " I made answer to them with my head held very high. 

"Then we'll see you at the Ritz for tea at five as per promise, " saidMr. William Raines as he walked away and left Mr. Peter Scudder, whowas assisting the lady from Cincinnati to transport her very lovelydog to a handsome car which awaited her. She also had I promised tovisit from that great Ritz-Carlton hotel and she smiled in sweetfriendliness to me as I stood with the letter in my hand and watchedall of the friends I had found upon that ship, depart and leave mewith not a place to go. I stood for many minutes motionless and thenmy eyes perceived the letter in my hand. Surely it must be opened andread. It was from the wicked Uncle, I knew, but it might be that itwas not of the cruelty that I had expected. It would excuse him nodoubt from arrival in person for the expected greeting to hisrelatives, Pierre and myself. 

"Go to it, Bob, " I advised myself in the language I had heard Mr. Saint Louis use when he was forced to ask a nice lady, who danced withdisagreeable heaviness, to trot the fox with him because of afriendship with his mother. 

And this is the letter that my eyes read with astonishment, while boththe good Nannette and small shivering Pierre sat with their eyes fixedupon my countenance:

 "My dear nephew Robert:

 "Your arrival in America at this time suits me exactly. I need you immediately in my business. If you had been the girl, instead of the little one, I would have had to dispose of you some way--even murder. I have no use for women. Leave the little crippled girl and her nurse, who I feel sure is an old fool, with my good friend Dr. Mason Burns, of 222 South 32nd St. He has cured more children of hip joint disease than any man in the world, and he will straighten her out for us and we can give her away to somebody. I've written him instructions. Leave her immediately and come down here to me on the first train. The deal is held up without you. Enclosed is a check for a thousand dollars. If you are like Henry you'll need it, but keep away from Broadway and the women. Come on, I say, by next train. Your uncle, Robert Carruthers. Hayesville, Harpeth. "

"The Uncle of America has come to a confusion of the sex betweenPierre and me from a careless memory and the writing of my hand, whichis of a great boldness, but not to be easily read, " I explained as Iread the letter aloud to Pierre and Nannette. 

It took me just one hour by the clock, sitting there on the pile ofsteamer wraps with the small Pierre in the hollow of my arm, toexplain and translate the sense of that letter to old Nannette, and Ifeel sure she would have been sitting upon that spot yet immovablerather than let me depart from her if I had not put all of my time andforce upon the picturing to her of a Pierre who could come down withher later to me in a condition to run through the gardens of TwinOaks, which was the home of his American ancestors. With that visionconstantly before her she let the porter and me insert her into ataxicab and extract her at the door of the small private hospital ofthe good Dr. Burns who was to perform the miracle for the back and hipof small and radiant Pierre. 

"But what is it that I do to permit the _jeune fille_ of mybeloved mistress to depart into this city of wicked savages notattended by me? I cannot. Do not demand it!" were the words with whichI left her arguing with that very sympathetic and sensible doctor ofAmerica. He had not noticed a confusion of sex was between Pierre andme and he had sent out the check of my wicked Uncle and procured theAmerican money for me. Also he had given me a few directions that heappeared to think of a great sufficiency and had ordered a taxi to bein readiness for me. 

"Nonsense, Nurse, " he said to Nannette bruskly but not with unkindnesswhen I had translated to him Nannette's weeping protests. "A greatstrapping girl like that can get down to the Harpeth Valley all rightby herself. Nobody's going to eat her up, and from the size of thebiceps I detect under that chiffon I think she could give a goodaccount of herself if anybody tried. How like you are to what Henrywas at your age, child, God bless you! I'd go to the station with youbut I've a patient all prepared for an operation. Shall I send a nursewith you?"

"No, please, good Doctor, and good-bye, " I said, with a great haste asI hurriedly embraced both Nannette and the small Pierre and departeddown the broad steps into the taxi with the open door. 

"Pennsylvania Station! Your train may not leave for hours, but you canget your baggage together. Good-bye, " said that good Doctor as he shutthe door and returned to his pursuit of making human beings eitherwhole or dead. 

"And now, Roberta Carruthers, no longer Marquise of Grez and Bye, youare in your America, and let's see you do some hustling, " as remarkedthat Mr. Saint Louis to Mr. Peter Scudder at cards. 

And while that very swift taxi conveyed me to the large station thatis as beautiful as a cathedral I did some what I name "tall thinking. "What would be the result of my womanly arrival in that State ofHarpeth of my wicked Uncle? Would he be forced to murder me as hisletter had said? And if in his anger over the mistake he had made frommy letter, written in that very bold and difficult handwriting, heshould turn from me, and the good Nannette and Pierre as well, whatwould I then do? All must be enacted that a cure for Pierre beobtained. With great energy I had been thinking, but I did not knowwhat it was that I should do to prevent his anger when I arrived tohim as a woman until suddenly the good Doctor Burns' kindness inmarking the resemblance of me to my father in his extreme youth madean entry into my brain and was received with the greatest welcome bythe daredevil who there resides. 

"Very well, Robert Carruthers, who is no longer the beautiful Marquiseof Grez and Bye, you will be that husky nephew to your wicked Uncle inthe State of Harpeth whom he 'needs in his business. ' What is it thatyou lack of a man's estate save the clothes, which you have money inyour pockets to obtain after you have purchased the ticket upon therailway train?"

A decision had been made and action upon it had begun in less than ahalf hour after the purchase of the ticket for the State of Harpethhad been accomplished. 

As my father had taught me observation in hunting, I had remarked alarge shop for the clothing of men upon the Sixth Avenue near to thestation. I made my way into it and by a very nice fiction of aninvalid brother whom I was taking to the South of America I was ableto buy for a few dollars less than was in my pocket two mostinteresting bags of apparel for a handsome young man of fashion. Theman who assisted me to buy was very large, with a head only ornamentedwith a drapery of gray hair around the edges, and he spoke much ofwhat his son deemed suitable to make appearance in the prevailingmode. 

"He's at tea at the Ritz-Carlton with a lady friend this afternoon, and I wish you could have saw him when he left the store to meet her, "he said as he laid the last of the silk scarfs and hose into one ofthe large flat bags I had purchased and which he had packed as Iselected. "He had on the match to these gray tweeds and was fitted outin lavender from the skin out. Now what are you going to do aboutshoes, Miss?"

"That I do not know, kind sir, " I made answer with a great perplexity. "I think that the feet of my relative are about the size of those Ipossess. "

"Most women would wear shoes near the size of their brothers' if theydidn't prefer to waddle and limp along with their feet scrouged. Goover to the shoe department and the clerk will fit you out with whatyou need in about two sizes larger than you wear. If they are notright you can tell just about what will be, and exchange 'em byspecial messenger. I'll pack all this shipshape before you come back. "With which direction I left the kind man and made my way to another ofequal kindness. 

"I have had upon my feet the shoes of my brother when in accidentswhile at hunting and fishing, and I think I can ascertain a goodfitting, " I made a falsification to the very polite young man whostood with attention and sympathy to wait upon me. 

"We'll make a selection and then try one pair on, " he advised me. 

And as I gave to him a fine description of the clothing I hadpurchased he brought forth in accord many wonderful boots and shoesfor the riding and a walking and also for the dance. I had neverobserved that the shoes of men were of such an ugliness; but when onewas upon my foot, in place of the shoe of much beauty which Idiscarded, both I and the young man had a fine laugh. 

"_Mais_, they are of a great comfort, " I further remarked. "Andthey feel about as did those of my brother, who is of a small frame. "

"Well, if they are not right, send 'em back and I'll change 'em, " heanswered with great interest. 

After the exchange of much money between us, the young man went withme to the other kind old man of the white hair, and together they madeplaces in the two bags for the shoes. 

"Just seven hundred dollars all told, and the like of that outfitcouldn't be bought any other place of style in New York for less thana thousand, Miss, " remarked to me the elderly clerk as he closed andmade fast with keys the two bags. "Shall I send 'em special?"

"I'll thank you that you call a taxi for me, Monsieur, " I answered, and as he had mentioned that Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in conversationearlier, that very wicked daredevil that resides within me awoke atattention with the large ears of great mischief. I felt in my pocketthat there was still much gold, and the man from whom I had purchasedthe ticket to the State of Harpeth had assured me that the train didnot depart until the hour of six in the evening. 

"To the Hotel of the Ritz-Carlton, " I commanded the man of the taxi ashe made fast the door. 

It then transpired that one hour from the time that the youngMademoiselle Grez, who had registered at that large hotel with all ofher luggage from the steamer while by lies her father was representedas still engaged with the customs, entered her room, there emergedyoung Mr. Robert Carruthers, who, after paying his bill in his roomhad a hall boy send his bags on ahead of him to the PennsylvaniaStation while he sauntered into the tea room. I have never again metwith the wonderful dresses I left in that hotel room. I hope the poorand beautiful domestic, who assisted me in cutting my hair into afootball shortness after the mode of a very beautiful woman dancerwhich she said girls of much foolishness in America have affected, wasrewarded with them. 

And as I stood in the center of the great room of conversation andlights and flowers and music I again became the frightened girl uponthe dock of America and I felt as if I must flee, but at that exactmoment I beheld my Mr. William Raines of Saint Louis and my Mr. PeterScudder of Philadelphia seated at a table in a very choice corner andthere was a vacant chair between them. Upon each other they wereglaring and before I had a thought I started towards them to preventthe carnage that had threatened on the boat. 

CHAPTER III

THAT MR. G. SLADE OF DETROIT

A number of moments in the rapid passing of the next few months I havewondered what would have resulted if I had taken that vacant chairbetween very agreeable Mr. William Raines and very proper Mr. PeterScudder so evidently reserved for the young, beautiful and charmingMarquise of Grez and Bye. I have decided that in about the half of onehour young Mr. Robert Carruthers would have been extinct and thedesired and beloved Marquise in her place between them sipping her teawhile making false excuses for forgiveness. I did not take that seatbut I accepted one which a _garçon_ offered me next to them anddid regard them with both fear and wistfulness, also with an intenseattention so that I might acquire as much as possible from them of anAmerican gentleman's manner. 

"I suppose the dame's fussing up for us to the limit, Peter, " observedthat Mr. Saint Louis while he emptied a glass of amber liquid andremoved a cherry from its depths with his fingers and devoured it withthe greatest relish. "Gee, but the genuine American cocktail is onegreat drink! Have another, Peter. You're so solemn that I am beginningto believe that _belle Marquise_ did put a dent in your oldQuaker heart after all. "

"There was something in that girl's eyes as they followed us, William, that no cocktail ever shaken could get out of my mind, " made answerthe very grave Mr. Peter Scudder of Philadelphia. "Do you suppose herUncle got there or that anything happened? I wish I had waited withher. "

"Well, either Uncle did arrive or we'll see her in the Passing Folliesweek after next, third from the left, in as little as Comstock allows. When I've had a good look at bare arms my judgment connects mightyeasily with bare--"

By that moment I had poised in my hand a very fragile cup of nicelysteaming tea and it was a very natural thing that I should hurl itscontents in the face of that Mr. William Raines of the country ofSaint Louis. 

_Voila_! What happened? Did I stay to fight the duel with that, what I know now to call a cad, and thus be put back into the person ofthe Marquise de Grez and Bye for a wicked Uncle to murder. I did not. I placed upon the table two large pieces of money and I lost myself inthe crowd of persons who had risen and gathered to sympathize withpoor Mr. Saint Louis. No one had remarked my escape, I felt sure, as Ihad been very agile, but as I sauntered out into the entresol of theHotel of Ritz-Carlton, to which I had given so great a shock in itsstately tea room, a finger was laid upon my arm in its gray tweedcoat. I turned and discovered a very fine and handsome woman standingbeside me and in her hand she had a book of white paper with also apencil. 

"I was sitting just back of Willie Raines and I heard what he wassaying about some woman, whom he and Peter Scudder had met on the boatover, not keeping her appointment with them. Peter is of thePhiladelphia elect and nobody knows why he consorts with the gayWillie. I saw them come off the boat together this morning and I knewthat the whole Scudder Meeting House would be in a glum over theirbeing together. Would you mind telling me just why you soused your teainto his face? It would make a corking story for my morning edition. Did you know them or did you know the lady or did you do it to belauncelotting?"

"I think it must have been for the third of those reasons, Madam, butI am not sure that I know the word you use, " I answered with muchcaution. 

"Launcelot, you know, the boy that was always fussing around overinjured women, in Tennyson or somewhere, just for a love of 'em thatwas always perfectly proper. Nice of him but not progressive. Say, doyou mind sitting down in a quiet corner of the tea room and telling meall about it? Are you French or Russian or Brazilian, and do youbelieve in women, or is it just because you like 'em that you threwthe tea? I've got a suffrage article to do and I believe you'd make agood headline, with your militant tea throwing. Want to tell me allabout it?"

"I have just one hour before going to the State of Harpeth, many milesfrom here, Madam, " I made answer with a great politeness. "I thank youbut I must make my regrets. "

"Oh, I can find out all I want to know about you in five minutes. Justcome sit down with me and be a good boy. Do you want to give me yourname? I wish you really were _somebody_ that had given Williethat tea fight. " And while making protestations and remonstrances Iwas led again into that tea room and seated at a great distance fromthe table which had been occupied by that Mr. William Raines and Mr. Peter Scudder, who had now departed. "If you really were some big gunit would kill Willie dead. "

"Then, Madam, permit me to present myself to you as Robert Carruthers, Marquis de Grez and Bye, from Paris on my way to visit my Uncle, General Robert Carruthers, of the State of Harpeth. I would verywillingly by information or a sword kill that Mr. William Raines ofSaint Louis and I regret that--that--" At the beginning of my sentenceI had drawn myself up into the attitude of the old Marquis of Flandersin the hall of the ruined Chateau de Grez, but when I had got to thepoint--of, shall I say, my own sword?--I was forced to collapse and Icould feel my knees under the tea table begin to shake together andhuddle for their accustomed and now missing skirts. 

"That's fine and dandy, " answered the nice woman as she began to writerapidly upon the blank paper. "If you'd drawn fifty swords on Willieand he had knocked you down with the butt end of his teaspoon I'd haveput Willie on the run in my write-up. Willie has handed me severallittle blows below the belt that I don't like. Pretends not to havemet me, when Peter Scudder's own sister, whom I knew at thesettlement, introduced him to me; and what he did to Mabel Wright, ourcub on weddings--Oh, well, Mabel is another story. Now--that copy isready to turn in when I pad it. I wonder if I will get a favor fromthe manager or be turned out of the tea room permanently for reportinga fight as aristocratic as this in the sacred halls of theRitz-Carlton. I'd bet my shoe lacings that fifty people come hereevery afternoon for a week hoping it will happen again. "

"I do like this America, whose movement is so rapid, " I made remark asI set down my second cup of tea for the afternoon, this one emptiedinto my depths instead of the face of Mr. Saint Louis. 

"That's good, too, " returned my new-found friend with a laugh as sheagain wrote a word or two on the nice white paper. Then she placed herelbow upon the table, leaned her very firm cheek on her hand, andregarded me with fine and honest and sympathetic eyes. "I wonder whatAmerica is going to do to a beautiful boy like you. I'm glad that youare going to beat it to the tall timbers of the Harpeth Valley. Thereare women in New York who would eat you up alive. There's La Frigeda, alias Maggie Sullivan from Milwaukee, over there devouring you withher eyes at this moment, and that pretty little Stuyvesant Blainedebutante hasn't taken her eyes off of you long enough to eat herspiced ice. I know 'em both and could land something from either oneif I introduced you in your title and very beautiful clothes. "

"Oh, I beg a pardon of you that I have not the time to have anintroduction to your friends, " I exclaimed with a very true regret, because I did like that very nice woman and would have liked much tohave brought advantage to her. "In less than an hour I must 'beat' tothose 'tall timbers of Harpeth' you mention. "

"Speaking of the State of Harpeth, I don't know as you'll be so safeafter all, young friend, if that is any sample of the variety of womenthat flower in that classic land of the cotton and the magnolia whichI met at Mrs. Creed Payne's war baby tea the other afternoon, " musedmy fine friend as I paid the _garçon_ for the very good tea. "Sheis in high-up political circles down there in Old Harpeth and from thebunch of women she was with I make a guess she is taking an interestin war contracts. She was with that Mrs. Benton, who pulled off thatspectacular deal for desiccated soups for Greece the other day. Mystomach is too delicate to feed soldiers dried dog and rotten cabbagemelted down into glue in a can, but they may like the idea if not thesoup. Anyway, the woman was a beauty, so don't you let her get you. "

"I do not entirely understand you, my dear Madam, and I wish that Imight have many days to talk with you about these American customs, " Isaid as I put into my pocket the exchange money handed to me by the_garçon_. 

"Well, it is not exactly an American custom I have been putting younext to, and I guess I'm patriotically glad that you don't entirelyunderstand. Now, I'm going to put you on the train for Old Harpeth andkiss you good-bye for your mother. I'm not trusting Frigeda, and she'slingering. Come on if your train leaves at six o'clock. "

And while she spoke, my interesting and fine woman rose and allowed meto assist her into her gray coat of tweed that was very like to mine. 

It was with regret that I parted from that lady at the door of thetaxicab that had been called for her, and I bent over and kissed herhand, the first woman that Mr. Robert Carruthers had ever so saluted. 

"Good-bye, boy! Remember, the tall timbers of Harpeth are best. Runright down and get a Southern belle and beauty to settle down and havea dozen babies for you, just like 'befo' the war. ' Good-bye! I'll sendyou down a paper to-morrow. I don't suppose the New York journals everpenetrate the Harpeth Valley. Good-bye again. " And then my friend wasgone, leaving me once more alone in New York and very shy of thosetweed trousers, which I immediately put with me into another taxicabwhich was directed to the Pennsylvania Station. 

At that Pennsylvania Station I remembered to send to my wicked Unclean announcement by telegram of my arrival to him and then I got uponthe train just in time for its departure. 

I have remarked that life is like high waves of fate that break insparkling white crests over buried mines, and I am now led to believethat many of those mines are but the habitation of mermaids of muchmischief. Are all ripples on life due to women at the bottom of thematter? I do not know, but it would seem true from the things thatimmediately began to befall me. And was it not I, a woman who wascalled daredevil, who began it all?

These Pullman cars of America in which to travel great distances, arevery remarkable for their many strange adventures, and I was very muchinterested but also perturbed when the black _garçon_ placed mybag and overcoat upon the floor at the feet of a very prim lady andleft me to stand uncomfortably in the aisle before her. 

"Your seat, sir, upper five, " he said, and departed with my fiftycentimes, which is called a dime in America. 

In the little division which I could see was marked five were two niceseats that were to each other face to face, but it appeared thatneither of them was vacant for Mr. Robert Carruthers. On one the ladysat with very stiff black silk skirts projecting from her sides, asdid her thin elbows also in the stiffness of white linen. Beside her, occupying the rest of her seat, was a hat with large black bows ofequal stiffness with the rest of the lady's apparel and dispositionnot to be friendly. On the seat opposite, which from the nature of myticket and the case I should have supposed belonged to me, were piledtwo large bundles, a shiny black bag, a black silk coat, also stifflike the lady, an umbrella, two magazines and a basket of fruit. Noplace was apparent for me or my bags or my overcoat. It seemed as ifit would be best for me to stand in the middle of the car all the wayto the State of Harpeth so that the lady's stiffness be notdisarranged. I did not know what I should do, and my knees began againto feel weak in that gray tweed and to be cold for their accustomedskirts, but the lady looked out of the window and said not a singleword. I did not have any convenient cup of tea in my hand to throw inthat lady's face in a manner that would not be permitted a gentleman, but if I had had the very lovely lorgnette that has descended to mefrom my Great Grandmamma, the wife of the old Flanders grandsire, Iwould have settled the matter with very little trouble in an entirelyladylike manner. As it was, I did not know what to do but stand andthen stand longer. Just at the moment when I began to feel that Iwould either be forced to forget that I was a gentleman or to faint asa lady, a very nice man touched me on the elbow and said:

"Just drop your bag on her feet and come into the smoker. She's gotyour game beat, " and he passed on down the aisle of that car. I actedupon that very kind advice and I am glad that from the weight of thebag I got at least a small action from the stiff lady if only a groanand a glare. Also I should have been grateful that she had sodiscourteously treated me so that I was fortunate to receive theattention of Mr. George Slade of Detroit as my first experience inAmerican manhood. 

That Mr. Slade of Detroit is a man of remarkable adventures, and herelated to me many of them as he sat with me in the place reserved forthe smoking of gentlemen. They were all about ladies who resided inthe different towns to which he traveled in the pursuit of sellingcigars, and he called them all by the name of "skirts. "

"I tell you, Mr. Dago, there is a skirt in Louisville, Kentucky, thatis such a peach that you'd call for the cream jug on sight. It wouldpay you to stop off and see her. She's on the level all right, but anyfriend that took a line from me would be nuts to her. See?" And hebestowed upon me a pleasant wink from his eye. To that I made noresponse. I could make none. 

"Now, Mr. Robert Carruthers, " I had said to myself at the beginning ofthe first story of "skirts, " "you will find yourself obliged to be inthe presence of men as one of their kind and not throw scalding tea intheir faces when they speak of ladies. You are of a great ignoranceabout the brute that is known as man and you must learn to know him asyou do the wild hog in hunting. " But even for the sake of a largereducation I could not remain, and I fled from that Mr. Slade ofDetroit in one half hour back to the arms of the stiff lady. But whenI arrived there I found she had had me removed from her as far aspossible to the other end of the car, where I found my bags depositedbeside one marked "G. Slade, Detroit. "

"Took the liberty of transferring you here above the other gentleman, sir. The lady is nervous, " said the conductor of the car as he handedme another ticket. 

"Right, old top, " said that Mr. G. Slade as he stood beside us, havingfollowed. "If you don't enjoy sleeping rock-a-bye-baby we can put ourtogs up and you can bunk in with me. I'm not nervous. " And with aglance at the very stiff black silk back in the front of the car hemade a laugh that I could not prevent myself from sharing. It is thenthat the delicacy of a woman is so easily corrupted?

"I beg your pardon, conductor, but upper nine is engaged for my sonwho is to get on at Philadelphia. I must have him just opposite mydaughter and me. We are nervous. " And as the large and pathetic ladyacross the aisle from number nine spoke in a most timid voice, thatMr. G. Slade gave one glance at the daughter of whom she spoke, whoalso must have weighed a great many litre, or what you call inAmerica, pounds, and fled back to the smoking apartment. 

It was a very funny sight to behold that small conductor stand with mylarge bags and overcoat and look around at that car full of ladies fora place in which to deposit me and them, which was not previouslyoccupied by some female of great nervousness. 

"Madam, I will have to use the upper of this section, " he finallyturned and said to the occupant of the number of seven with a veryfine determination. 

"Certainly, conductor; let me remove my hat and coat, " came back theanswer in a voice of very great sweetness as the conductor depositedme and my bags down in front of the most beautiful lady in allAmerica, I am sure. 

"Thank you for much graciousness, Madam, " I said, keeping those graytweed knees straight out in front of me and very still to preventtrembling. 

"Not at all, sir; I only bought the lower half of this section. I amnot at all _nervous_, " and I could see her mouth that was curledlike the petals of an opening rose tremble from a mischief as sheregarded the stiff black silk back in the front of the car and the twohuge females on our right whose son and brother was to arrive inPhiladelphia for their protection. 

An equally gay mischief rose in my eyes and responded to that in hersas I responded also by word:

"For which also let us be in gratitude. "

Many times in the months that followed have I thought of the lure ofthe laughing mischief in those eyes that were like beautiful blueflowers set in crystal, and how they were to lead me on into thestrange land of men in search of those forbidden fruits. They were thefirst to offer me affection, excepting perhaps my fine reporter womanwith the paper and pencil. 

And from that moment on I did very much enjoy myself in conversationwith that Madam Mischief, while we together did watch the retirementof all of the persons in the train. She had many funny remarks to makeand made me merry with them so that the hour of eleven o'clock hadarrived before we had summoned the very black male chamber-maid toturn our seats into beds. All others were in sleep that was aconfusion of sound from everywhere and we must stand in the aislewhile the beds were being abstracted. 

"Shall I take your bag into the dressing room, sah?" said the blackmale chamber-maid as if to intimate that I should leave the aisle freefor his operations. 

"Many thanks, yes, " I answered him. "Good night, Madam, and to youagain much gratitude for the happiness of an evening, " and with allsincerity I directed Mr. Robert Carruthers to bend over her very whitehand and kiss it with much fervor that was resulted from theloneliness of the poor Marquise of Grez and Bye, who was but a girl ina strange and large land, although habited in trousers and coat. 

"You are a dear boy, " she made answer to me with an equal affection asshe disappeared into the curtains of her small room. Then I departedto that room reserved for the disrobing of gentlemen. It was withoutoccupation and I opened my large bag and procured the very beautifulsilk night robing that the kind man had sold to me that afternoon. Itwas in two pieces that very much resembled the costume in whichgentlemen play tennis, only more ornamented by silk embroidery andbraid and buttons. I was regarding them with joy when into the smallroom came that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit. He was appareled in garmentsof the same cut only of a very wide red stripe, his hair was very muchin confusion and he had a bottle in his hand in which was a liquid thecolor of cognac. 

"I've only been awake for two hours listening to that peach of a skirttrying to make you fuss her a bit, and I thought I would bring you anip to pick you up after your fight. Gee, it is as I suspected. Youare off on a wedding tango and that makes you cold to all wiles! Myson, for a wedding garment that thing you have in your hand is awinner. I can't sleep in silk myself because it makes me feel like awet dog, but you'll be so beautiful in them that the bride will bejealous of you and say that even if you are so pretty now you willfade early or that you buy your complexion at the corner emporium. Goon, put 'em on, or was you just looking at 'em for pleasure and goingto save 'em by sleeping 'as is'? Me, I always undress to the skin, butsome don't. "

"I--I was just looking at them with pleasure, " I made haste to answerthat Mr. G. Slade of Detroit. "When upon travels I always fear todisrobe myself. I think that I will now retire, " and with a haste thatmade my hands tremble I replaced the sleeping garments in the largebag and prepared to flee down the aisle to the sleeping apartment inwhich was the protection of another woman's presence. 

"Not even a nip before you go?" he asked me as he held the largebottle to his lips and threw back his head for a gurgling down histhroat. 

"No, with much gratitude, and good night, " I answered as I rapidlydeparted with my cheeks in a flame of scarlet and a fear in my heart. In my flight I passed by that number of seven and came very nearopening the curtains of the number of five and precipitating myselfupon the bayonets of black taffeta that stood firm from a hat soplaced as to bar my intrusion. From that accident I turned and soughtthe kind black male chamber-maid with a request that he show me how toinsert myself into the right place for sleeping. 

"Right here, Boss. Climb up on these little steps and then hand medown your shoes. Soft now; I think the lady am asleep. "

"Good night, and I'm not nervous, " I heard a laugh of mischief comefrom behind a second and short green curtain, that veils the lower ofthe sleeping shelves, just as I fell onto my shelf above and lay witha panting of relief. 

CHAPTER IV

THE IMPOSSIBLE UNCLE ROBERT

"Robert, " I made remark to myself after I had with difficulty removedthe tweed coat and the tweed trousers and neatly folded them againstugly wrinkles of to-morrow, "you must become a sport and not climbdown there and tell that other woman the truth of your lady's estateand ask her to comfort you with affection. You were born a daredeviland you must remember those two Indians and a bear that the GrandmammaMadam Donaldson murdered for safety for herself and her children. ThatMr. G. Slade is just one bear and he's not as dangerous to you as ifyou wore 'skirts' anyway. And, also, if you are brave and propitiatethe wicked Uncle, in just a few months you can travel to where thelovely lady with the blue flower eyes resides, of whom in the morningyou must get the address of home, and can then make confession to herand know the joy of having her sisterly embraces that seem of so muchsweetness to you now. 

"But suppose it is that she arises in the night and leaves the trainfor her home!" I said to myself as I suddenly sat up in the dark andprecipitated my head against the roof of the sleeping shelf. 

"I will call down to her and ask the one simple question, " I madeanswer to myself. Then I reached down my head over the edge of myshelf and called very softly:

"Madam?"

"Yes?" came a soft question in answer and I felt that she arose andbrought her beautiful head which had the odor of violets in the wavesso heavy and black, up very near to mine. I could feel a comfort fromher breath on my cheek. 

"I am in fear, Madam, that you should leave the train before I amawake, " I said in a voice under my breath. "I do not want that I loseyou into this great America. "

"Oh, I'm not easily lost. "

"I am desolated with loneliness and I must know where it is that youleave the train, immediately, so that I may sleep. "

"At Hayesville, Harpeth, you ridiculous boy. Now don't disturb meagain. Go to sleep. "

As I sank back on my pillow, happy with a great relief, I thought Iheard two laughs in the darkness, one in a tone of silver from beneathme and one of the sound of a choke from opposite me where was reposedthat Mr. G. Slade of Detroit. 

"It is a good chance for you, Robert, that you go to sleep your firstnight in America with the sound of a nice laugh from two persons ofkindness towards you, one of whom is to be with you for a friend inthe same--what was it the gray lady with the pencil and paper calledit?--'tall timbers of Old Harpeth' where all is of such strangeness toyou. " And with this remark to myself I fell asleep, "as is, " I thinkit was that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit called my state of not beingdisrobed further than trousers and coat. 

After many months in which came to me cruel pain and a long hard fightfor the honor of my beloved, I cannot but remember that feeling ofgratitude that came over me as I went into sleep on that narrow shelfunder which lay the beauty of that Madam Patricia Whitworth. 

In the eight years that I had become all of life to my father we hadmade many travels into distant lands and had seen all of beauty thatthe Old World had to offer seekers after it, but nowhere had I seenthe majestic wonder of this, his own land, that I beheld pass by likea series of great pictures wrought by a master. All of the morning Icould but sit and gaze with eyes that sometimes dimmed with tears forhim as faster and faster I was carried down into his own land of theValley of Harpeth, which he had given up for love of my Mother andfrom the cruelness of my wicked Uncle who would not welcome her to hishome. When the great Harpeth hills, in their spring flush from therosiness of what I afterwards learned was their honeysuckle andlaurel, shot with the iridescent fire of the pale yellow and green andpurple of redbud and dogwood and maple leaf, all veiled in a creamymist over their radiance, came into view, as we arrived nearer andnearer to Hayesville my hand went forth and grasped closely the handof Madam Whitworth. That Mr. G. Slade had left the train before myawakening and I felt relief from the absence of his eyes and couldexpress to the beautiful lady the joy that was in my heart. 

"And the small homes in the valley, Madam, with the sheep and cattleand grain and children surrounded, they need never fear the fire ofshell and the roar of the cruel guns. This valley is a fold in thegarment across the breast of the good God Himself and it has Hischerishing. Is it that there will be a home for me in its peace andfor the small Pierre and the old and faithful Nannette?"

"A home and--and other things, boy--when you ask for them, " sheanswered me with a very beautiful look of affection that while itpleased me greatly also made for me an unreasonable embarrassment. 

"Is it that you think I will obtain the affection of my Uncle, theGeneral Robert Carruthers, Madam Whitworth?" I asked of her with agreat wistfulness, for I had told her of his summons to me and sheknew already the story of his hardness of heart against my mother. 

"The General is a very difficult person, " she made answer to me, and Isaw that softness of her beautiful mouth become as steel as she spokeof him. "To a woman he is impossible, as I have found to my cost, butall men adore him and follow him madly, so I suppose his attitudetowards them is different from his attitude towards women. My husbandand I disagree utterly about the General. In fact, the old gentlemanand I are at daggers' points just now and I am afraid--afraid that hewill make it difficult for you to be--be friends with me as I--I wantyou to be. "

"Neither the General Carruthers nor any man, Madam, dictates inmatters of the heart to the Marquise de--that is, to Robert Carruthersof Grez and Bye, if that is the way I must so name myself now, " Ianswered in the manner of the old Marquis of Flanders, tinged with the_grande dame_ manner of the beautiful young Marquise of Grez andBye whom I had murdered and left in that room of the great hotel ofRitz-Carlton in New York. 

"It will be delicious to watch his face as you and I alight from thistrain together, boy. It will be worth the trouble of this hurried tripto New York to be introduced to a person who disappeared suddenly in atug boat in the open ocean when he should have landed at the dockswith the propriety that would have been expected of him. " And as shespoke I could see that something had happened in New York which hadbrought much irritation to the beautiful Madam Whitworth. 

"It would seem that it is one of the customs of these great ships tosend out passengers from them in those very funny small tug boats, " Iremarked as I leaned forward to catch a last fleeting glimpse of alovely girl standing in the doorway of an ancient farmhouse, givingfood to chickens so near the course of the railroad train that itwould seem we should disperse them with fright. "I wept when I mustsee my good friend, Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, depart from ourship in one of those tug boats. It was a pain in my breast that hemust leave me to go into the wildness of Canada. "

"Oh, then he went to Canada first?" exclaimed that Madam Whitworth asshe leaned back on her seat as if relieved from some form of a greatanxiety about the departure of that Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. 

"Is it that you are also a friend of my Capitaine?" I demanded with agreat eagerness of pleasure if it should be so. 

"Oh, no, no, indeed!" exclaimed the beautiful Madam Whitworth. "I wasspeaking of my own friend who might have taken a Canadian line insteadof the American. She is so careless about instructions. Now look; weare beginning to wind down into the very heart of the Harpeth Valley, and by the time you make very tidy that mop of hair you have on yourhead and I powder my nose, we will be in Hayesville to face theGeneral in all of his glory. Mind you kiss my hand so he can see you!I want to give him that sensation in payment of a debt I owe him. Nowdo go and smooth the mop if it takes a pint of water to do it. ThatNew York tailor has turned you out wonderfully, but even those verysquare English tweeds do not entirely disguise the French cavalier. You're a beautiful boy and the girls in Hayesville will eat you up--ifthe General ever lets them get a sight of you--which he probablywon't. Now go to the mop!"

For many years, since the lonely day just after the death of mymother, when my father took me into the furthest depths of his sadheart and told me of his exile from the place in which he had beenborn, and about the elder brother who had hated my beautiful mother, who hated all women, I had spent much time erecting in my mind astatue that would be the semblance of that wicked and cruel Uncle. Ihad taken every disagreeable feature of face and body that I hadbeheld in another human, or in a picture, or had read of in the talesof that remarkable Mr. Dickens, who could so paint in words amonstrous person to come when the lights are out to haunt thedarkness, and had carefully patched them one upon another so as tomake them into an ideal of an old Uncle of great wickedness. On thatvery ship itself I had beheld a man, who came upon the lower deck fromthe engine, who had but one eye and a great scar where that other eyeshould have been placed. Immediately my image of the General RobertCarruthers lost one of the wicked eyes I had given him from out thehead of the stepfather who did so cruelly stare at the poor youngDavid Copperfield, and became a man with only one eye which still heldthe malevolence that was hurled at that small David. And with thissquat, crooked, evil image of the General Robert Carruthers in myheart I alighted from the train into the City of Hayesville, which isthe capital of the great American State of Harpeth. The black man hadswung himself off with my bags and that of the beautiful MadamWhitworth, who with me was the last of the passengers to descend fromthe steps of the car. 

"My dear Jeff!" exclaimed my so lovely new friend as she raised herveil for a very seemly kiss from a tall and quite broad gentleman witha very wide hat and long mustachios that dropped far down with want ofwax that it is the custom to use for their elevation in France, as Iwell know from my father's wrathy remarks to his valet if he made atoo great use of it upon his. "And this is General Carruthers' nephewwho came down on the train with me. My husband, Mr. Carruthers of Grezand Bye!" with which introduction she confronted me with thegentleman. 

"Glad to know you, young man; glad to know you, " he answered as hetook my hand and gave it an embrace of such vigor that I almost madeoutcry. "There's the General over there looking for you. Come to seeus sometime. Come on, Patsy!"

"Good-bye, Mr. Carruthers. I'll see you soon, " said the beautifulMadam Whitworth as she held out her hand to me. "Do it now; therecomes the General! Quick, kiss my hand!"

I bent and did as she bade me and as I had promised her to do, and asI raised myself she slipped away quickly after her husband with asalutation of great coolness to a person over my shoulder and a "Howdo you do, General Carruthers" remark as she went. 

Instantly I turned and faced the materialization of the ogre it hadtaken me years to build up into my wicked Uncle. And what did I see?

My eyes looked straight into eyes of the greatest kindness and wisdomI had ever before beheld, and it was with difficulty I restrainedmyself from flinging myself and my suit of English tweed straight intothe strong arms and burying my head on the broad deep chest thatconfronted me as the huge old gentleman, with as perfect a mop ofwhite hair as is mine of black, rioting over his large head, toweredover me. 

"You gallivanting young idiot, where did you pick up that dimity?" hedemanded of me as he laid a large hand with long strong fingers on myshoulders and gave me a slight shake. "Don't tell me it was over PatWhitworth you had that ruckus at the Ritz-Carlton day beforeyesterday!"

"No, Monsieur, it was not, " I answered, looking him straight in theeyes and feeling as if I was looking into kind eyes that I had seenclose to me forever in the old convent in France, and as I spoke Icould not help it that I raised my arm in its covering of a man'stweed and let my woman's fingers grasp one of the long fingers on myshoulder and cling to it as I had done other long fingers just likethem that had guided my first footsteps down the sunny garden paths ofthe old Chateau de Grez. 

"I'm your Uncle Robert, sonny, and don't you ever forget that, sir, "he answered as he gave me another shake and I could see a longing forthe embrace, which I so desired, in his keen eyes that had softenedwith a veil of mist in the last second. "Lord, I'm glad you're not awoman! And from now on just stop knowing the creatures exist--PatWhitworth and her kind. None of that tea-throwing in Hayesville, sir!We've got work to do to put out a fire--fire of dishonor anddevastation. No time for tea-fighting here. Come on to my car overthere; we've no time to waste. "

"What is it that you say about that throwing of tea which occurredonly the day before yesterday in the City of New York many hundreds ofmiles from here? How did that knowledge arrive here, my Uncle Robert?"I questioned. 

"Associated Press, sir. The greatest power in this America. AssociatedPress! Full account, you and me, titles and all, printed in thisafternoon's paper. Any money left of that thousand?"

"No, my Uncle Robert, " I faltered. "It was necessary that I spend--"

"Don't tell me about it. I sent it to you so you could get as much aspossible out of your system. The hussies! I've got work for you to dohere. Forget 'em! Hop in!" And he motioned me into a very large bluetouring car that stood beside the station platform. 

"Drive to the Governor's Mansion and don't sprout grass under yourwheels, " he commanded the black chauffeur. "The Governor's Mansion, private door on Sixth Street. "

CHAPTER V

"HERE'S MY BOY, GOVERNOR"

And it was en route to the mansion of the Gouverneur of the State ofHarpeth that my Uncle, the General Robert, did enlighten me as to theurgent need of me in his affairs of business. 

"It is a question of mules, sir, and of a dishonor to the State thatI'm going to prevent if my hot old head is laid low in doing it, as itprobably will be if I get into the ruckus with Jefferson Whitworththat now threatens. They have insinuated themselves into theconfidence of Governor Faulkner until they have made it well-nighimpossible for him to see the matter except as they put it. They willget his signature to the rental grant of the lands, make a get-awaywith the money and let the State crash down upon his head when itfinds out that he has been led into bringing it and himself intodishonor. Why, damn it, sir, I'd like to have every one of them, especially Jeff Whitworth, at the end of a halter and feed him a rawmule, hoof and ears. I'm probably going to be done to death all alonebefore the pack of wolves, but I'm going to die hard--for BillFaulkner, who holds in his hand the honor of his State and my State, I'll die hard!" And he spoke the words with such a fierceness that hiswhite mustache, which was waxed with the propriety of the world, divided like crossed silver swords beneath his straight nose with itsthin and trembling nostrils. 

"It will be that I can help you protect this honor of the GouverneurFaulkner and the State of Harpeth, will it not, my Uncle Robert?" Iasked with a great anxiety. "If you must fall on the field of honor itwill be the glory of Robert Carruthers of Grez and Bye to fall besideyou, sir. I am a very good sport, my father has said. "

"God bless my soul, how like Henry you are, boy!" exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert, and he did lay one of his long and very strongarms across my shoulder and give to me the embrace for which I had solonged; but for not enough time for me to yield myself to it. "Henryalways wanted to tag 'Brother Bob, ' and he too--would--havedied--fighting for me--at my side. I've been hard--and when I heard ofhis death--I wanted you, boy, I wanted you more--Now what do you mean, sir, by making me forget for one moment the fix Bill Faulkner and Iare in?" And my Uncle, the General Robert, gave to me a good shake ashe extracted his very large white handkerchief and blew upon his nosewith such power that the black chauffeur looked around at us and madethe car to jump even as he and I had done. 

"And those mules that it would be your wish to feed to that Mr. JeffWhitworth, my Uncle Robert, will you not tell me further about them?In Paris it is said that they are a very good food when made fat afterbeing old or wounded in the army. I have--"

"That will do, sir. If you've had to eat mule in Paris don't tell meabout it. My constitution wouldn't stand that, though during our war, just before Vicksburg, I ate--but we won't go into that either. Nowthis is the situation, as much as a lad from the wilds of Paris couldunderstand it. The French Government wants five thousand mules by thefall of the year, and there are no such mules in the world as thisState produces. They are sending a man over here to try to make a dealwith the State of Harpeth to purchase the mules from private breeders, graze them on the government lands and deliver them in a lot forshipment the first of August at Savannah. There is no authority on thestatute book for the State to make such a deal, but Jeff Whitworth hasfixed up a sort of contract, that wouldn't hold water in the courts, by which the Governor of the State, Williamson Faulkner, grants thegrazing rights on the State's lands to a private company of which heis to be a member, which, in a way, guarantees the deal. They've madehim believe it to be a good financial thing for the State and he can'tsee that they are going to buy cheap stock, fatten it on a low ratefrom the State and hand it over to the French Government at a fancyrake-off--and then leave him with the bag to hold when the time forsettlement and complaint comes. There is a strong Republican party inthis State and they're keeping quiet, but year after next, when BillFaulkner comes up for re-election, downright illegality will bealleged, and he will be defeated in dishonor and with dishonor to theState. I am his Secretary of State and I'm going to save him if I can. And you are going to help me, sir!" And as he spoke my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, gave to me a distinguished shake of the hand that mademy pride to rise in my throat, which gave to my speaking a greathuskiness. 

"I will help in the rescue of the honor of that Gouverneur BillFaulkner, my Uncle Robert, with the last breath in my body, and I willalso assist to feed mule to that Mr. Jefferson Whitworth, though notto his beautiful wife whom I do so much admire. "

"That's just it; she'll have to eat mule the first one. She's at theGovernor day and night with her wiles, and in my mind it's her dimityinfluence that is making him see things with this slant. They say sheput her brand on him in early youth. He's the soul of honor but whatchance has a man's soul-honor got when a woman wants to cash it in fora fortune with which to lead a gay life? None! None, sir!" And thecountenance of my Uncle, the General Robert, became so fierce that itwas difficult to find words to answer. 

"Oh, my Uncle Robert, is it that a woman would make a cheat in givingthe mule animal of not sufficient strength to carry food to poor boysof France in the trenches when there is too much mud for gasoline!" Iexclaimed with a great horror from knowledge given me by my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. 

"Just exactly what she is trying to do, boy. Let those poor chaps withguns in their hands to defend her civilization as well as theirs, diefor want of a supply train hauled by reliable mules when unreliablegasoline fails. That's what women are like. " And as he spoke Iperceived the depth of dislike that was in the heart of my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, for all of womankind. 

"There are some women who would not so comport themselves, my UncleRobert. I give you my word as one--" Then as I hesitated in terror atthe revelation of my woman's estate I had been about to make, myUncle, the General Robert, made this remark to me:

"Women are like crows, all black; and the exceptional white one onlymakes the rest look blacker. The only way to stop them in theirdepredations is to trap them, since the law forbids shooting them. "And as he made this judgment of women I forgot for a moment that wediscussed that Madam Whitworth, whom it was causing me great pain todiscover to be the enemy of France, and I thought of my beautifulmother, whom he had judged without ever having encountered, and agreat longing rose in my heart so to comport myself that his heartshould learn to trust in me as a man and then discover the honor ofwoman through me at some future time. I took a resolve that suchshould be the case and to that end I asked of him:

"How is it that I can serve you in these serious troubles, my UncleRobert?" And as I asked that question I made also a vow in my heartagainst that black crow woman. 

"Now that's what I'm coming to. The French Government is sending anarmy expert down here to look over the situation and make thecontracts. I can't speak their heathenish tongue or read it, and Iwant somebody whom I can trust--trust, mind you--to help me talk withhim and make any necessary translations. That Whitworth hussy has beentranslating for us and I don't trust her. Your letter was handed to mein the Governor's private office and both he and I saw what a help itwould be to have you here when this Frenchie--who is a Count Somethingor Other--and his servants and secretaries, what he calls his suite, arrive. By George, sir, we need your advice in eating and drinkingthem! Do you suppose they'll have intelligence enough to eat the mannaof the gods, which is corn pone, and drink the nectar, which is plainwhiskey, or will we be expected to furnish them with snails andabsinthe?"

At that I laughed a very large laugh and made this answer to theperturbation of my Uncle, the General Robert:

"I will tell you after luncheon, my Uncle Robert, because I have notas yet eaten in this Harpeth country of America. "

"All right, we'll talk about it after you've had one of old Kizzie'sfried chicken dinners. Here we are at the Mansion. Remember, you knowthe _whole_ situation and are only supposed to know the part thatGovernor Bill _thinks_ is the whole. Look at me, boy!" And as thebig car drove up to the curb before a great stone house with tallpillars on guard of its front, he laid both his hands upon myshoulders and turned me towards him with force and no gentleness andthen with his keen eyes did he look down into the very soul of me. 

"Yes, I see I can trust you, sir. God bless you, boy!" he said after avery long moment of time. 

"Yes, my Uncle Robert, " I answered him without turning my eyes fromhis. 

"Well, then, here we are. I came to the side door so I wouldn't haveto introduce you to any of the boys this morning, for we want to havea talk with the Governor before dinner and I don't dare keep Kizziewaiting. It riles her, and a riled woman burns up things: masters, husbands, cooking or worse. Come on. " And as we walked up the broadside steps of that Mansion of the Gouverneur, my Uncle Robert's handwas on my arm and I felt that I was being marched up to the mouth ofthe gun of Fate and I wished very much I could have been habited in mycorduroy or cheviot skirts, no matter how short or narrow they mightbe. A number of gentlemen sat upon the wide verandah smoking pipes orlong cigars under the budding rose vine that trailed from one tallpillar to another, and more stood and talked in groups beside thelarge front door that opened into the wide hall. At the back of thehall before a closed door stood a very large black man who was veryold and bent and who had tufts of white wool of the aspect of a sheepupon his head. He was attired in a long gray coat of a military cutthat I afterwards learned was of the late Confederacy, and I soon hadmuch affection for him because of his reminiscences of that war andalso because of his affection for my noble father, to whom he had toldthe same stories' in his early youth. 

My Uncle, the General Robert, had not paused to present to me any ofthe gentlemen with whom he had exchanged jovial greetings, but hestopped beside the old black man and said:

"This is Henry's boy, Robert, Cato. Fine young chap, eh?"

"Yes, sir, Mas' Robert, " answered Cato as he peered into my face withthe nicest affection in his black eyes set in large spaces of white. 

"Like Henry, isn't he?"

"'Fore God, yes, sir!"

"Look after him, Cato. He'll be about considerable. "

"Dat I will--Mas' Henry's boy!"

"No lobbying dimity chasing him, Cato!"

"Yes, sir; I understands, sir. "

"Is the Governor ready for me?"

"Yes, sir, you's to go right in, Mas' Robert. Mr. Clendenning is withhim jest now, but he'll be out in a turkey's call of time. Jest walkin, sir, and you, the young marster, " and with a bow that almostallowed that the tails of the long gray coat swept the floor, the oldblack man opened the door and motioned us into the room of theGouverneur of the State of Harpeth. 

It has been given to me in the very short time of my life to be oftenin the home of the President of France, to be presented at the courtof England with my father, to the Czar at Petrograd and to the oldFranz Joseph, as well as to the beloved Albert and Elizabeth inBrussels, where I did go often to play with the young princess, and Ido know very well how to manage skirts whether very tight, or verywide with ruffles, in the case of such presentations, but my heartrose very high up and beat so near to the roots of my tongue that itwas impossible for me to speak as I was presented, in the travelingtweeds of a young man of American fashion, to the very wonderful andbeautiful and fearful Gouverneur Williamson Faulkner of the State ofHarpeth. 

"Here's my boy, Governor, " was all the introduction my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, administered to me, and I stood and looked into theface of him whom afterwards I discovered to be the greatest gentlemanin the world, with my heart beating in my throat and yet astir undermy woman's breast in the place it had always before resided. 

CHAPTER VI

"WE BOTH NEED YOU"

I do not know how it is that I shall find words in which to write downthe loveliness of that Gouverneur of Old Harpeth. He was not as tallas my Uncle, the General Robert, and he was slender and lithe as somewild thing in a forest, but the power in the broadness of hisshoulders and in the strength of his nervous hands was of a greatnessof which to be frightened; that is, I think, of which a man should befrightened but in which a woman would take much glory. His hair was ofthe tarnished gold of a sunset storm and upon his temples was a curvedcrest of white that sparkled like the spray of a wave. All of which Imust have seen with some kind of inward eyes, for from the moment myeyes lifted themselves from contemplating the carpet in embarrassmentover my tweed trousers they were looking into his in a way which atdawn my eyes have gazed into the morning star rising near to me overthe little wood at the Chateau de Grez. I did not for many days knowwhether those eyes were gray or blue or purple, for when I regardedthem I forgot to decide, and also they were so deep and shadowed bythe blackness of their lashes and brows that such a decision wasdifficult. At this time I only knew that in them lay the fire of thelightning over Old Harpeth when the storm breaks, the laugh of thevery small boy who splashes bare feet in the water with glee, and alsoa coldness of the stars upon the frost of winter. I was glad that Icame across the dark ocean to flee from the cruel guns into a strangeland to look into those eyes. 

"It is good that you have come, Robert Carruthers, for the General andI both need you, " were the words I heard him saying to me in a voicethat was as deep and of as much interest as the eyes, and as he spokethose words he took one of my hands in both of his strong ones. "Andif you say snails, snails it shall be, if Cato and I have to invadeevery rose garden in Hayesville and vicinity and stay up all night tocatch them. "

"I think I shall choose that corn pone and whiskey that my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, has promised to me from one bad tempered cook at thetime of my luncheon, " I found myself saying with a laugh that answeredthe bare-footed boy who suddenly looked at me out of the cool eyes. 

"I thought I would let him have a try-out with Kizzie before wedecided what to feed the savages, " also said my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, with a laugh. "Besides, he's one himself and I'll have to goslow and tame him gradually. "

"No, he's ours. He's just come back to his own from a strange land, General, and you'll kill the fatted calf or rooster, whichever Kizziedecides, with joy at getting him. " And this time the star eyes gave tome the quick sympathy for which I had prayed before the Virgin withthe Infant in her arms in the little chapel of the old convent justbefore we had to flee from the shells, leaving my father to theSisters to bury after the enemy had come. I think my eyes did tellthat tale to his and the tears ached in my throat. 

"I know, boy, " he said softly and then turned and presented me to theMr. Clendenning who was arranging papers at a desk beside the window. 

I do like with my whole heart that funny Buzz Clendenning, who has thereddest hair, the largest brown speckles on his face and the widestmouth that I have ever beheld. Also, his laugh is even wider than ishis mouth and overflows the remainder of his face in ripples of whatis called grin. He is not much taller than am I, but of much morepowerful build, as is natural, though he did not at that momentrecognize the reason thereof. 

"Shake hands, boys; don't stand looking at each other like youngpuppies, " said my Uncle, the General Robert, as he clapped his hand onthe back of the Mr. Buzz Clendenning. "You don't have to fight it out. Your fathers licked each other week about for twenty years. "

"Can't I even ask him to take off his coat once, General?" answeredthat Mr. Buzz with the grin all over his face and spreading to mycountenance as he took my hand in his to administer one of thoseshakes of which I had had so many since my arrival in America. For asecond he looked startled and glanced down at my white hand that heheld in his and from it to my eyes that were looking into his with theentire friendliness of my heart. Suddenly I had a great fright ofdiscovery within me and my knees began to again tremble together fortheir skirts, but before that fright had reached my eyes quite, I hadborn to me an elder brother in the person of that Buzz Clendenning, and I now know that I can never lose him, even when he knows that--

"I'm no shakes in the duel, Prince, so let's kiss and make up beforeyou get out your sword, " he said as he also, as my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, had done, laid an arm across my shoulders in an embrace ofaffection. It was then I made a discovery in the strange land intowhich I was penetrating: Men have much sentiment in their hearts thatit is impossible for a woman to discover from behind a fan. They keepit entirely for each other as comrades, and I received a large portionof such an affection when that Mr. Buzz Clendenning adopted me in whathe thought was my foreign weakness, as a small brother to be protectedin his large heart. 

"I am very happy to so salute you instead of the duel, " I made answerand did immediately put a kiss on his one cheek, expecting that hewould return it upon my cheeks, first one and then another, as is thecustom of comrades and officers in France. 

"Here, help! Don't do that again or I'll call out the police, "responded that funny Mr. Buzz Clendenning, as he shook me away fromhim, while my Uncle, the General Robert, and the great Gouverneur didboth indulge in laughter. 

"I am abashed and I beg your pardon for offending against the customsof your country. I do remember now that my father did not permit sucha salutation from his brother officers, and I will not do so again, Monsieur Buzz Clendenning, " I said as my cheeks became crimson withmortification and tears would have come over my eyes had my pridepermitted. 

"This is what he meant you to do, Buzz, you duffer. I said good-bye totwenty-two of my friends this way the day I set sail from oldHeidelberg, " and as he spoke, that great and beautiful and exaltedGouverneur Faulkner did bend his head to mine and give to me thecorrect comrade salute of my own country on first one of my cheeks andthen upon the other. 

"I thank you, your Excellency, " I murmured with gratitude. I wonderwhat that Russian Count Estzkerwitch or Mr. Peter Scudder or LordLeigholm on those Scotch moors, would have thought to hear Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, express such gratitude for two small pecksupon her cheek delivered in America. 

"Yes, sir, it's mighty pretty to look at but I reckon the kid hadbetter stow the habit before he is introduced to Jeff Whitworth andMiles Menefee and the rest of the bunch, " said that Mr. Buzz as heleft off wiping from his cheek with the back of his hand the kiss Ihad put there, and administered to me another embrace on my shoulderswith his long arm. "Besides, youngster, there are _girls_ inHayesville, " he added with a grin that again was reflected on my facewithout my will and which did entirely take away my anger andembarrassment at his repulse. 

"Girls! Girls!" exploded my Uncle, the General Robert. "The femaleyoung generally known as girls are about as much use to humanity as abunch of pin feathers tied with a pink ribbon would be in the place ofthe household feather duster that the Lord lets them grow into afterthey reach their years of discretion. Robert has no time to waste withthe unfledged. Don't even suggest it to him, Clendenning. And now youcan take him around to my house and tell Kizzie to begin filling youboth up while I wait for a moment to go over these papers with theGovernor. And both of you avoid the female young, for we've work foryou; mind you, work and no gallivanting. Now go! Depart!"

"The old boy is a forty-two centimeter gun that fires at the mentionof the lovely sex and doesn't stop until the ammunition gives out, "said Mr. Buzz Clendenning as he slid into the seat of his slim grayracer beside me and started from the curb on high without a singlekick of the engine. "I'd like to wish a nice girl, whom he couldn'tshake off, onto him for about a week and watch him squirm along tosurrender. Wait until you see Sue Tomlinson get hold of him down onthe street some day. He shuts his eyes and just fires away at herwhile she purrs at him, and it is a sight for the gods. Sue's fatherdied and left her with her invalid mother and not enough money toinvite in the auctioneer, but the General took some old accounts ofthe Doctor's, collected and invested them and made up plenty of moneyfor Sue's grubstake, though he goes around three blocks to get pasther. Sue adores him and approaches him from all sides, but has nevermade a landing yet. Say, you'll like Sue. She is pretty enough to eat, but don't try to bite. It's no use. "

"Is it that this lovely Mademoiselle Sue does not like gentlemen savemy Uncle, the General Robert?" I asked with great interest. I was gladin my heart that I was soon to see and speak with a nice girl even ifit had to be in character of a man. 

"Oh, she loves us--all, " answered that Mr. Buzz with the greatestgloom. "_All_ of us--every blamed son-of-a-gun of us. "

"Oh, I comprehend now that it is your wish that she love only you, Mr. Clendenning, and are sad that she does not, " I said as I looked at himwith much sympathy. 

"That is about it, Prince, but don't say I said so. Everybody chasesSusan. She even wins an occasional ice cream smile from HisExcellency. I bet she'd go up against that august iceberg itself in atry-out for a 'First Lady of the State' badge if Mrs. Pat Whitworthhadn't got the whole woman bunch to believe she has a corner on hisice. Mrs. Pat is some little cornerer, believe me. "

"Oh, I did like that Madam Whitworth, and I hope that it will be mypleasure to see her again soon, " I said with an ice in my voice as Icaught my breath while Mr. Buzz Clendenning drove between two cars anda wagon with not so much as an inch to spare on all three sides of thecar. It is as I like to drive when at the wheel, but sitting besideanother--

"You'll see her at the Governor's dinner for you Tuesday, if notsooner, and just watch her and the General war dance with each other. He opens his eyes when Mrs. Pat attacks and he imagines he is thewhole Harpeth Valley Militia defending His Excellency of Iceland fromher wiles. Just watch him!" And this time it was three wagons that weslid between and beyond. 

"Why is it that the great Gouverneur Faulkner has such a coldness forladies?" I asked of that Mr. Buzz. "I did find him to be of such abeautiful kindness. "

"He's been too much chased. He's got his fingers crossed on them, theytell me. Just watch him in action at his dinner. He side-steps sogently that they never know it. "

"Why is it then that he gives to me this dinner of honor when he sodislikes all--that is, I mean to ask of you why is it that I am sohonored by that very great Gouverneur Faulkner of the State ofHarpeth?" I asked, and I had a great fright that I had again so nearlybetrayed Robert Carruthers to be one of the sex so hated by that noblegentleman, the Gouverneur Faulkner. "I must think of myself as a manin future, " I commanded myself. 

"Didn't the General tell you about it? It is to introduce you to theflower and chivalry of your native land. Believe me, it will be somedinner dance. The General wanted it to be a stag, but Sue fought tothe last trench, which was tears, and he gave in. These days theGovernor loses no chance to honor his Secretary of State for--forpolitical reasons, " and as he spoke that good Mr. Clendenning lookedat the wheel for steering, and I could see that there was deep concernin his eyes. 

"Is it that--that trouble of mules, Monsieur Clendenning?" I asked ofhim softly in a woman's way for administering sympathy for distressbut without the masculine discretion that I was to learn swiftlythereafter to employ. 

"Don't talk about it, for I don't know how much either of us knows orour chief wants us to know, but Governor Williamson Faulkner is a manof honor and I'd stake my life on that. He's being pushed hardand--Gee! Here we are at the General's and I can smell Kizzie's creamgravy with my mind's nose. I understand that your father was the lastHenry Carruthers of five born up in the old mahogany bedstead that theGeneral inhabits between the hours of one and five A. M. Some shack, this of the General's, isn't it? Nothing finer in the State. " And ashe spoke that Mr. Buzz Clendenning stopped the car before the home ofmy Uncle, the General Robert, and we alighted from it together. 

I do not know how it is that I can put into words the beautifulfeeling that rose from the inwardness of me as I stood in front of thehome of my fathers in this far-away America. The entire city ofHayesville is a city of old homes, I had noticed as I drove in thegray car so rapidly along with Mr. Buzz Clendenning while he wasspeaking to me, but no house had been so beautiful as was this one. Itwas old, with almost the vine-covered age of the Chateau de Grez, butinstead of being of gray stone it was of a red brick that was as warmas the embers of an oak fire with the film of ashes crusting upon it. Thus it seemed to be both red and gray beneath the vines that werecasting delicate green traceries over its walls. Great white pillarswere to the front of it like at the Mansion of the Gouverneur, andmany wide windows and doors opened out from it. Two old oak treeswhich give to it the name of Twin Oaks stood at each side of the oldbrick walk that led from the tall gate, and as I walked under them Ifelt that I had from a cruel world come home. 

CHAPTER VII

THE GIRL BUNCH

And, if I felt in that manner as I entered the house, I felt it to astill greater degree when I was welcomed by that most lovely old blackslave woman of the high temper and good cookery. She opened the doorfor us herself, though a nice boy the color of a chocolate bonbonstood in waiting to perform that office. She had a spoon in her handand upon her head was a spotless white turban, as also was an apron ofan equal spotlessness tied around her very large waist. 

"You, Mas' Robert, you done come home from the heathen land to keep myfood waiting jest like yo' father did from the minute I ontied himfrom my apron string. Come right into the dining room 'fore my gravycurdles and the liver wing I done saved for you gits too brown in theskillet, " was all of the introduction or greeting that she gave to meas she waddled along behind Mr. Buzz Clendenning and myself, drivingus down the hall and into the dining-room. "Mas' Buzz, how is yo'mother? I 'lowed to git over to see her soon as this ruckus of youngMas' coming home is over. Now, here's the place fer you both and thatno 'count boy will bring in yo' dinner proper to you or he'll be skuntalive. " With which she departed through a door, from which came anaroma that led to madness of hunger, and left the bonbon servant toattend us. 

"Gee, I hope Kizzie killed by the half dozen last night; if therearen't three chickens apiece you'll be hungry, L'Aiglon, " said Mr. Buzz Clendenning with a laugh as he seated himself beside me andunfolded his napkin. 

"I wish that you might call me Robert, Mr. Clendenning, " I said with agreat friendliness as I ate a food that I had not before tasted andthat I did so much like that I was tempted to steal some to put in mypocket for fear I would come to believe that I had dreamed it toexist. It is called corn pone and is made of maize, and it will befound in some form at every meal upon my Uncle, the General Robert's, table, good Kizzie assured me as I made her a compliment about it. 

"Though the name of that son of our great Napoleon is very dear tome, " I added at his quick glance, fearing he might think me offendedat what is called a nickname. 

"Sure, Bobbie, and you'll forget that I wouldn't let you kiss me, won't you?" he answered as he drew back from the table and lit acigarette after passing me the case. "Everybody calls me Buzz theBumble Bee because of a historic encounter of mine with a whole nestof bumblebees right out here in the General's garden. It is a title ofheroism and I'd like to have you use it as if we'd been kids togetheras we were slated to have been. Gee, I bet you could have beat thebees down some. You looked all soft to me when I first saw you but youare so quick and lithe and springy that you must be some steel. Whatdo you weigh out, stripped?"

"Er--er, about one-thirty, " I answered, and I made a resolve not toblush or show anything of embarrassment, no matter what was to be saidto me in my estate of a young gentleman. 

And I make this note to myself that it is a great pleasure andinterest to sit beside a nice young man with a cigarette in his mouthand one in my hand as if for smoking, which I do not like to do fromits bitterness, and converse with him about matters of good sensewithout having in any way to use that coquetry which breaks into smallsections the usual conversation between a man and a woman ofenthusiastic youngness. 

"I tip at one fifty-two, but I'm an inch and a half taller. Do yourun? You're good and deep chested, " he further inquired and it waswith difficulty that I again controlled the blush. 

"I fence and I'm large of lung, " I answered quickly. 

"Ride?"

"Anything ever foaled, " I answered in words I had heard my father useabout my horsemanship. 

"Don't smoke?"

"Don't like it. "

"Golf?"

"Some--wild. "

"I play a hurry game myself, " he laughed. "Dance?"

"With a greatness of pleasure, " I answered. 

After that for a time he puffed at his cigarette and I looked aroundthe long dining room that was almost as large as the dining-hall atthe Chateau de Grez and which was dark and rich and full of old silveron the sideboard and old portraits on the walls. Finally my Buzz putout the stub of his cigarette in his saucer and looked me keenly inthe face as I raised my eyes to his. 

"Booze?" he asked quietly. 

"No!"

"That's good, old top. Me neither! Say, let's go call on Sue and youcan get a nice little initiation into the girl bunch before theGeneral stops you by locking you away from them. "

"I wish that I might, but I must unpack my bags and write the lettersto small Pierre and my nurse Nannette; also be ready for translationsfor my Uncle, the General Robert, when he arrives. Will you persuadethe lovely Mademoiselle Sue that she save one little dance for me onthat evening of Tuesday?" I said as we rose and walked down the longhall towards the wide door under the budding rose vine. 

"She'll dead sure give you one--of mine, " he answered me with a laugh, "but come along with me now, L'Aiglon. The General won't be home untilnight. I laid some letters on his desk that will hold him and GovernorBill until sunset. They'll have pie and milk sent in and work it allout together. What's the use of having them to watch the affairs ofthe State of Harpeth for us if we don't use the time they are on watchin having some joy life? Come on!"

"I go, " I made answer with a great pleasure. 

Then we descended to the gray car of much speed and did use that speedin turning many streets until we came to another very fine old house, where, I was informed by my Mr. Buzz Clendenning, resides thatMademoiselle Susan of so much loveliness. 

And it is of a truth that I discovered that loveliness to be as greatas was told to me by her true lover. When I raised my head from thekiss of presentation I gave to her hand I looked into very deep andvery wonderful girl eyes that had in their depths tears that were fora sympathy for me, I knew. My heart of an exile beat very high in myown girl's breast that ached for the refuge of her woman's arms, and Imust have partly betrayed my yearning to her, for I saw an expressionof confused question come into her eyes that looked into mine; thenthe beautiful thing that had come into my Mr. Buzz Clendenning's eyesfor me came also into hers in place of the question. I saw then inthose eyes a sister born to the boy Robert Carruthers of a greatFrench strangeness. 

"I've been thinking about you all morning, Mr. Carruthers, and hopingBuzz would bring you with him to see me first of all. I wanted to bethe first one of the girls to say, 'Welcome home' to you. " And as shespoke those words of much tenderness I again bent over her hand insalutation because I could give forth no words from my throat. 

"Sue, you are the real sweet thing--and now notice me a bit, willyou?" said my fine Mr. Buzz Clendenning with both emotion and ateasing in his voice. "I know I haven't got French manners and don'tlook like L'Aiglon, but I'm an affectionate rough jewel. "

"Please don't mind Buzz, Mr. Carruthers--he just can't help buzzing. Isn't it great about the dance Tuesday night? I fought hard to saveyou from a horrid long banquet with a lot of solemn men. I ought to bethe belle of that ball and you and Buzz will be ungrateful if youneglect me, " and as she made these remarks for laughter, I liked stillmore this new friend. 

"You are the good, thoughtful little missionary to the foreigner, Susan. I suppose you wanted to stay at home and tat socks while Bobbieand I dined and wined--not, " was the very unappreciative answer thatwas made to her by that Buzz. 

"For always I will be your humble slave, Mademoiselle Susan, " was theanswer I made into her laughing eyes. "All the evening I will wait inloneliness for the small crumbs of dance that you throw to me. "

"That will do, Robert; you don't know how spoiled Susan is and you'remaking trouble for me. Besides, you haven't seen the baby Belle in warpaint yet. Let's go call on her now!" And that Mr. Buzz Clendenningwas in a moment ready for making more new friends for me. "Come on, Susan, we can tie Prince Bob on the running board. "

"Why, there's Belle at the gate now and--yes--it's Mrs. Whitworth withher. I wonder when she came from New York, " said Mademoiselle Susan aswe went to meet the guests approaching, I on the one side of her andthe Mr. Buzz on the other. 

CHAPTER VIII

IN THE DRESS OF MAGNIFICENCE

"The beautiful Madam Whitworth came down upon the same train which Ioccupied, " I said as I remembered to raise from my head my hat by thataction on the part of my Mr. Buzz. 

"Oh, then you have been presented to L'Aiglon?" said Mr. Buzz to thatMadam Whitworth who stood smiling while I was presented to the verylovely girl of great blondness, who both blushed and what is calledgiggled as I kissed her hand, though in her eyes I found a nicefriendliness to me. 

"We are old friends who know all about each other, aren't we, Mr. Robert Carruthers?" and in her gay answer to that Mr. Buzz I detecteda challenge as her eyes of blue flowers in snow looked into mine withthe keenness of a knife, to detect if I had yet been told aught of herby my Uncle. And in the answering look of friendliness I gave her wasconcealed also a knife of great keenness, which came from a brain withwhich I hoped to do to the death that enemy of France. And also I feltmy heart spring to the protection of the honor of great GouverneurFaulkner, who had given me a comrade's salute within a few hours past;and also to the protection of the honor of my house in the person ofmy Uncle, the General Robert. 

"Indeed, I have much joy that I was given the opportunity to know thevery beautiful Madam Whitworth at so early a time in my life inAmerica, " I made answer to her question in words as I bent also overher hand for a kiss of salutation. 

And then I had a great amusement at the skill with which that MadamWhitworth brought it to pass that I walked with her from that gate andleft the three new and lovely friends I had made looking after me withaffection and regret at my departure. 

"Of course, it was horrid of me to snatch you like that from thoseinfants, but--I really had the claim to have you for a little time tohear your impressions of Hayesville, now, didn't I?--you boy with eyesas beautiful as a girl's!" she said to me as I walked down the widestreet beside her. 

"I hope you will always make such claims of me, Madam, " I made answerwith the great sweetness with which I was determined for the time tokeep covered the steel knife. 

"I know how to claim--and also to reward, " she answered me with awarmth that gave me a great discomfort. "And how did you escape fromthe General into feminine society on your very first day? Wasn't therework for you at the Capitol? I understand that they are expecting thatFrench Commissioner very soon now. " She asked the question with anindifference that I knew to be false. 

"I think it is that I am allowed to get my--what you say inEnglish?--land legs, " I answered with much unconcern. 

"Speaking of that Frenchman who is coming down for the mule contracts, of which by this time you have doubtless heard, I wonder why it isthat the Count of Lasselles, your friend, is sending one of hislieutenants instead of coming himself. Did he say anything of comingdown later? I wish he would, for to my mind he is one of your greatestsoldiers and I would like to look into his face. That portrait in the_Review_ is one of the most interesting I have almost ever seen. Is there any chance of his coming down?" And I was of a greatcuriosity at the anxiety in her face about the movements of myCapitaine, the Count de Lasselles. 

"He told me only that he would go to the grain fields of EnglishCanada, Madam, " I answered her by guardedly telling her no more thanmy words upon that train had revealed to her. 

"If he writes to you, you must tell me about it, " she said with greatfriendliness. "I am interested in everything that happens to him. "

"I will do that, with thanks for your interest, " I answered to herwith an air of great devotion. "And behold, is it not the Twin Oaks ofmy Uncle I see across the street?" I asked as I stopped in front ofthat fine old home that was now mine. 

"Come on down the street to my home and I'll give you a cup of tea, "she invited me with very evident desire for my company for morequestioning. 

"I give many thanks, but that is not possible to me, as I must writenotes to my Pierre and old Nannette for the evening railroad. I bidyou good day, beautiful Madam, " and again I bent over her hand in asalutation of departure. 

"Then I'll see you again soon, " she said and smiled at me as I stoodwith my hat in my hand as she went away from me down the street. 

"_Vive la France_ and Harpeth America!" I said to myself as Iascended the steps, was admitted by the Bonbon and conducted up thestairway to my apartments by good Kizzie, whom I met in the wide hall. 

And there ensued an hour of the greatest interest to me as the verygood old slave woman led me from one of the rooms in the large houseto another, with many stories of great interest. At last we came tothat room in which had been deposited my bags and my other equipmentfor my journey and there we made a very long pause. 

"This is your Grandma Carruthers' room, the General's grandma, and shewas the high-headedest lady of the whole family. That am her portraitover the mantelshelf. You is jest like her as two peas in the pod andI reckin I'll have to take a stick to you like I did to yo' fatherwhen he was most growed up and stole all the fruitcake I had donebaked in July fer Christmas, " she said with a wide smile of greataffection upon her very large mouth. 

"I beg that you put under a key that cake, beloved Madam Kizzie, " Imade answer to her with also a laugh. 

"Never was no key to nothing in this house, chile, " she answered tome. "I 'lowed to the Gener'l that he had oughter git a lock and keyfer this here flowered silk dress in the glass case on the wall dat deole Mis' wore at the ball where she met up with Mas' Carruthers, butthey do say that she comes back and walks as a ha'nt all dressed in itand these here slippers and stockings and folderols in the carved boxon the table here under her picture. Is you 'fraid of ha'nts, honey?"

"I will not be afraid of this beautiful Grandmamma in this dress of sogreat magnificence, my good Kizzie, " I made answer to her with more ofcourage than I at that moment felt. 

"Well, it's only in case of a death in the house that she--Landsalive, am that my cake burning?" With which exclamation the goodKizzie left me to the company of the beautiful Grandmamma. 

After having unpacked and nicely put away all of the apparel from mytwo large bags, the fine Bonbon retired below to answer a summons fromgood Kizzie, and left me alone for the first time since I had openedmy eyes that morning while being whirled in the railway train downinto the State of Harpeth. I looked at the hunting watch strapped tomy wrist, which I had worn while traveling, and saw that it was afterfive o'clock, and I felt that I must sleep before dining, if for onlya moment. 

Thereupon I immediately climbed slowly and awkwardly out of that graytweed suit of clothes. I did so wonder what could be the best methodof releasing one's self from trousers. It is a feat of balance tostand on one foot and remove one portion of the two sides of thetrousers, and yet it is an entanglement to drop the two portions uponthe floor and attempt to step out of them with the shoes upon yourfeet. Having succeeded in getting out of them the last night whenprone upon the sleeping shelf of the railroad train, without injury tothem, I again prostrated myself upon the huge bed in my room anddisentangled myself from them while in that position. 

After having completely disrobed I took the bath of the temperature ofmilk that Nannette is accustomed to administer to me, inserted myselfin the very lovely 'wedding' garments for sleeping that Mr. G. Sladehad so admired, and sank into deep slumber upon the large bed with asilk covering beflowered like the skirt of a lady's dress upon me. 

"Well, well, you young sleepyhead, up and into your clothes, sir. Weare late for the Capitol now, " were the words I heard in what seemedalmost the first moment after I had closed my eyes. Behold, my Uncle, the General Robert, fully dressed, stood beside the bed and a morningsun was shining through the windows. I had slept through a long nightlike a small child upon the bosom of the bed of my beautifulGrandmamma who smiled down upon me. 

"Oh, my Uncle Robert, how much time is it that I have to make mytoilet?" I begged of him as I sat up and made a rubbing of my eyes. 

"Less than an hour, sir, to get out of that heathenish toggery thatthe men of your generation have substituted for the honest nightshirt, into proper garments, and eat your breakfast. I'll call you when I amready to go. "

It was very little more than the hour my Uncle, the General Robert, had given to me, that I consumed in the accomplishment of a verydifficult toilet in a suit of very beautiful brown cheviot which thegood man in New York from whom I had procured it had said to be forvery especial morning wear. To my good Kizzie I gave a greatuneasiness that I did not consume the very elaborate meal thatresembled a dinner, which she had ready for the Bonbon to serve to me, and desired only a cup of her coffee and two very small pieces ofwhite bread called biscuits. 

"All the Carruthers men folks is friends with their food, they is, "she admonished me. 

"At luncheon, my Kizzie, just watch me, " I said to her in nice UnitedStates words as I departed with my Uncle, the General Robert, to theCapitol of the State of Harpeth, which is a tall building set on anequally tall hill. 

I found much business awaiting me in the form of making a correcttranslation of all of the letters in a very large portfolio, all ofwhich were pertaining to that very tiresome animal, the mule. But Imade not very much progress, for a very large number of gentlemen cameinto the office of my Uncle, the General Robert, and to all of them Imust be presented. 

In fact, in all of what remained of that entire week, for most of mymoments in the Capitol I was having very painful shakes of the handgiven to me and receiving assurances of my great resemblance to myhonored father. 

All of which I did greatly enjoy, but nothing was of so much pleasureto me as the visits I accomplished into the office of that GouverneurFaulkner with messages of importance from my Uncle, the GeneralRobert. 

It was with a very fine and cold smile of friendliness that he atfirst received me, as I stood with humble attention before his deskupon my first mission to him, but with each message I perceived thatthe stars in his eyes, so hid beneath his brows, shone upon me with agreater interest. 

And in observing the many heavy burdens that pressed upon his strongshoulders until at the close of each day a whiteness was over his verybeautiful face, I grew to desire that I could make some little thingsfor him easier. I sought to so do and I discovered that it waspossible to beguile many very heavy persons to tell to me what it wasthey wished to impose upon him. 

I took upon a long ride in the car of my Uncle, the General Robert, that Road Commissioner, who was making a trouble for my GouverneurFaulkner about taking much money from the sum that he desired to bevoted for use on the roads of the State of Harpeth, thus making myGouverneur Faulkner not beloved of the people in the country aroundthe capital city, and when I returned him I had used many beguilementsin the way of flattery about the superiority of the roads of Americato the roads of all of the world, and had also jolted him to such anextent that he did write a nice letter to my Gouverneur Faulknerasking that that money be not voted less but even more, so as to "beatout the world with the roads of Harpeth. "

"Good boy, " was the reward that I got from my Gouverneur Faulkner forthat feat, and a smile that was of such a loveliness that it lasted meall of the day. 

Also I made a hard work for myself in saving that Gouverneur Faulknerby much flattery from a large lady who was anxious that he sign apaper by which all women might vote that no more whiskey for mintjulep should exist. I very willingly put the name of Mr. RobertCarruthers to the paper, for I do not like those juleps, and Ipersuaded the nice large lady that she go in that car of my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, with me away from the proximity to my chief, theGouverneur Faulkner, to a place in the city where we could drink thatice cream soda water that I do so love. 

That lady was very like many other persons who came to see myGouverneur and whom I persuaded to make me much exhaustion instead ofhim. It was while telling him of the lady and the two very delicioussoda ice creams that he very suddenly interrupted me with a nice smilethat had in it a small warmth like the first glow of a fire, and said:

"Robert, I'm going to ask the General to lend you to me for a coupleof weeks while I am so pressed. Buzz can do more for him than you doand--and, well, just looking at you and hearing you tell about theflies you brush from my wearied brow, rests me. Report to me to-morrowinstead of to him. I know it will be all right, for he really needsBuzz. Now you run home and get ready for one great time at this partyI'm giving to you to-night. And, Robert, remember to tell meeverything the flies say, translated in your United States. "

"I will and I go, my Gouverneur Faulkner, " I made an answer to himwith a laugh in which I did not show entirely all of the pleasure Iexperienced when I discovered I was to be in the place of hissecretary, that fine Buzz Clendenning. 

And with much haste I took my departure from the Capitol of the Stateof Harpeth to Twin Oaks in the car of my Uncle, the General Robert, for I knew that upon this evening I must make a new and terribletoilet and I would require much time thereto. 

The good old Nannette and my Governess Madam Fournet have alwaystaught me that the art of a lovely woman's toilet could not beperformed in less than two hours, and I felt that I had better beginin the way to which I was accustomed and go as far as I could in thatdirection, then finish in the manly manner which would now be of anecessity to me. 

The good Bonbon, whom I now know is called Sam, had laid out myevening apparel, from the queer dancing shoes with flat heels to avery stiff and high collar, upon a couch in the huge room, and aftermy bath I began to put them upon me with as much rapidity as waspossible to me. For a few moments all went well, even up to havingtucked the fine and very stiff white linen shirt garment into thesilky black cloth trousers, but a trouble arose when I put upon myselfthe beautiful long coat that is in the shape of a raven, which theAmerican gentleman wears for evening toilet. My shoulders weresufficiently broad to hold it nicely in place and it fell with agracefulness upon my hips, but at my waist it collapsed on account ofa slimness in that locality. The fit of the tweed, which had been liketo that of a bag, had been very correct and had not revealed the curveof waist, but now it was manifest. 

"What is it that you must do, Roberta, to disguise your roundness of ayoung woman? All is lost!" I said to myself in despair. Then a thoughtcame to me. I had never been habited in a corset in my life on accountof a prejudice entertained to that garment by my Nannette, but Ibethought me to remove that shirt and also the silk one underneath andswath about me one of the heavy towels of the bath. Immediately I didso and fastened it in place with a needle and thread from thegentleman's traveling case that I found in the pocket of my bag. Overit I then drew the silk undershirt and then that of fine linen, beforeagain putting myself into the black raven's dress. Behold, allroundness and slimness had disappeared and when the collar was added Icould see that I was as beautifully habited as either Mr. PeterScudder or that Mr. Saint Louis of the boat. 

"Roberta of Grez and Bye, " I said to myself as I looked into the tallmirror, "it is indeed a sorrow to you that you cannot make yourcourtesy to that Gouverneur Faulkner habited in the white lace andtulle garment that is in those trunks which you have lost in that NewYork, with your throat that your Russian Cossack has said was like alily at the blush of dawn, bare to his eyes, but you are a nice, clean, upstanding American boy who can be his friend. You must be andyou must play the game. "

And in the language of that Mr. Willie Saint Louis, it was "somegame. "

CHAPTER IX

"O'ER THE LAND OF THE FREE--"

I have a desire to know if it is into the life of every person therecomes one night which he is never to forget until death and perhapseven after. I do not know; but I am sure that I shall always keep thememory of the night upon which Mr. Robert Carruthers of Grez and Byewas introduced to the friends of his ancestors. It is my jewel thatseems a drop of heart's blood that I will wear forever hid in mybreast. 

At dinner I sat beside the Gouverneur Williamson Faulkner and tearscame into my eyes as he rose from beside me at the head of the tableand said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to drink to the homecoming of RobertCarruthers, my friend, your friend, and everybody his friends. "

And from that long table there came to me such beautiful and lovingsmiles over the glasses of champagne that they went to my head insteadof the wine I could not even sip because of the tears in my throat. Itwas as that day upon the great ship when I saw fulfilled before myeyes my vow to my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles: "Friends forFrance. " I sat still for a long minute; then I rose to my feet with myglass in my hand. 

"I cannot make to you a speech, but I beg that I may say to you wordsthat were of the first taught to my infant tongue and which I lastrepeated in an old convent close to the trenches in France. "

Then in the rich voice which has come to me from the deep singing ofmy mother I repeated very quietly:

 "Oh--say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming; Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there--"

through to the last words which had fallen from my lips as I had takenmy father's dying kiss:

 "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. "

Though I had not told them of it, I do believe there was not a heartamong those kind people which did not know of that last moment in theold convent and I could see it in tears dashed aside as they all roseand sang the last strain of the American song, with the musicians inthe anteroom leading them. 

And as they sang that most wonderful song, Gouverneur Faulkner laidhis arm across my shoulder, and the comfort of its strength gave to methe courage to send back all the smiles that were sent to me, as thatfunny Mr. Buzz Clendenning said while they seated themselves:

"Gee, but L'Aiglon is the real un-hyphenated brand of old Uncle Sam, Jr. "

"Thank God that firebrand isn't a girl, " I heard my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, say to most lovely Mademoiselle Susan, in a corn-colored gownof fine line, who sat at his side. 

"I'm so grateful to you, General, that he is a boy, " I heard her sayin the deepest respect and regard for my Uncle, the General Robert. 

"I don't doubt at all, Madam, that you will succeed in making me wishthat he had been born a girl or not at all, " was the kind reply thathe made to her nicely spoken gratitude as we laughed into each other'seyes across the table. 

"I hope so, " was the answer with which Mademoiselle Sue comforted him. 

"And now what have you to say to me, boy, the oldest friend you've gotin America, who hasn't seen you for days--that have been too long, "said that Madam Whitworth, who was seated at my side, and as she spokeshe turned one lovely bare shoulder in the direction of my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, and the beautiful Mademoiselle Sue and also Buzz, asif to shut them away from her and me in a little space of world justfor two people. 

"I can say with truth, Madam, that your loveliness to-night is but theflowering of my suspicions of it that morning upon the railroadtrain, " I answered her in words that were a very nice translation ofwhat that fine young Cossack had once said to me at the Chateau deGrez of my own flowering into rose chiffon after an afternoon'shunting with him in corduroys. And in truth I spoke no falsehood tothat Madam Whitworth, for she was of a very great beauty of body, verymuch of which was in view from a scantiness of bodice that I had neverseen excelled in any ballroom in France. 

"I knew you for a poet from that adorable black mop which I see youhave very nicely plastered in an exact imitation of Buzz Clendenning'sred one, " she answered me with a laugh. "Follow me from the ballroomjust after supper at midnight for a half hour's chat alone in a placeI know; and don't let either the General or the Governor see you, " shethen said in an undertone as the Gouverneur Faulkner bent forward andbegan a laughing conversation with her. 

"I will, " I answered her under my breath, and I leaned back in mychair so that the Gouverneur Faulkner could more conveniently conversewith her. And to that end he placed his arm across the back of mychair, and thus I sat in his embrace with my shoulder pressed intohis. 

I do not know exactly what it was that happened in the depths of me, but suddenly the daredevil rose from those depths and knew herself fora very strong woman filled to the brim with a primitive, savagecunning with which to fight the beautiful woman at my side for thehonor of the man whose strong heart I could feel beating against mywoman's breast strapped down under its garment of man's attire. Andthat cunning showed me that I would have a hundredfold betteropportunity to do her and her schemes against him and against Franceto the death in my garments and character of a man, than I could havehad if I had come into his and her world as the beautiful youngRoberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. Then for those hated garments of araven my heart beat so high with gratitude that I moved again forwardfrom the arm of His Excellency for fear that he might feel the tumulteven through that strong towel of the bath which I had sewed above it, and be in wonderment as to its cause. 

"Here's to your first duel with a woman in which you use a man'sweapons, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, and see that youscore--for him--and for France!" I said to myself as we rose from thetable and with the other men I bowed the ladies from the room. 

"At midnight, " I whispered while I bent for a second to kiss the handof the beautiful Madam Whitworth as she left the room. As I raised myhead from the salutation I encountered the eyes of the GouverneurFaulkner, which looked into mine with an expression of calm question. And for a moment I let the woman rise superior to the raven attire andI looked back into those eyes, in which I saw the mystery of the dawnstar, as would have gazed Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, had shebeen attired in the white tulle and lace abandoned in that New York;then I beat her back down into my heart and gave him the smile offealty that was his due from Robert Carruthers, his friend, along withone similar, to the fine young Buzz Clendenning, who at that momentcame to my side and claimed my attention. 

"You score with Sue. I'm to be the gracious little home city host andgive up any dances your Marquisity may choose with her. Sue foxes likeshe was born in a fox hole under a hollow log, but she tangoes likethe original Emperor Tang himself, so go ahead and suit yourself. Don't mind me. I'm the loving little playmate. "

"That Mademoiselle Sue is so much of a peach that I am inclined torequest the receptacle of cream that I may devour her, " I then madeanswer to him in as many of the words of enthusiasm over a nice ladyas I could remember that Mr. George Slade of Detroit to have used overthe "skirt" in Louisville in the Country of Kentucky. 

"Good, Bobby! I'll have to go tell Sue that before she is two minutesolder. I wouldn't want her to live five minutes longer without havingheard it. Sue's dead sure to tell the rest of the girl bunch, so Ihope you have a supply where that came from, for they'll all cry for'em. There's the Governor making towards the door and Mrs. Pat, who isalways waiting at the gate for him, so come, let me lead you to thedance. " With which my nice Buzz and I followed the Gouverneur Faulknerand the other gentlemen across the hall into the long salon of theMansion, whose floors were polished like unto a lake of ice, fordancing. 

In Touraine it is said that a nice lady fairy comes for a visit ofinspection at the _berceau_--in America it is cradle--of eachsmall human that is born, and gives to it a beautiful gift ifpropitiations are made for it to please her. To that end sweetmeatsand nice presents are placed beside the small infant with which tobeguile the good opinion of that fairy. I would I could be thatexalted person and able to visit every small infant born a female inall of the world. And the gift I would give to her, there in hersleep, would be to one time in her life attend a ball in the ravenattire of a man in the city of Hayesville of America. I could bestowno greater gift. 

The hours that followed my entry into the ballroom in the Mansion ofthe exalted Gouverneur Faulkner were like minutes of time that droppedfrom a golden clock of joy. I danced on feet that were strong wings toglide over a floor that was a many colored cloud from the reflectionof the soft lights and the silken skirts which ruffled over it. And, what was most enjoyable to me in this case, I glided in whateverdirection pleased me and took with me the armful of cloud, which wasthe girl with whom I was dancing, on long swoops of my own will, instead of being led in my flights by another as had always beforebeen the case with my dancing. It was the most of a joy that I hadever experienced. And as I so enjoyed that freedom I did not know howit was that I should have such a feeling of dissatisfaction when Ibeheld that beautiful Madam Whitworth dancing within the arms of theGouverneur Williamson Faulkner. I blushed that I should be sounworthy, with such an unreasonable fury in my heart, and I lookedaway so that I seemed not to see the smile that he sent to me over thehead of the very sweet Belle girl in blue ruffles and silver slippersI was guiding past him in the trot of a fox. 

"Yes, Sue Tomlinson _is_ as lovely as a ripe peach, isn't she?"asked Mademoiselle Blue Cloud of me as I lowered her almost to thefloor over my arm, slid her four steps to the left then trotted hertwo back and two forward; and her tone had a very sweet demand ofwistfulness in it as she looked up into my eyes and pressed very closeto that protecting towel of the bath. 

For an instant I could not think of one single bonbon of compliment tooffer the lady and I wished I had sat up all of the night to talk tothat Mr. G. Slade of Detroit in the railroad train and had had my nicegray lady friend in the Ritz-Carlton there with her notebook totranscribe the many pleasing things he reported himself to have saidto the ladies whom he called "skirts. " Then nice Lord Chisholm cameall the way from England into my memory to assist me in my difficulty. I translated from him freely in this manner:

"Aw, on me word, you _are_ a ripping good sort and I could takeyou on for the whole evening if you'd let me. What?"

"I wish I could, " she answered and by that time I had thought out anice little squeeze for her very pretty waist in its silver girdleunder my arm. Then I had to put her into the arms of a nice young mannamed Miles Menefee. To get my breath and to think up some more of thecompliments that had been given to me for my pleasure in the past, Imade my retreat behind a very large palm that was in the corner of theroom, and out upon a wide balcony which hung over a moonlit gardenacross which I could see dim hills in the moonlight. 

"Girls of all nations are granddaughters of the same Monsieur Satan, Isuspect, " I made remark to myself as I inhaled the perfume of theflower garments of the spring garden below. "I must take a great carethat I do not--"

"And then, boy, you'll slip on the thin ice when you least expect it, "came in the deep voice of the Gouverneur Faulkner from a shadow at myelbow. "I sometimes think that they love us just to double-cross ourlife's ambitions, but don't you begin to suspect that for years tocome. "

"A man's life must be rooted in the heart of a woman if it would bearfruit, Monsieur le Gouverneur, " I found myself saying as in the personof the Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, I drew myself to my fullheight with pride in defense of my own sex. "A man doubts that to hisown dishonor. "

"Yes, but it must be a pure heart that nourishes a man to his fullfruitage--and, boy, don't you take even a sip--until you are surethere are such founts of refreshment. "

"I would that you could look into my heart, my Gouverneur Faulkner, " Isaid as I raised my hand and laid it against the raven garment thatcovered my soft breast that was rent with pain at the sadness of hisvoice and his deep eyes. "There you would see the heart of one--"Suddenly I stopped in the deepest dismay and the daredevil quaked inher trousers. 

"I would probably see the heart of--shall I say, Galahad Junior? Godbless you, boy, you are refreshing. " And he laughed as he laid hisstrong hands on my shoulder and gave to me a good shake. 

"Are you my comrade Launcelot?" I asked him with a sudden fierce painagain in my breast under the raven coat at the thought of what thatQueen of the yellow hair had done to that brave Knight of the RoundTable of King Arthur. 

"I don't think I'll answer your--your impertinence, boy. Just keepfoxing with Sue and Belle and the rest of the posy girls and--and keepaway from the pools--of--of other eyes. " And after another shaking heturned me towards the door of that ballroom of lights and music. 

At the command of the Gouverneur Faulkner there was nothing I could dobut go back to the ballroom and to float for more minutes in the landof cloud with the "girl bunch, " as my friend that Buzz has named them;but at supper I took my seat at the table with that beautiful MadamWhitworth and her husband of the very drooping black mustache and eyesthat looked at all places except into those of the person addressinghim. And at that moment I made this resolve to myself: "ThatGouverneur Launcelot may ride far out of the white road, but I intendto run at his stirrup. " And I found that it required swift running, for the road led--shall I say--into "tall timbers. "

It is with a burning of countenance that arises from a hot shame, which I do not even to this moment exactly understand, that I recallto my mind that half hour which Mr. Robert Carruthers of Grez and Byespent with the beautiful Madam Patricia Whitworth in one of the deepwindows that looked from the private study of His Excellency of theState of Harpeth, over into the great hills that surround the city. Things happened in this wise: That Madam Whitworth made thecommencement of our duel of intelligences by assuming that I was asimple French infant before whom she could dangle the very sweetbonbon of affection and take away from it a treasure that it held inthe hollow of its hand as a sacred trust. That Madam Whitworth did notrealize that instead of a very small young boy from gay Paris, whoseeyes were closed like those of a very young cat, she was dealing withthe very wicked girl who placed the word "devil" behind the word"dare, " speaking in the language of that Mr. Willie Saint Louis whenhe informed me that he was the man who had so placed the "go" behindChicago while on a visit to that city. I was that girl. 

CHAPTER X

VITRIOL AND THE HOODOO

"I suppose it is absurd for a staid old matron like myself to bejealous, really jealous, at seeing a child like you being consumedalive by a lot of simpering misses in pink and blue chiffon pinafores, who ought to be in their nursery cots asleep, but I have been and am, boy. Did you forget that I was your oldest friend while Sue Tomlinsonfed you sweets out of her hand?" And as she spoke she seated herselfin the exact center of the window seat and motioned me to place myselfin the portion of the left side that remained. I inserted myself intothe space that was so indicated and laid my arm along the window ledgebehind her very much undressed back, so that I might give to my lungsspace to expand for air. I think that arrangement made very much forthe comfort of the beautiful Madam Patricia, for she immediatelyappropriated that arm as a cushion for her undraped shoulders. Webeing thus comfortably wedged, the warfare began. 

"All week I've been thinking about you, you wonderful boy, andwondering just what you have been doing and what has been doingto you. The General is so--so incomprehensible in his attitudetowards you and yours. All these years he has been"--and as shespoke she looked up into my eyes and pressed slightly towardsme--"uncompromising, hasn't he?"

"Yes, Madam, I do find my Uncle, the General Robert, to be, as yousay, uncompromising, " I answered as I looked down at her with a smile. "But you are not like that, are you, beautiful Madam Whitworth? Youwill compromise yourself, will you not?"

"Don't use English words so carelessly, my dear, until you are lessignorant of their meaning, " she reproved me as she sat erect and gaveto my lungs an inch more breathing space. I had heard that large ladyof the State of Cincinnati on the ship say that a nice lady from aplace called Kansas, and whom everyone gave the title of Mrs. Grassbecause of a disagreeable husband who was not dead, "compromised"herself with a very much drinking gentleman from Boston because shesat in a small space with him behind the chimney for smoke from theengine, and I thought it was a nice word to fit into the conversationwith Madam Whitworth at that time. And I think it did fit better thanI had quite intended that it should. I saw offense and I hastened tomake a peace so that I should learn all that I wanted to know from herwhile letting her learn all that I did not know from me. 

"I beg that you pardon me, beautiful Madam, and teach me the Englishwords to say that will express all of--of the most wonderful thingsthat I think of you. What is the one word that expresses the beauty ofthe blue flowers in crystal that I said your eyes to be, to myself, the first time I looked into them upon that railroad train when yourescued me from the black taffeta lady?" And as I was at that momentspeaking the exact truth I spoke with a great ardor. 

"I rather think that offsets Sue Tomlinson's 'cream jug'compliment--and you _are_ a dear, " she answered as she againdiminished the space for my lung action. "I hear the dear General hasturned you over to the Governor completely. What do you think of him?"she asked as if to manufacture conversation. 

"Yes, I was made a gift to him last week, and I do not think very muchof that Gouverneur, " I made answer with excellent falseness, because Ihad had no thoughts since my presentation to that Gouverneur Faulknerthat were not of him. I had obtained the uncomplimentary remark uponthe ship, from the lady of Cincinnati, who said it about the doctor ofthe seasickness from which she suffered. 

"Between you and me, boy--if anything, even an opinion, can be wedgedbetween us--I think the Governor is a great, overrated stupid, encouraged in his denseness by the dear General whose ideashave--have--er--rather solidified with age. I rather pity you forhaving to have all of your opinions and policies of life moulded bythem. Yes, it is a pity. " And she sighed very near to my cheek. 

"Will you not mould me to some extent yourself, beautiful flower-eyedMadam?" I asked of her with great gentleness, and did administer anice little pressure to her shoulders like I had adventured upon thewaist of the beautiful Belle in blue and silver dress which MadamWhitworth had named a pinafore. 

"You are a perfect dear, and I will help you all I can. Just come andtell me all of your difficulties and I'll try and smooth them away foryou. I suppose you will find it easy to translate their Frenchdocuments for them about this very boring mule deal. I have had to doit and I am glad to turn the burden of it all over to you. You mayhave some trouble with the English technicalities and perhaps you hadbest bring them in to me and I'll run over them to see that you getthem straight. Only don't let the General know that I am helping you, for I verily believe the old dear thinks I am a nihilist ready to blowthe Governor or any of his other old mules into a thousand bits. "

"I thank you, beautiful Madam Whitworth, for your offer of assistance, and I will avail myself of it at the first opportunity. Is it at yourhouse that we can be alone?" I questioned with a daring smile thatwould serve both for a purpose of coquetry and also to ascertain if Iwould encounter in a call upon her that very disagreeable appearinggentleman, Mr. Jefferson Whitworth, who is the husband to his verybeautiful wife. 

"Come any afternoon at four o'clock and telephone me before you comeso that I can get rid of anybody who happens to be around. And be sureto bring any work you have for me to help you with. That's the onlyway I can excuse an ancient matron like myself for keeping you evenfor a few minutes away from the pinafores. " And she looked into myeyes with a sigh for her antiquity. In the language of that Mr. WillieSaint Louis I knew it was "up to me, " and I "handed the dame one. "

"In my country, beautiful Madam, the fruit is much more regarded thanthe bud, " is what I presented to her. 

"You are delicious, " she laughed as she again diminished my breathingspace. "I cannot see why the dear General has been so violent in hisprejudice against all things from France. You must try to win himover, especially as he is letting his prejudice to France, if you cancall downright hatred that, stand in the way of lending his aid indoing a great service to your poor, struggling, brave army, while atthe same time reaping a profit to his own State. Has he told youanything of this mule deal he is forcing Governor Faulkner to hold upon some others who want to do a service to France?" As she questionedme, the beautiful Madam's eyes became much narrower and I couldobserve that she watched me with intentness for any sign ofintelligence. I gave her none. 

"Will you not tell me, my Madam of the blue flower eyes, about all ofthe matter? It will be of great benefit to me to understand it allfrom you, for my Uncle the General Robert is a man of few words and Iam not a man of much business intelligence. " And as I spoke I regardedher with a great and beseeching humility. 

And there, in the Mansion of the Gouverneur of the State of Harpethhimself, that lovely woman did unfold to me the most wonderful planfor the most enormous robbery of both her own government and mine--orshould I say of both of my governments?--that it could be in the powerof mortal mind to conceive. It was a beautiful, reasonable, generous, patriotic, sympathetic drama of the gigantic war mule and it had onlyone tiny, hidden obscure line in one of its verses, but in that linelay all of dishonor that could come to a man and a State who shouldallow a smaller nation fighting for its life and its honor to bedefrauded of one of the supplies which were of a deadly necessity forits success. I think I even saw the dastardly scheme more plainly thandid my Uncle, the General Robert, for I had listened with more thanone ear while my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, explained to weePierre some of the details of supplying the army of the Republique. Ithink he had talked of things that the little one could not understandjust to make an ease of the pressure of all of his business upon histroubled mind and breaking heart. And as Madam Whitworth talked Icould hear my Pierre's brave voice as he always gave assurances to hissad idol. 

"All of plenty is in America, and she will give to France. "

And here sat great strong Roberta, the Marquise of Grez and Bye, holding in the hollow of her arm a beautiful American woman who hadherself contrived a monstrous plan to let a quantity of the lifebloodof France to turn into gold for her own vain uses. If to throttle herthen and there with my bare strong hands had insured the great bigneedful mules to France, and saved the honor of my Gouverneur of theState of Harpeth, and my Uncle, the General Robert, I think I mighthave had a great temptation to administer that death to her; butinstead I held her now closer in my arm and I began to plot her todeath in any other way I could discover, so that her intrigue shoulddie with her. 

"Of a truth, beautiful Madam, the poor old Uncle, the General Robert, must not be allowed to interfere with such a beautiful plan as youhave for supplying those very fine strong mules from the State ofHarpeth to poor struggling France, and I will join with you inconvincing the stupid Gouverneur Faulkner that such must not be thecase. You will direct me, will you not? I am very young and I have butso lately come to this land that I do not know--I do not feel exactlywhat you call at home. " And I spoke again with beseeching humility. 

"We'll do it for France together, boy, " she whispered as she turned inmy arm and pressed herself against my raven attire above my heart heldin restraint by that towel of the bath. "And then you can claim fromme any--reward--you--"

Just at this lovely moment, when the beautiful Madam Whitworth hadthrown herself into my arms and I had been obliged by my cunning tohold her there instead of flinging her to the floor as I naturallydesired, there arrived at the door of the room which we were occupyingwith our plotting, my tall and awful Uncle, the General Robert, andlooked down upon us with the lightnings of a storm in his eyes. Then, before I could make exclamation and betray his presence to the lady inmy arms, whose back was turned in his direction, he had disappeared. Did I betray that presence to the lady? I did not. I decided that itwould be much to the advantage of the affair to have the lady inignorance of his knowledge. 

"You must go now, boy, " she said at about the moment in which I couldno longer keep my dissembling alive. "Send the Governor in here to me, for it is about the time I had promised to dance with him. I want totalk with him and try to make him see some at least of this matter inthe right light. Go; and come to me to-morrow at four--for--forFrance. "

I went and it was with much joy in the going. I stopped at a tallwindow to get into my lungs a very deep supply of atmosphere and alsoto take counsel with myself. 

"Mr. Robert Carruthers, " I said to myself, "you are in what that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit said to be a 'hell of a fix' when the nice aunt ofthat beautiful and refined 'skirt' of Saint Joseph, Missouri, discovered her to be in his embrace of farewell. I cannot tell to myUncle, the General Robert, that it is that I, a woman of honor, haveplanned for myself, a man of dishonor, to betray a woman into hishands, and I shall receive from him what that Buzz Clendenning callsto be a 'dressing down. ' But I must go to send to Madam Delilah nowthe great Gouverneur of the State of Harpeth and for what she does tohim that is unholy she will answer to Robert Carruthers or--orRoberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. " And then immediately I went todeliver the summons of Madam Whitworth to the Gouverneur Faulkner andI did not look into his face as I spoke the words, but waited with myeyes cast down to the floor until he dismissed me. 

Then after that very painful hour of intrigue I allowed to Mr. RobertCarruthers another of very delightful gayety with all of the "chiffonpinafore" ladies upon the ballroom floor. I have in my blood thatgayety which led some of my ancestors to laugh and compliment eachother and play piquet up even to the edge of the guillotine, and Irefused to see the countenance of my Uncle, the General Robert, regarding me from the door in the end of the ballroom. I consideredthat an hour of pleasure was a sacred thing not to be interfered with, and I danced with that sweet Sue Tomlinson right past the edge of histoes while I could feel the delicious giggle within her, which wasanswering that within me, at his fierce regard of us both. 

"He'll eat you up before daylight, Mr. Carruthers, " she said as shecast a sweet and loving glance at my Uncle, the General Robert, which, I could see as I lowered her over my arm and slid away from him, wasgiving to him much nice fury. 

"I will request that Madam black Kizzie to make a good cream gravy tome, " I made answer to her with merriment. "I am very tender, " I addedwith audacity that I was learning with such a rapidity that I trembledfor the reputation of Mr. Robert Carruthers, and as I spoke the wordsI gave to her a little embrace in a turn of the dance. It should nothave been done, but if that sweet Sue had known that a very lonelygirl danced in that raven garb of a man, who wanted to hold her closefor her comforting, she would have forgiven it, I feel sure. That Sueis a young woman of such a good sense that I must forever cherish her. 

"Don't do that again, Bobby Carruthers, " she said, looking up at mewith a lovely seriousness in her honest young eyes. "I know you areFrench, and queer, but--but don't--" After a little she added: "We aregoing to be grand friends, aren't we?" "Yes, lovely Sue, and I beg ofyou pardon, " I answered her with all of the friendliness of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, in my eyes and voice, which seemed to giveto her a beautiful satisfaction. 

"Good! I'll tell you what let's do. You come by for me to-morrowafternoon and I'll go with you to the Capitol and I'll beard theGeneral Lion in his den and ask him to let us be friends, and thenwe'll take him out to the Confederate Soldiers' Home for 'flagsdown'--it mellowed him so once, when I was about ten, that he let metrot home beside him holding his hand, though he didn't speak to mefor a week after. Want to?" I did enjoy the mischief in those merryeyes that I laughed into. 

"I'll steal his big car and come and help you--what do yousay?--kidnap my Uncle, the General Robert, " I answered her withdelight as I released her into the arms of that Buzz Clendenningbefore the fox had been more than half trotted. 

"Go pick roses out of your own garden, L'Aiglon, " he said as he slidher away from me. 

And for the reason that I was very slightly fatigued and also slightlywarm from being obliged to dance in the very heavy swathings of agentleman, when I had been accustomed to the coolness of chiffon andtulle and thin lace of a lady, I went again into the broad hall and tothe wide window that looked away to those comforting blue hills. Belowme the garden was coming out of a veil of mist as the moon, which wasnow very old, came slowly up from behind the dim ridge of hills thatmy Uncle the General Robert had told me to be called Paradise Ridge. All the spring flowers below me seemed to be sending up to megreetings of perfumes and the tall purple and white lilac flowerswaved plumes of friendliness at me, while large round pink blossomsthat I think are called peonies, nodded and beckoned to me with sweetcountenances. I felt that they were flower friends who in their turnwere saying messages of welcome to the lonely girl who had come acrossthe dark waters to them and in my throat I began to hum that "Say canyou see--" Star Spangled hymn to them, and was just preparing to stepfrom the window onto a balcony and descend to them, when a movement ofhuman beings caught my eye upon the side of that balcony and I pausedin the darkness of the window curtain. What did I see?

A man stood at the rail of the balcony in the dim moonlight and he wasspeaking to a woman whom his broad shoulders hid from me. The man wasthe Gouverneur Faulkner of the State of Harpeth and in a moment Idiscovered the identity of the lady with him. 

"And now, can't you see, you great big stupid man, what an opportunityI have procured for all of you?" was the question that came in thesoft voice of the beautiful Madam Patricia Whitworth. "All my life Ihave worked just to get a little ease and comfort, carrying the burdenof Jeff in his incompetency strapped to my shoulders, and now you, whoknow how I've suffered and slaved, are going to take it all from mewhen it is just within my reach, and all from no earthly reason than afancied scruple of honor which that old doddering woman-hater imposeson you. I cannot believe that you would so treat me. " And there weresobs in her words that were wooing and compelling. 

"I cannot do a thing that my Secretary of State and his lawyersdeclare unconstitutional, Patricia, " answered the voice of theGouverneur Faulkner, in which were notes of pain. "You know how itpains me--my God, don't tempt me to--" His voice shook as I saw thebeautiful, bare white arms of Madam Whitworth raise themselves and goabout his neck like great white grappling hooks from which he wasunable to defend himself. 

"Am I to have nothing from life--no ease or luxury and no--love or--"Her voice ended in sobs as she pressed her head down into his shoulderas his arm folded about her to prevent that she should fall. 

"Patricia--" the deep voice of the strong man was beginning to say asI was starting to spring forward in his defense and to do--I do notknow what--when a firm grasp was laid upon my shoulder and I wasturned away from the window into the light of the wide hall and foundmy Uncle, the General Robert, looking down into my flashing eyes witha great and very cool calmness. 

"Young man, " he said as he gave to me a very powerful shake, "allwomen are poison but some are vitriol and others just--Oh, well, paregoric. Go out there and take another dose of that soothingsyrup labeled Susan Tomlinson, before I take you home, andyou--keep--away--from--vitriol--or--I'll--break--your--hot--young--head. Vitriol, mind you!" With which command my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, strode down the hall in the direction of the smoking room andleft me blinking in the lights of the wide hall. 

"Little Mas' Robert, " came in a soft voice at my elbow as I stoodtottering, "is you got a picture of yo' mudder you could show Catosome day when the General ain't lookin'. 'Fore I dies I wants to setmy eyes on de woman dat drawed little Mas' Henry away from us all. Dey_is_ such a thing in dis hard old world as love what you goes'crost many waters' to git, and he shorely got it. " And I looked intothe eyes of that old black man to find a truth that all the whitehumans about me, myself included, were acting in the terms of a lie. 

Before I could answer the old man, in through the window came theGouverneur Faulkner and the beautiful Madam Whitworth, and from hiswhite face set in sternness and hers with its smile of the openingrose upon its red mouth I could not tell whether his honor had beenslain or had been spared for another round. 

"I'll want you in my office at the Capitol at eleven to-morrow, Robert, " he said to me, and there was a cold sternness in his glanceas they passed by me and the old Cato into the ballroom. 

"At four, " murmured the beautiful Madam Whitworth as she swept past mewith a soft smile but in a tone of voice too low for any ears save myown and I think of the old Cato's. 

For a very short moment the old black man detained me as he searchedone of the pockets of his long gray coat and then he handed to me atiny flat parcel apparently folded in some kind of thin red cloth. 

"Wear that in your left shoe, honey, day and night. You'll need it ifshe's got her eye on you, " he said as he hurried away from me into thesmoking room. 

After disrobing that night, or rather in the early morning of thefollowing day, I investigated the contents of that package. In it werea gray feather off of an apparently very nice chicken, a very old andrusty pin bent in two places and a flat little black seed I had neverbefore beheld. 

I gazed at the package for several long moments, then I put back uponmy left foot the silk sock I had removed, placed the token of old Catowithin it under my heel, dived into that large bed of my ancestors andin the darkness covered up my head tightly with the silk comforter. 

CHAPTER XI

BUSINESS AND PIE

That Mr. Buzz Clendenning has in the composition of his nature a verylarge portion of nice foolishness which makes the heart of a lonelyperson most comfortable. He decided, upon that very first day of ourintroduction, that I was to be as a small brother to him who was muchloved but also to be much joked about a quaintness which he chose tocall "French greenness, " and for which I was most grateful becausewith that excuse I could cover all mistakes that arose from my being agirl who was ignorant of the exact methods of being a man. And, also, that nice attitude towards me was of quite a contagion, for all of theyoung ladies and gentlemen of the city of Hayesville became the sameto me and all of the time my heart was warm and rejoiced at theiraffection shown in banter and jokes. 

The morning after that very much enjoyed dinner dance, with which theGovernor Faulkner complimented my Uncle, the General Robert, throughme, I was standing in front of the mirror in my room without my coator my collar, endeavoring to reduce the wave in my black hair to thesleekness of that of my beloved Buzz, which had a difficulty becauseof one lock over my temple whose waywardness I had for the last fewyears trained to fall upon my cheek for purposes of coquetry and whichwould persist in trying still to fulfill that unworthy function. Andright in the center of my punishment of that lovelock with the stiffbrush without a handle, which was twins with another that had comewith the gentleman's traveling bag which I had purchased in New Yorkof the nice fat gentleman in the store of clothing for men, into myroom came that Buzz without any ceremony save a rap upon my door whichdid not allow sufficient time for any response from me. I blushed withalarm at the thought that his entrance might have come at a muchearlier stage of my toilet and I made a resolve to lock the door tightin future, at the same time turning to greet him with a fine and greatcomposure. 

"Say, Bobby, are you in for side-stepping the chiefs at eleven-thirtyand going with me to take a nice bunch of calicoes out to the CountryClub for a little midday sandwich dance? You can eat a thin ham andfox trot at the same time. Sue and Belle and Kate Keith all want toget on to that long slide you've brought over direct from Paree. Itstuck in their systems last evening and they want more. Want to go?"

"With a greatness of pleasure, but His Excellency has commanded me ateleven o'clock and will I be through the tasks at the hour forescorting those calicoes out to your Club for a dance?" I asked withgreat delight as I continued my operations with the brush upon therebellious lock. 

"You'll have time if you stop that primping and hustle into yourcollar and coat. Here, let me show you how to doctor that place wherethe cow licked you. Why don't you take both brushes to it? Like this!"With which Mr. Buzz took from my hand the one brush and from the highdressing table the other, for which my ignorance had discovered nouse, and did then commence a vigorous assault on my enemy the curl. 

"What was it you said of a cow, my Buzz?" I questioned him as I made asquirming under the vigor of his attack upon my hair. 

"When hair acts up like this we call it a cowlick in United Stateslanguage. See here, L'Aiglon, old boy, this hair looks as if it had atone time been curled. Did you wear it that way in Paris?" And as heasked the question he gave that side of my hair one more vigoroussweep and stood off to admire his work. 

"No, my Buzz, I assure you that it was the cruelty of that cow youmention, while I was at a very tender age, " I answered with a laughinto his eyes that covered nicely the blush that rose to my cheek athis accusation concerning the lovelock. 

"Well, knot that tie now in a jiffy and climb into your coat. Let'sget to the Capitol and give the old boys as little of our attention asthey'll stand for, and then beat it for the girls. Bet my chief growlsblue blazes at me over the way Sue ragged him about you last night. He'll issue a command at the point of the bayonet to me to keep youaway from the bunch, and I'll agree just so as to make the slide fromunder easy. Come on. " And while he spoke to me, that Buzz raced medown the hall of my ancestors and out into his very slim, fast carbefore I could get breath for speaking. 

"But suppose His Excellency the Gouverneur Faulkner requires mypresence beyond that half hour after eleven o'clock, my Buzz, is itthat you will await me for a few short minutes?" I asked of him as weascended the steps of the Capitol of the State of Harpeth. 

"Oh, Bill won't keep you any longer than that. He'll have twenty otherinterviews on the string for to-day. Fifteen minutes will be aboutright for you; you wait for me in the General's anteroom. I'll have toget heroics before instructions. I always do. Now beat it. " With whichwords my Buzz left me in the wide hall of the great Capitol before adoor marked: "Office of the Governor. "

Upon that door I knocked and it was immediately opened to me by fineblack Cato, whose eyes shone in recognition of me. 

"Got it in yo' shoe?" he demanded in a whisper. 

"Yes, my good Cato, " I responded also in a low tone of voice. 

"Den pass on in to de Governor; he am waitin' fer you. You's safe, chile. " And he escorted me past several gentlemen seated and standingin groups, to another door, which he opened for me and through whichhe motioned me to pass. 

"Mr. Robert Carruthers, " he announced me with the greatest ceremony. "Go in, honey, " he said softly and I passed into the room whose doorhe closed quietly behind me. 

"Good morning, Robert, " said the Gouverneur Faulkner to me as I cameand stood opposite him at the edge of his wide desk. And he smiled atme with a great gentleness that had also humor playing into it fromthe corners of his eyes and mouth. "I'm afraid that you've landed inthe midst of a genuine case of American hustle this 'morning after. 'Here are two lists of specifications, one in English weights andmeasurements and the other in French. I want you to compare themcarefully, checking them as you go and then re-checking them. I wantto be sure they are the same. Also make a good literal translation ofany notes that may be in French and compare them with the notes inEnglish. Do you think it can be done for me by three o'clock, in timefor a conference I have at that hour?" With which request he, theGouverneur Faulkner, handed me two large sheets of paper down whichwere many long columns of figures. 

"_Mon Dieu_, " I said to myself under my breath, for always I havehad to count out the pieces of money necessary to give to Nannette forthe washer of the linen at the Chateau de Grez, upon the fingers of myhands, which often seemed too few to furnish me sufficient aid. But ina small instant I had recovered my courage, which brought with it adetermination to do that task if it meant my death. 

"Yes, Your Excellency, " I answered him with a great composure in theface of the tragedy. 

"You'll find the small office between my office and that of GeneralCarruthers empty. A ring of the bell under the desk means for you tocome to me. I'll try not to interrupt you. Two rings means to go tothe General. That is about all. " With a wave of his hand theGouverneur Faulkner dismissed me to my death. 

With my head up in the air I turned from him and prepared to retire tomy prison from which I could see no release, when again I heard hissummons. He had risen and was standing beside his desk and as I turnedhe held out his hand into which I laid mine as he drew me near to him. 

"Youngster, " he said and the smile which all persons call cold was allof gentleness into my eyes, "these are going to be some hard days forus all, these next ten, and if I drive you too hard, balk, will you?"

"To the death for you I'll go, my Gouverneur Faulkner, " I answeredhim, looking straight into his tired eyes that were so deep under theblack, silver-tipped wings of his brows. I did not mean that death Ihad threatened myself from the mathematics in the paper, but in myheart there was something that rose and answered the sadness in hiseyes with again all that savageness of a barbarian. 

"Then I'll take you to the point of demise--almost--if I need you, " heanswered me with a laugh that hid a quiver of emotion in his voice assomething that was like unto a spark shot from the depths of his eyesinto the depths of mine. "Go get the papers verified and let me knowwhen you have finished. " And this time I was in reality dismissed. Iwent; but in my heart was a strange smoulder that the spark hadkindled. 

In the small room that opened off of that of the Gouverneur Faulkner, with a door that I knew to lead into the room of my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, I seated myself at a table by a window which looked down uponthe city spread at the foot of the Capitol hill lying shimmering inthe young spring mists that drifted across its housetops. I laid downthe papers, took a pencil from a tray close beside my hand and thenfaced the most dreadful of any situation that I had ever brought downupon my own head. I also faced at the same time the smilingcountenance of my Buzz, who looked into the door from the room of myUncle, the General Robert, slipped through that door and closed itgently behind him. 

"Safe on first base! The old boy of the bayonets has been called tothe Governor and he'll not be back before they both have luncheon sentin to them. I have taken his letters and now I'm off. What did Billhand you?"

"Death and also destruction, " I answered in an expletive often used bymy father in times of a catastrophe, and with those words I showed tomy Buzz the two long papers. 

"Shoo, that's no big job. I looked over and verified this one myselfyesterday in ten minutes. Hello, this other one is in French. Just runit through and if it is to tally, call it; and I'll hold this one. Wecan do it in fifteen minutes. Go ahead from the top line across. " Andmy Buzz held the paper in his hand as he seated himself in readinessupon the corner of my desk beside me. 

"Oh, my Buzz, I have such a mortification that I cannot add one toanother of these long figures. When I place one number to another Imust use my fingers, and in this case you see that it is impossible. "Tears I did not allow in my eyes, but they were in my voice, and Ilooked into the eyes of my Buzz with a great terror. "What is it thatI shall do? I am in disgrace. "

"You complete edition of a kid, you, don't you know I can do it foryou? That is, if you know what all these kilo things stand for inEnglish. Do you?" As he spoke, that kind Buzz put his hand on myshoulder with a nice rough shake. 

"I do know from my governess, Madam Fournet, and I will write it alldown for you, my Buzz, for whom I feel so much gratitude for help, " Ianswered with quickness. 

"Stow the gratitude and write 'em all out. It will take us about anhour but it is good to keep calicoes waiting occasionally, " he said, and did thereupon seat himself beside the table and draw to himselfthe two sheets of paper, while I quickly wrote out the table of Frenchweights and measurements translated into English. 

I did very much enjoy that hour in which my Buzz labored with a penciland a great industry while I called to him the list of long figuresand then verified as he showed me the units upon the page in theFrench language. He made jokes at me between workings while heattended his cigarette and we, together, had much laughter. 

"There are just three places where these figures disagree and I havemarked them carefully, L'Aiglon, " he said as at last he laid down bothpieces of the paper. "These French specifications and figures thatfloored you, represent the ideal mule in bulk and these United Statesfigures promise the same multitude in scrub. I thought as much. Youjust run in there to Bill with them and then forget you ever saw them, and we'll be on our way to the girls in ten minutes. Bobby, I mean itwhen I say that men in your and my positions of trust just forgetfacts and figures the minute we get out of sight of our chiefs. And weforget the chiefs too, believe me. Now run along and come out to thecar on the same trot. "

"Is it of honor not to tell to the Gouverneur Faulkner that youassisted me in this task, my Buzz?" I asked of him with anxiety. 

"No need to tell him--it's all in the same office and will come to mefor filing. Don't say anything that will bring on talk that keeps usfrom Sue and the gang. Just run!" With which advice my kind Buzzdisappeared through the door into the office of my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, as I softly opened the door of the room of the GouverneurFaulkner and entered into his presence. And in that presence I foundalso my Uncle, the General Robert, in a very grave consultation withthe Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"The papers completed, Your Excellency, " I said in a very low and meektone of my voice as I laid the papers beside him on the table andprepared to take the running departure that my Buzz had commanded ofme. 

"Bless my soul, are you here and at work, young man? I thought youwere asleep after all that gallivanting, and was just preparing toblow you up out of bed over the telephone, " exclaimed my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, with great fierceness of manner but also a greatpleasure of eyes at the sight of me in the character of such a niceSecretary to the Gouverneur of Harpeth. 

"Robert arrived five minutes after I did and ten minutes before youcame into the building, General, " said that Gouverneur Faulkner, witha twinkle of great enjoyment in his eyes. "He's done a day's workbefore we have begun. Will you have your luncheon sent up from therestaurant with ours, Robert? Just order the usual things for us andany kind of frills you care for. Shall I say snails?"

"I thank Your Excellency deeply but I am engaged that I luncheon anddance with Mr. Buzz Clendenning in his club in the country if I may begiven permission to go, " I answered as I laid my fingers withaffection on the arm of my Uncle, the General Robert, as I stoodbeside him. 

"Nonsense, sir! You'll not join those jackanapes in their gambolsduring business hours. Order yourself up a slice of pie and a glass ofbuttermilk along with mine and sit down here to listen to matters ofbusiness by which you can profit. Luncheon and dancing! No, pie andbusiness, I say, pie and business!" And the fierceness of my Uncle, the General Robert, made me retire several feet away from him inastonishment and in the direction of the Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"Now, General, don't tie the boy down to pie and the company of twomusty old gentlemen like ourselves. He's earned a dance. You may go, Robert, and I wish--I wish my heels were light enough to go withyours, " that kind Gouverneur said in my behalf. 

"Light heels, light head! And I say he shall--" And another explosionof fierceness was about to arrive from my Uncle, the General Robert, when I said with great and real humility:

"It will be my great pleasure to sit at the feet of you and HisExcellency, which are not light for dancing, my Uncle Robert, and eata large piece of pie and also milk. " I spoke with a sincerity, forsuddenly I knew that there would be nothing at that dance of girls inthe club of my Buzz that I would so desire as to sit near to thatGouverneur Faulkner, in whose eyes came that sadness when he spoke ofthe dance for which he had not the light feet, and eat with him and myUncle, the General Robert, a piece of that American pie of which I hadheard my father speak many times. 

"Why, he means it, General, " said the Gouverneur Faulkner with a greatsoftness in his eyes that answered the affection that was in mine thatpleaded for the pie and a place at his side. "Run, youngster, run, before the General says another word. You are dismissed. Go!" And witha great laugh the Gouverneur Faulkner rose, put his arm around myshoulder and put me out of that room before my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, could begin any more words of remonstrance. And I ran awayfrom that door to my Buzz in the waiting car with both light andreluctant feet. 

The two hours that I spent with my Buzz at his club in the countrywith what he called in front of their very faces, bunches of calico, passed with such a rapidity that I felt I must grasp each minute andremonstrate with them for their fleetness. That Mademoiselle Sue waseven much more lovely in her gray costume of golf with a tie the colorof the one worn by my Buzz, than she had been in her chiffon of thedinner dance, and the beautiful Belle was much the same, with an addedgayety and charm, while I discovered a very sweet Kate Keith and aMildred Summers who was not of a great beauty but of many interestingremarks which induced much laughing. With them were that Miles Menefeewhom my Buzz had recommended to me, and also several young gentlemenof America whom I liked exceedingly. One Mr. Phillips Taylor took meby my heart with a great force when, as we were all seated on thesteps of the wide porch eating the promised sandwich and consumingbreath for another dance in a very few minutes, he said to me:

"Say, Mr. Robert Carruthers, my mater wants to see you over in theeast card room directly. She says she had it on with your father intheir dancing school days and it was only by the intervention of somesort of love ruckus that you and I are not brothers or maybe whatwould be worse, brother and sister. If that had happened you wouldhave had to be it. I wouldn't. But that's not our quarrel. "

"You couldn't have been a woman unless you had received a much betterfinishing polish before being sent to bless the earth, Phil, dear, "said that funny Mademoiselle Mildred Summers, and that Mr. PhillipsTaylor returned the insult by lifting her off of her feet and glidingher halfway across the porch verandah in the beginning of one tangodance to the music that was again to be heard from the hall within thebuilding. 

"Mildred and Phil fight like aborigines, and their love for combatwill lead to matrimony in their early youth if they are not reconciledto each other soon, " said lovely Sue as she fitted herself into myarms for our tango. 

"After this dance with you will you lead me to that Madam Taylor, thefriend of my father, beautiful Sue?" I asked of her. "It makes happymy heart to see one who loved him. " And as I spoke, the longing for myfather that will ever be in my heart made a sadness in my voice and adimness in my eyes. 

"I think everybody loved him just as we are all beginning to--to likeyou, Bobby dear, " said that sweet girl as she smiled up at me in a waythat sent the dimness in my eyes back to my heart. 

"I am very grateful that you like me, lovely Sue, " I said with greathumility. "I will endeavor to win and deserve more and more of thatliking, until it is with me as if I had been born in a house near toyours, as is the case with my dear Buzz and also that funny Mildred. "

"I couldn't like you any better, Bobby, if you had torn the hair offof my doll's head or broken my slate a dozen times, " she laughed at meagain as we slid together the last slide in the dance. "Now come overand be introduced to Mrs. Taylor. You have only a few minutes, for youand Buzz must both be back at the Capitol at two. I feel in honorbound to the State to send you both back on time. " And while she spokeshe led me across the hall of the clubhouse and into a room full ofladies, who sat at card tables consuming very beautiful food whilealso preparing to resume playing the cards. 

CHAPTER XII

THE BEAUTIFUL MADAM WHITWORTH

Sue then made for me many introductions and all of those lovely_grande dames_ gave to me affectionate welcomes. Some of them Ihad encountered at the dance of the Gouverneur Faulkner and all ofthem had smiles for me. 

"Why, boy, you are Henry's very self come back to us after all theseyears--only with a lot of added deviltry in the way of French beauty, "said that Madam Taylor, who was very stately, with white hair and avery young countenance of sweetness. "The daredevil--it was like himto send you back to us as--as revenge, " she added with something thatalmost seemed like anger under the sweetness of her voice. 

"It is what my father always named me, Madam, the 'daredevil, ' andwill you not accept me for your cherishing?" I spoke those words toher from an impulse that I could not understand but I saw them soothea hurt in her eyes as she laughed and kissed my cheek as I raised myhead from kissing her jeweled hand. 

"Yes, " she answered me softly. 

"Come on, L'Aiglon; it's time to beat it. We are late and Sue isbeginning to shoo, " called my Buzz from the door of the card room. "Weare coming home with Phil for supper to-night, Mrs. Taylor, and thePrince wants an introduction to your custard pie. Yes'm, seven sharp!Come on, Bob!"

"My Buzz, " I said to that Mr. Buzz Clendenning as he raced the slimcar through the country and the city up to the Capitol hill, "you giveto me a life of much joy in only a few days. I would that it could socontinue. "

"It just will until we are jolly old boys with long white beards andcanes, Bobby, " he answered me with an affectionate grin as we roundeda corner on two wheels of the car. "Say, let's get out of thispolitics soon, go in for selling timber lands, marry two of thecalicoes and found families. We'll call the firm Carruthers andClendenning and I choose Sue. You can decide about your dame later. "

Suddenly something very cold and dead was there in place of my heartthat had danced with happiness. What should I do at that time ofdisclosing myself as one large lie to all of these kind friends whowere giving me affection on the account of my honored father andUncle, the General Robert? That daredevil in me had led me into thisdishonor, with the excuse, it is true, of fear that the wicked Unclewould not have mended the hip of small Pierre if I did not obey hissummons as a nephew. And now I must stay to be of service to him andto the Gouverneur Faulkner but also to be more involved in that lieand to accept more confidence and affection with thievery. 

"I cannot sell the lands of timber with you, my Buzz, " I made answerto him quickly and with fierceness. "As soon as this business of themules is settled and my Uncle, the General Robert, no longer requiresmy services, I must return and go into the trenches of France. " And Ifelt as I spoke that my fate was decided, and a great calmness cameover me. "Then I'll go with you, " answered me that Buzz with a look ofthe steadfast affection which might have grown with years ofcomradeship. "I'll go and fight for France with you if you'll comeback and build an American family alongside of mine. Jump out--we arefifteen minutes late--and watch the General scalp me. Come in throughhis office and take a part of it, will you?"

Even in the very short time which I had known my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, I had discovered that the times at which could be anticipatedexplosions, none came, and also the reverse of that fact. When my Buzzand I entered his office he very hastily concealed a book that hadsome variety of richly colored pictures in it in his desk and smiledwith a wink of the eye at my Buzz. Later I should know about that bookto my great joy. 

"Here's a letter for you, Robert, and go get to your knitting withGovernor Bill, " he said to me with kindness in his smile as he handedme a large letter and motioned me from the room into the smallanteroom that I now knew to be the place assigned to my Buzz and mewhen not wanted in the offices of my Uncle, the General Robert, or theGouverneur Faulkner. I made a low bow to my Uncle, the General Robert, and also to Monsieur the Bumble Bee and departed thence. 

On seating myself at my table to await the bell of the GouverneurFaulkner, without which ringing my Buzz had instructed me I must neveron pain of extinction as a secretary enter His Excellency's office, Iopened that letter and began to read with difficulty a letter of a fewwords from my wee Pierre, now in the hospital of that kind DoctorBurns. I read not more than one sentence when I leaped to my feet witha cry of joy and my heart beat very high with happiness. To whomshould I turn to tell of that happiness? I did not pause to answerthat question in my heart but I quickly opened the door of the augustGouverneur of Harpeth and presented myself to him in a disobedience ofstrict orders. And then what befell me?

Seated at his desk was that great and good man, with his head bowedupon his hands; and at my entrance he raised that head with an alarm. I could see that his face was heavy and sad with deep pondering and Iwas instantly thrown into mortification that I had so interrupted him. I faltered there beside him and found halting words to exclaim:

"Oh, it is a pardon I ask Your Excellency for intruding into yourdoor, but it is that my small Pierre has stood upon two feet forperhaps a whole minute in the hospital of that good Dr. Burns and Imust run to tell you of my joy. Is it quite possible now that Pierrewill no longer be for life crooked in the back?" And as I spoke I heldout to him the letter upon which tears were dripping and one of myhands I clasped trembling at my breast that shook under that stylishcheviot bag of a coat I had that morning put upon me for the firsttime. And did that great Gouverneur Faulkner repulse his wickedsecretary? He did not. 

"God bless you, youngster! Of course you run right to tell me when abig thing like that happens. Sure that back will be all straight in notime and we'll have the little maid down, running in and out at herwill in just a few months, " and as he spoke that Gouverneur Faulknercame to my side and took the hand that held the tear-besprinkledletter and also drew the one from my breast into his own two large andwarm ones. "I've been hearing people's troubles for what seems like aneternity, boy, but not a single son-of-a-gun has run to me with hisjoy until you have. Here, use one corner of my handkerchief while Iuse the other, " and as he spoke that very large and broad-shoulderedman released one of my hands, dabbed his own eyes that were sparklingwith perhaps a tear, and then handed that handkerchief to me. 

And those tears of both of us ended in a large laugh. 

"It is my habit that I shed tears when in joy, " I said with apology, as I returned that large white handkerchief to that GouverneurFaulkner. 

"Mind you don't tell anybody that Governor Bill Faulkner does the samething, " he answered with a laugh. 

"I have a feeling that is of longing to rush to small Pierre and toprostrate myself at the feet of that good Doctor, " I said as again thegreat joy of that news rushed upon me. 

"No, boy, not right now, " answered that great Gouverneur Faulkner ashe turned and laid a large warm hand on each of my shoulders. "Thecrisis is at hand and I need you here for a little time. I can'texplain it, but--but you seem to feed--feed my faith in myself. Injust a few days I've grown to depend on you to--to--. You ridiculousboy, you, with your storms and joy sunbursts, get out of here and tellCato to send Mr. Whitworth and Mr. Brown into my office immediately. "And with a laugh and a shake of me away from his side, the GouverneurFaulkner picked up the two long sheets of paper which had been of somuch labor to my Buzz and me and began to scowl back of his black, white-tipped eyebrows over them. I departed with great rapidity. 

Then with much more calmness I told the great news of the back ofPierre to my Uncle, the General Robert. 

"That's fine--now we can give her away without any trouble. I knewBurns could do the trick. It's a bargain at two thousand dollars toget a girl in the shape to give away. She could give us no end ofbother if we had to keep her. Go find that flea, Clendenning, and tellhim to come to me immediately; I think he is buzzing in the telephonecloset to that Susan. And you go get busy yourself to earn your salaryfrom the State of Harpeth. Telegraph twenty dollars to that fool nurseto buy a doll for the girl. Now go!" That was the way that my Uncle, the General Robert, received my news of the improved health of theback of small Pierre, and with my two eyes I shed a few secret tearsthat did roll down into my mouth which was broad from a laugh as Iwent in search of my Buzz. 

"Bully, old top, " said my Bumble Bee as I imparted also my joy to him. "Say, if that kid is eight years old and is going to walk all right, we must see to it that she starts in with a good dancing teacher assoon as she can spin around. We want to make a real winner out ofher. "

"I do love you, my Buzz, " I answered to him as I clung with both myhands to his arm across my shoulder. 

"That's all right. Prince, but don't talk about it, " he answered mewith a laugh and a shake. 

"And, say, let's get to work, because at about four o'clock I'll havesomething that'll give you a start. "

"Oh, but, my Buzz, at four o'clock I must go for tea to the home ofbeautiful Madam Whitworth. "

"Whe-ee-uh!" whistled my Buzz as he looked at me from the top of myhead to the toe of my shoe. 

"It would give me a much greater pleasure to be startled by you, myBuzz, but this is a promise I did make the last evening, " I pleaded tohim. 

"Go ahead, sport, but accept it from me that Madam Pat is the genuineand original pump; so don't let her empty you. Do you want me to comeby and extract you at about fifteen to five? I'm sorry, but I reallymust have a business interview with you before six. " And my Buzz'seyes twinkled with something that was of a great pleasure to him Icould observe. 

"It would be of more pleasure to me if you came at the half of five, my Buzz, " I made a hurry to assure him, for I had a great dread of allof the falsehoods I was to say to that Madam Whitworth that afternoonfor the purpose of extracting perhaps a little wicked truth from herto help in the defense of my Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"I'm on, " answered my Buzz promptly. "Beat it! I hear the old boygrowling. " And he disappeared behind the door of my Uncle, the GeneralRobert. I went to the duty of assuring the nice gentleman in veryrough clothing that the Gouverneur would in the morning read the paperon the subject of making a long road past his property in goodcondition by a vote, and I was of a very great success in my efforts, the good Cato assured me. 

"You's got a fine oiled tongue tied in the middle and loose at bothends, honey. Yo' father had the same, " he assured me as he handed memy hat and walking cane at the hour of four, which ended my duties forthe day. Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, did so long to go intothat room of the Gouverneur Faulkner and receive upon her hand onenice kiss of good night from him, but Mr. Robert Carruthers walkeddown from the Capitol and only paused to lift for a little second hisvery handsome hat towards the window of His Excellency's room high upabove. 

And the encounter with the beautiful Madam Whitworth was much worsethan I had thought that it would be, though also it was of a veryinteresting excitement. She had made armaments for the encounter inthe shape of a very lovely tea apparel of an increditable thinness tobe used for covering, a little low fire in the golden grate, andcurtains of rose to throw somewhat of glow over the situation. Immediately I was seated beside her on a small divan upon which therewas room for only one and a half persons, and my stupidity was calledinto vigorous action. 

"I suppose you have spent the day in translating a lot of those longand tiresome French documents for the General and the Governor. Thankgoodness, that is no longer my task, " she remarked as she tipped thecognac bottle over my tea and handed the cup to me. 

"It is of a great fatigue to work upon a matter that one does not atall understand, " I answered her as I sipped at that tea of a verydisagreeable taste because of the cognac. 

"Did they give you the two sets of specifications to compare?" sheasked of me with not much of interest apparent in her manner, thoughher hand shook as she poured for herself a very small cup of tea, which was then filled complete with the cognac. 

"_Helas_, " I answered with a sigh. "And it is impossible for meto add more figures to each other than my fingers will allow. I cannoteven use my toes. "

"Then he didn't get them ready for the conference this afternoon?" shedemanded with a great illumination of joy in her face. 

"Oh, indeed, I handed them back completed to His Excellency in a shortspace of time. Is not one mule like to another exactly, and why shoulda paper make them different?" I questioned with deceit of stupidity. 

"You are a dear boy, " laughed that Madam Whitworth. "Of course thosespecifications agree, for I worked a whole day over them; and I'm gladyou didn't tire your eyes out with them. You know you are really avery beautiful creature and I think I'll kiss you just once, purelyfor the pleasure of it. " And I thereupon received a kiss upon my lipsfrom the curled flower which was the mouth of that beautiful MadamWhitworth. 

"Is it that the stupid Gouverneur Faulkner must very soon sign thatpaper that sends the many strong mules to carry food to the soldiersof France fighting in the trenches?" I asked of her as I made hercomfortable in the hollow of my arm. 

"If he doesn't sign them in a very few days the deal is all off, " sheanswered me. "Jeff has got his capital to put up from some Northernmen who are--are restless and--and suspicious. It must go through andimmediately. "

"Then it must be accomplished immediately, " I answered her withdecision. 

"The agent of the French Government will be here on Tuesday and all ofthese preliminary papers must be signed before he can close the matterup finally. I hope that the conference over those specifications thisafternoon will be the last. Are you sure you discovered no flaw overwhich the old General or the big stupid Governor can haggle?"

"I discovered not a flaw, " I answered her with a great positiveness. "Do you say that it is soon that those representatives of mygovernment come to make a last signing of the papers about theexcellent mules to be sent from the great State of Harpeth to Francewho is at a war of death? I had not heard of the nearness of the visitat the Capitol. "

"They don't know it--that is, Governor Faulkner does, but has toldonly me. He sees things my way but of--of course, he has to keep hiscouncils from his Secretary of State for the time being. And I'mtelling you all about it, because--because it is for France we plotand because I--this is the way to say it. " And with those wickedwords, which involved the honor of the great Gouverneur Faulkner, shepressed her body close to mine and her lips upon my mouth. 

For that caress of that wicked woman I had not sufficient enduranceand I pushed her from me with roughness and sprang to my feet. 

"It is not true, Madam Whitworth, that--" I was exclaiming when Icaught myself in the midst of my own betrayal, just as I was about tobe shown into a plot which it was of much value to know. And as mywords ceased I stood and trembled before her wickedness. 

"Do you know, Mr. Robert Carruthers, I do not entirely understandyou, " she said with a great and beautiful calmness as she lighted acigarette and looked at me trembling before her. "You are a very boldyoung cavalier but you have the shrinking nature of--shall I say?--aFrench--_girl_!"

As she spoke those words, which began in sarcasm but ended in a queeruncertain tone of suspicion, as if she had blundered on a reason tosoothe her vanity for the recoil of my lips from hers, an ugly gleamshot from under her lowered lashes. 

"I am the son of the house of Carruthers as well as of Grez and Bye, beautiful Madam, and I cannot endure that you put upon my very goodUncle, the General Carruthers, an unfriendliness to France, " Iexclaimed with a quickness of my brain that I had not beforediscovered. "On points of honor I have that sensitiveness that you sayto be--be of a woman. "

"Oh, my darling boy, I didn't mean to hurt you about that absurd oldfeud of--" And as she spoke the beautiful Madam Patricia rose and cameupon me with outstretched arms for another abhorred embrace, which itwas to my good fortune to have interrupted. But I had a fear of thatsuspicion I had seen flashed into her mind even though lulled by myfine assumption of the attitude of a man of honor. 

"Lovely and beautiful Madam, " I made a beginning to say, when--

"Oh, yes, Mr. Carruthers is here, for I have an appointment to callfor him, " an interruption came in the voice of my Buzz in remonstrancewith the black maid of Madam Whitworth in the hall of her house. 

"Come in, Buzz, dear, " called that beautiful Madam Whitworth as in onesmall instant she changed both her position with arms on my shoulderand her countenance of anger and anxiety. She was a very wise andbeautiful and much experienced woman, was that Madam Whitworth, butshe had given to me, unlessoned as I was in the art of politics, thefact that I most wanted: that the two papers containing thespecifications concerning the mules had been mistranslated by her. 

"Put a shawl around you, Madam Pat, and come out here to the street aminute to see what is going to happen to the Prince of Carruthers, "said my rescuer as he inserted his head into the room for one littleminute and beckoned us to follow him. 

And what did I find out there upon that street?

CHAPTER XIII

BROTHERS BY BLOODSHED

I then experienced a surprise that gave to me a very great pleasureand which made my heart to expand until it almost burst the restraintof that towel of the bath under the bag of my brown cheviot coat. Before the door of the house of the beautiful Madam Whitworth stoodthe gray racing car of my Buzz, and before it stood a slim car of asimilar make, only it was of the darkest amethyst that seemed to bealmost a black, while behind it stood one of equal if not superiorelegance of shape which had the beautiful blackness of jet. That wasnot all! Across the street stood also a car of a golden brown and tothe front of it one of the red of a very dark cherry. 

"There you are, " said my Buzz with a wave of his hand. "Pick one, withthe compliments of the General. I think the amethyst is a jewel. "

"Oh, it is not possible to me to accept a present of such delight frommy good Uncle, the General Robert. I must go to him and say that I amnot worthy!" I exclaimed with a large faltering in my voice. 

"All right; just jump into the one you like best and drive on down tothe Old Hickory Club and say it to him. Sorry that you can't comealong, Mrs. Pat, but that glad rag you've got on is too great a beautywith which to appear in public. Better take it into the house beforeyou catch a cold in this breeze. "

"Yes, I must run in, " answered Madam Whitworth with a slight shiveringin her gown of great thinness. "They are perfectly wonderful, boy, andI say choose the brown darling. "

"Governor Bill picked the cherry from the catalogue for us day beforeyesterday, but I think the amethyst has got it beat, " answered my Buzzas he started towards his own car. "Jump into your choice and lead meon down to hear you refuse it to old Forty-Two Centimeter. "

Then without further remark, I followed him down the steps and gotinto that car which was the color of the heart of the cherry and Iraced that Mr. Bumble Bee through the city of Hayesville in a mannerwhich put to flight a large population thereof. I had not had my handson the wheel of a racing car for the many months since my father inhis had left the small Pierre and Nannette and me weeping on theterrace of the Chateau de Grez when he went to the battlefield of theMarne, and I drove with all of that accumulated fury within me. And Icould see that my Buzz enjoyed it as much as did I, though in his facewas a great fear as several very large policemen waved their hands atus and then savagely transcribed the numbers of his car in books fromtheir pockets when we whirled on with refusal to stop and listen totheir remarks. 

And this is what my Uncle, the General Robert, answered to me as Itold him of my unworthiness of his gift of the most beautiful cherrycar:

"That is a just return for your consideration for me in being born aboy, and I hope you'll break the necks of about two dozen youngfemales in this town before the week's out. Begin on that baggage, Susan, right away. " And as he spoke, my Uncle, the General Robert, came down the steps of the great Club of Old Hickory with theGouverneur Faulkner and stood beside my Cherry with me. 

"He's no better man than I, General, and I've been trying it allyear, " answered my Buzz with one of those delectable grinnings uponhis face. 

"Indeed, my much loved Uncle Robert, it is impossible that I acceptyour gift in gratitude that I am not a woman, because for the goodreason--" and my honor was about to rise up in arms and betray thedaredevil and her schemes within me when that good and most belovedGouverneur Faulkner interrupted me by stepping into the Cherry besideme with a laugh. 

"Thank you, General; this is just what I need in all of my businesswith Robert. We'll be back in time to dine with you at seven here atthe Club. Go out to the West End, Robert. " And with his hand on thespark he started the Cherry, and I was forced to sweep away from myBuzz and my Uncle, the General Robert, into the traffic and away fromthe Club of Old Hickory, which is named for a very great general ofAmerica and is a club of much fashion and some bad behavior, my Buzzhas said to me. 

"I really didn't mean to kidnap you and the car, youngster, but I'vehad a pain under my left pocket all day, and I have got to operate onit. A sudden impulse told me that it would be easier if I took youwith me to--to sort of stand by, " said my beautiful GouverneurFaulkner in a grave tone of voice as I whirled him out the broadavenue that led to the west end of the city. 

"Oh, my Gouverneur Faulkner, is it that you are ill, perhaps to die bya knife?" I exclaimed and for a second I let that wild Cherry run in avery dangerous manner almost upon another large car in the act ofturning into the street. 

"No, not that, Robert, " he answered me quickly and he laid his hand onmy arm beside him for an instant as if to give a steadiness to me. "Iwant you to take me out to the State Prison. I want to talk face toface with a man who killed his own brother, in cold blood, it is said. A pretty powerful influence is at me day and night for a reprieve andI--I don't know what to do about it. It is a difficult case. If I wentin my official capacity to see the man it might give his friends unduehopes; and suddenly I felt that I could run away from the whole bunchat this hour of the day and see the man himself without anybody'sknowing it save the superintendent of the prison and myself. You don'tcount, because in this case you are myself. "

"Always I would be yourself to you, my reverenced GouverneurFaulkner, " I made reply to him as I raised my eyes to his deep onesthat smiled down into them. 

"I wonder if that is as good as it sounds, boy, " asked my GouverneurFaulkner gently, as he looked down at me with both a laugh and asadness influencing the smile of his mouth. "Sometimes I badly needtwo of myself. They are at me from waking to sleeping and I often feelcut into little bits and I can't even say so. In fact, youngster, I'msquealing to you more than I've let myself do since I became the chiefexecutive of this State of Harpeth. Now, turn off into this road andgo straight ahead. The prison is about a mile back there at the footof that hill. "

"I--like those squeals, " I answered to his smile as I put my Cherryagainst the spring wind and raced down that long road at a great speedthat prevented any more conversation at that moment. My pride bade meshow to that Gouverneur of Harpeth what good driving in a fine car Iwas able to accomplish. 

Therefore it was not many minutes before we stood within the doors ofthat very grim and terrible home of the human beings who have sinnedwith a great crime. I know that I am never to forget that hour and amto carry forever the wound that it inflicted upon my heart as I walkedthrough the dimness and grayness and stillness of that dark house. 

At last, with many unlockings of heavy doors by the director of thatprison, we stood in a room that was as a cage in which to keep thehuman animal that crouched down upon a hard bed in one of its cornersand leaned a head shaved bare of any hair upon a very thin and whitehand. 

"Leave me, Superintendent, for a few minutes. The young man will stayby the door to let you know when I want you, " said that GouverneurFaulkner to the superintendent, who nodded and left the room as I tooka position over beside the heavy iron bars that swung together afterhim. 

"My man, " said the Gouverneur Faulkner in a voice that was so gentleas that which a mother uses to a child in severe illness, "I want youto let me sit down on your cot beside you and talk to you about yourtrouble. "

"Got nothing to say, parson. I done it and I want to swing as quick asthe law sends me, " answered the poor human from behind his handswithout even raising his bowed head. 

"I am not a minister, and I've come to talk to you because some ofyour neighbors and friends think that there may be a reason why youshould not be hanged for the death of your brother. It is my duty tohelp them keep you from the penalty of the law, which you may notdeserve even if you desire it. Can you tell me your story as man toman, with the hope that it will help you to a reprieve?" And as hespoke I observed a tone of command come into the voice of myGouverneur Faulkner, that was as clear and beautiful as the call ofthe bugle to men for a battle. 

"I done what I had to and I'm ready to die for it. I've got nothing tosay, " answered the man with still more of the determination of miseryin his voice. "My neighbors don't know nothing about it and I don'twant 'em to. Just let them keep quiet and let it all die when theState swings me. "

"So there is some secret about the matter that you are willing to dieto keep, is there?" asked the Gouverneur Faulkner with a quickness ofcommand in his voice. "What had your brother done to Mary Brown thatyou killed him for doing?"

"Damn you, what's that to you?" snarled the man as he sprang up frombeside the Gouverneur and leaned, crouched and panting, against thebars of the cage in which the three of us were inclosed. "Who are youanyway? My State has said I was to swing for killing him and there'sno more to question about it. "

"I am the Governor of your State, " answered that Gouverneur Faulkneras he rose and stood tall and commanding before the poor human beingwho was cowering as a dog that had felt the lash of a whip. "You aremy son because you are a son of the State of Harpeth, and as arepresentative of that State I am going to exercise my guardianshipand if possible prevent the State from the crime of taking your lifeif you do not deserve punishment. "

"I'm condemned by the laws of the State. You can't go back on that, Governor or no Governor, " made answer the man, with a panting ofmisery in his voice. 

"As you know, there are certain unwritten laws which have moreinfluence in some cases as to the guilt of a murderer than any on thestatute books, " said the Gouverneur Faulkner with a very greatslowness, so that the poor human dog might comprehend him. "If youkilled your brother to save--save Mary Brown from worse than death, then you have not the right to demand execution from your State toshelter her from publicity when she is no longer in danger of anythingworse. Did you get to her in time to save her or--" "Yes, good God, Idid and I had--damn you, now I'll have to kill you for getting wordsout of me that all the lawyers have tried to make me say all thistime, " and with the oath and a snarl the man made a lunge at myGouverneur Faulkner with something keen and shining that he had drawnfrom the top of his coarse boot. But that poor human being of theprison was not of enough quickness to do the killing of his desire inthe face of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, who had twice with herfoil pricked the red cloth heart of the young Count de Couertoir, thebest swordsman of France, in gay combat in the great hall of the oldChateau de Grez. With my walking cane of a young gentleman of Americanfashion, which I had taken with me to call upon the beautiful MadamWhitworth before my Cherry had befallen me as a gift, and which I hadwithout thought brought into that prison with me, I parried the blowof the knife at my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, but not in such amanner as to prevent a glancing of that knife, which inflicted ascratch of considerable depth upon my forearm under its sleeve ofbrown cheviot. 

"My God, boy!" exclaimed that Gouverneur Faulkner as he caught theknife from the floor where it had fallen from the hand of the poor manwho had sunk down on the cot, trembling and panting. "Two inches tothe left and a little more force and the knife would have stuck inyour heart. "

"Is it not better my heart than yours, my great Gouverneur Faulkner?And behold it is the heart of neither and only a small scratch upon myhumble arm, which will not even prevent the driving of that new Cherrycar, " I answered him as I put that arm behind me and pressed it closein its sleeve of brown cheviot so that there would be no drippings ofblood. 

"I didn't go to hurt the young gentleman nor you either, Governor, "said the man from the cot as he sobbed and buried his head in hisarms. "I was always a good man and now I--"

"Don't say another word, Timms, " interrupted my Gouverneur Faulkner ina voice that was as gentle as that father of State which he had saidhimself to be to Timms. "Nobody will know of this, for your sake. Iwas--was baiting you. I know what I want to know now and you'll nothang on the sixteenth. The State will try you again. Call thesuperintendent, Robert. "

"Don't say nothing to hurt Mary, Governor. Jest let me hang and Iwon't never care what--" the poor human began to plead. 

"I'll look after Mary--and you too, Timms. I'll see to it that--" myGouverneur Faulkner was answering the trembling plea for his mercywhen the superintendent came in and unlocked the cage. 

"Don't let him know of the--accident, youngster, " whispered theGouverneur Faulkner to me, and in a very few minutes we were out ofthat prison into the Cherry car, and whirling with great rapidity downthe country road with its tall trees upon both sides. 

"Stop, Robert, " commanded His Excellency as we came under a largegroup of very old trees which made a thick shelter of their greenleaves as they leaned together over the stone wall that bordered theside of the road. "Now let me see just what did happen to that armwhich came between poor Timms' sharpened case knife and my life. Weare out of sight of the prison now. It would have all been up withTimms if that attack upon me had been discovered. Your pluck will havesaved Timms, if he's saved, as well as your Governor. Here, turntowards me and let me see that arm. " And as he spoke, my GouverneurFaulkner put his arm across my shoulder and turned me towards him sothat he could put his right hand on the sleeve of that cheviot bag inwhich was a long slash from the knife and which was now wet with myblood. 

"I very much fear my beloved brown cheviot, which I have worn only afew times, is now dead; and how will I find another for my need!" Iexclaimed with a great alarm when I saw that that knife had thusdevastated my good clothing of which I had not many and for theprocuring of which I was many thousand miles from my good friend andtailor in New York. If I sought another suit in the city of Hayesvillemight there not be dangers of discoveries in the adjustment thereof?"Is it not a vexation?" I asked as the Gouverneur Faulkner attemptedto push back that murdered sleeve from my forearm. 

"In the language of my friend Buzz, you are one sport, Robert. Shellout of that coat immediately. I want to see just how much of a scratchthat is and I can't get the sleeve up high enough, " commanded myGouverneur Faulkner. The tone of his voice was the same he had used tome in commanding that I take his mail to his nice lady stenographer, but his face was very white and his hand that he laid upon the collarof my coat for assisting me to lay it aside trembled with a greatdegree of violence. 

"Indeed, my Gouverneur Faulkner, it is but a scratch and--"

"Get out of that coat!"

"But--"

"Off with that coat, Robert!" he commanded me, and before I could makeresistance, my coat was almost completely off of me by his aid and Iwas obliged to let it slip into his hands. He laid it on the back ofthe seat behind him, and with hands that were as gentle as those ofold Nannette when dealing with one of my injuries of a great number inchildhood, he rolled up the sleeve of my nice white shirt with thebrown strip of coloring in accord with that beloved and regrettedcheviot, and bared my forearm, which was very strong and white butwhich also appeared to me to be dangerously rounded for his gaze. Iwas glad that that arm was covered with a nice gore which had comefrom the long slit but which had now well-nigh ceased to run from me, so that he could not observe that it was of such a feminine mould. 

"Yes, just a deep scratch that I can fix all right myself in my ownbathroom when we get back to the Mansion in time for dinner with theGeneral by seven-thirty, I hope, " said my beloved Gouverneur as hehelped me again to assume the ruined garment of cheviot. "I was bornin the mountains of the State of Harpeth, boy, where when one mansheds his blood for the life of another, that other is said to beunder bond to his rescuer and that means a tie closer than theordinary one of brother by birth. I acknowledge the bond to you forall time, little brother. Now drive on quickly to the Mansion beforewe are in danger of being late for dinner with the General. It willtake me some few minutes to get you out of that shirt and into yourdinner coat. I'll send for it and you can dress with me. "

"Oh, no, my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner; I must go immediately to homeand there make myself presentable for a dinner of some very wonderfulpie that my Buzz demanded of that very lovely Madam Taylor in myhonor. That nice black lady, Kizzie, will with joy attend on thisscratch upon my arm, assisted by my good Bonbon, " I exclaimed withgreat alarm for fear that that very strong mind of my Gouverneur wouldcommand me to make my toilet in his company in the Mansion. "Please donot command me that I shall not so do. "

"Of course, youngster, go to your frolic with the rest of the babesand sucklings, only remember that I always like to have you with me, but--never command you when it is not your pleasure, " answered thatGouverneur Faulkner to me with gentleness. 

"It is always my pleasure to be with you, my Gouverneur, and I do likethat you command me, " I said to him in answer to that gentleness thathad something of a sad longing in it--for that custard pie of MadamTaylor, I suppose, of which he had probably heard famous mention, butwhich I would have believed to have been a longing for Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, if I had heard it so spoken, with an Englishor Russian or French accent, to me in a robe of tulle or sheer linen. "And may I not return immediately after that supper to that Club ofOld Hickory for conversation with you and my Uncle, the GeneralRobert?" I asked with eagerness. 

"Boy, by the time you have eaten that fatted pie at the Taylors' anddanced at least a portion of it off of your system I'll be--be burningthe midnight oil going over the papers in the case of Timms. I want toweigh all the testimony carefully in the case given in Court about hisown and his brother's relations with the woman Mary Brown. As long asI am the Governor of the State of Harpeth, no honest man is going toswing for protecting a good woman from the outrages of a brute. Andyet Timms confessed the crime and denied the motive. Cross-examiningfailed to get the statement from the woman that would justify myreprieving or pardoning him. I cannot even seem to dishonor theproceedings of the courts of the State and, boy, I'm justplain--up--against--it. Here we are at my own side door. Good night, and make a lightning toilet if you want to get to that pie on time. Good night, again!" And with those words, which explained his verydeep trouble to me, my Gouverneur Faulkner descended from the seatbeside me in the Cherry to the pavement beside his Mansion and bade mehurry from him. 

CHAPTER XIV

TO BEAR MEN AND TO SAVE THEM

In going I turned and looked back at him to see that he was standinglooking after me with a very great weariness in the manner of thedrooping of his shoulders and the sadness of his face. 

"Roberta, " I said to myself, "a woman who so reverences and regards aman as you do that Gouverneur Faulkner will find a way to help him sothat he shall not suffer as he does in regard to not knowing withsurety the reason of that Mr. Timms' making a murder upon his brother. What is it that you shall do?"

And to that question to myself I found an answer in only two shorthours while partaking of the very famous custard pie at the table ofthat very lovely Madam Taylor. 

All of those very gay and nice "babes and sucklings" which theGouverneur Faulkner had mentioned, were with me at the table of MadamTaylor with very much laughter and merriment, also much conversation. And in that conversation were very many jokes upon my Buzz because hehad been transported to the Capitol by my Uncle, the General Robert, and given hard labor until almost the time to arrive for that nicesupper, which he was eating with much hunger. On account of latenesshe had not been able to come to the house of lovely Sue to escort herwith him to the home of Madam Taylor. That Sue with pretendedhaughtiness was looking very high above the head of the humble Buzz. 

"Well, it's not my fault that Timms up and biffed his brother intoeternity all for buzzing pretty Mary Brown, and I don't see why I hadto be rung in to sort out of a million sheets of trial evidence thelies he told about it, for poor old Governor Bill to moil over allnight. I say when a man wants to be hung as badly as that, he ought toget what he's crying for, and not butt in on a perfectly innocentman's afternoon fox trot, " was that Mr. Buzz Clendenning's wailing toall of the company. "Look the other way, Sue, so as not to turn thismuffin cold until I get it buttered. "

"I told my washwoman, who is Mary's sister, that Mary ought to be madeto tell just what did happen and then it could all be arranged so thatthe poor man could be saved to her. I think it is hard on Mary to loseboth lovers, " said that very intelligent Mildred Summers. 

"They live just over beyond our back gate. Suppose we all go and putit up to the attractive Mary to speak up and keep Buzz from the dangerof overwork a second time, " said that nice young Mr. Taylor with whatI considered a great intelligence but which caused much laughter. 

And at that suggestion which caused the much merriment, that daredevilwithin Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, again arose and commanded meto attention. 

"Go, Robert Carruthers, and obtain that paper of statement from thatMary, so that your chief, that good Gouverneur Faulkner, does not workin the night which is for rest, and that your beloved Buzz may notagain have to work in his afternoon which is for dancing. Go and findthat Mary as soon as this dinner is at an end. "

And what was it possible for me to do but to answer the command of thedaredevil person within me? All of which I did. I made excuse ofmyself on account of a lie which involved my attendance on my Uncle, the General Robert, and departed after I had had but one nice slidewith the lovely Sue, but had obtained a promise of one fromMademoiselle Belle if I found it possible to return by the hour of teno'clock. 

After many inquiries at the back of the house of Madam Taylor in smallstreets I was at last led to the home of the Mary Brown. All was darkwithin the very small house, but upon the steps, in the light from themoon and also a street arc, sat the person that a man, of whom I hadasked guidance, said to be the woman whom I sought. She rested herhead in her hands as had done that poor human in the cage in thatState Prison and from her I heard the sounds of slow weeping. 

"What is it that I shall say to her?" I asked of myself. And thensuddenly something answered from within me from the same place thathad arisen that knowledge to spring in between my Gouverneur Faulknerand the bright knife I had not even seen. That place is located in theheart of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, and not in that daredevil. 

"Mary Brown, " I said to her with all of the gentleness in my voicethat was commanded by my sympathy for her, "if a person were going tokill with a rope the man I loved I would lay down my own life that heshould live. If you write one little paper to say that he murdered indefense of you, the good Gouverneur Faulkner will save him to you. Give to me that paper. "

"Go away, " she moaned as she shook her head and cried into her arms. 

"See, Mary: Here is the pencil and the paper to write the words oflife for Timms to that Gouverneur Faulkner, " I said as I seated myselfbeside her and extracted my notebook and pencil from the pocket of myovercoat where I had placed them on leaving my room as is always best, I deemed, for a secretary. "There are just two things that are theduty of women, Mary: to bear men and to save them. Save yours now, Mary. Much will happen, it may be; but that Timms is a good man andmust live. "

"I dassent. He told me not to, Timms did. "

"If a knife was aimed at Timms' heart, would you not throw yourselfbetween him and its cut, Mary, even though commanded by him not to sosave him?"

"Yes!"

"The knife is aimed and here's the paper by which you can throw yourperson on that knife. Is it of such moment that it cut into your ownheart, that you stand and let it give death to him?"

"I give up! I give up, Mister! I can't let nobody murder him. Nobodyever put it that way to me. Give me that paper and let me git to himfer jest one minute to-morrow, " she made answer to me as she seizedthe paper and pencil and began to write with the paper spread besideher upon the step. 

"I will myself send you in my car with good black Kizzie to see Timmsto-morrow, Mary, " I promised her while she wrote. 

"I got ter get my arms around his neck once more 'fore he kills me fertelling, " she answered as she signed her name to the paper and handedit to me. 

"Place those arms in that position, Mary, before telling him of youraction and all will be well, " I advised of her with much wisdom. 

"Will that do, Mister?" she asked with anxiety as I began to fold thepaper. 

On that paper she had written:

 "Hen Timms had locked me in the room and was forcing me when Gabe broke in and got me away from him. He had to bust his head with a flatiron to make him let go of me. I am a good woman. Mary Brown"

"Yes, good Mary, this will shield Timms from that knife, I feel acertainty, and I will send for you and see that you go to an interviewwith him at ten o'clock of the to-morrow morning. And now good night, with great respect to you for a brave woman, " I said as I rose to myfeet. 

"Who are you, Mister, that have spoke to my heart like they ain'tnobody spoke to its suffering yet, though you ain't said many wordsand them is curious like?" she asked of me as I prepared to take ahurried departure. 

"I am the secretary of the Gouverneur Faulkner, Mary, and--and--Iknow--how women--love--men. I--"

"I bet a many of 'em have loved you, God bless your sweet eyes. Goodnight, sir!"

And with those kind words from the poor female, who was beginningagain to sob but with another motive in her weeping, I took mydeparture down the street--or up--I did not know in just whichdirection. I had the intention of returning to the house of MadamTaylor to obtain the Cherry, which I had left standing before herdoor, and in it convey the message to my Gouverneur Faulkner thatshould bring relief to his anxiety, but I soon found that I had lostmyself upon streets that I had never seen before. 

What was it that I should do? My heart suffered that my GouverneurFaulkner should not know the relief of that paper I had in the pocketof my dinner coat, but I could not find myself and I did not knowexactly what questions I should ask. Then I bethought me of thattelephone, which in America is so much used, but not in France. Ientered into a store for medicines upon the corner of one of thestreets in my wandering, looked diligently in a book to find thenumber for the Mansion of the Gouverneur, and after many tellings ofmy desire, at last my Gouverneur Faulkner made an answer in my earthat was as beautiful in voice as the words he spoke to me in hispresence. 

"Well?" he asked of me. 

"This is Robert Carruthers who speaks. "

"Oh, all right, youngster. How did the fatted pie go?"

"That was a very nice pie, Your Excellency, and I have a paper fromthat Mary Brown concerning the murder of the brother of good Timms forcruelty to Mary. I wish to give it to you. "

"What do you mean, boy?"

"I have said it. "

"Then bring it here to me at once and tell me how you got it. "

"I cannot come to you. "

"Then I'll come to you. Where are you?"

"I do not know. I am lost. "

"God, boy, what do you mean?"

"I am in a store of medicine that is many streets from that house ofgood Mary Brown, and also from the house of Madam Taylor. I have theintention of calling on the telephone my faithful Bonbon and askingthat he come and find me and deliver me to the home of Madam Taylorand from thence transport this paper to you that you go to sleep for amuch needed rest. "

"You helpless young idiot, call a taxi and come right here to me. "

"I am promised to a dance with Mademoiselle Belle by the hour of ten, of which it lacks now only a quarter. Cannot I go in that taxicab, which it is of much intelligence of you to suggest to me, and send bythat taxicab to you the paper from Mary Brown while I stay to dancethat dance?"

"Well I'll be--no, I can't say it over the telephone. "

"What is it, my Gouverneur Faulkner?"

"I'll say it in the morning to you in person. I'll just hold up thewheels of state until that dance is over. Go ahead, youngster; callthe taxi and get back to Belle. I'll have Jenkins waiting at theTaylor's to get the paper and you can--can tell me all about it in themorning. Will nine o'clock be too early to call you from--your rosydreams?"

"I do not have coffee until nine o'clock, my Gouverneur Faulkner, andI do not make a very hurried toilet, but I will come to you at theCapitol at that nine o'clock if you so command--very gladly. "

"Oh, no, we'll all of us just--just cool our heels until you get yourcoffee and toilet. Don't hurry, I beg of you! Good night, and beat itto Belle, as Buzz would say. Good night, you--you--but I'll say it allin the morning if it takes a half day. Good night again. " And withthat parting salutation my Gouverneur Faulkner's voice died from thetelephone with what I thought had the sound of a very nice laugh. 

That Mademoiselle Belle Keith is a dancer of the greatest beauty, andalso is the homely Mildred Summers. The two hours until midnight atthe home of my lovely Madam Taylor seemed as one short half of an hourto me. I also had the pleasure of conducting the nice Belle home inthe Cherry so that I could make a fine display to her of my skill witha motor. In France it would be of a great scandal to allow a beautiful_jeune fille_, as is that Belle, and a nice gentleman, such as Ideclare Mr. Robert Carruthers to be, to go out into the midnight aloneand unattended; but is it that in America the gentlemen are of agreater virtue than in France, or is it that the ladies have thatgreat virtue? I do not know, but I declare it to be of much interestto remark. 

"You'll find old Forty-Two Centimeter firing off overtime, L'Aiglon, because when the Whitworth gang got caught up on those specificationsthey side-stepped with another proposition and he's scouting for holesin it. Better climb the grapevine into bed and side-step him, " advisedBuzz to me while we waited beside our cars for the beautiful Belle andbeautiful Sue. 

"Much gratitude for your advice, and good night, " I called to him aswe separated the Cherry and the Gray and went in diverse directions. 

I understood that "climb the grapevine into bed" to mean entering myhome and that of my Uncle, the General Robert, with much stealth andthat thing I did, dropping into a deep sleep in the moment ofinserting myself between the sheets of that bed. 

And when I awakened, because of that much dancing, behold, it was tenof the clock and eleven thereto before I arrived in a very great hurrywith much pinkness of cheeks in the office of the Gouverneur Faulknerat the Capitol of the State of Harpeth. 

And in that office I also discovered my Uncle, the General Robert, performing the action of the forty-two centimeter gun with words aboutmy extreme lateness. 

"You young fox trotter, you, I'd break every bone in your body if Iwasn't so damned proud of you, " he exploded directly in front of me. 

"General, if you'll let me take Robert into his office for fiveminutes alone I'll help you take the hide off of him later, " said thatGouverneur Faulkner as he beamed the great kindness to me. "Just stayhere and get that Timms pardon crowd ready to hear the news of Mary'sconfession and I'll tell you all about it when I've settled withRobert. "

"Very well, sir, very well, " answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with a further explosion of words. "I'll also expect you to give himcommands about this dance the young females in this town are leadinghim. " With which my Uncle, the General Robert, himself went into theanteroom and left me alone with the beloved Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"Good morning, Robert, " he said to me with a laugh as he came andstood close beside me. That Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, willblush within me, when that beloved Gouverneur comes very close besideher, in a way that is an embarrassment to Robert Carruthers, hissecretary. "And now tell me what you said to that stupid Mary Brownthat made her see the light, " he asked me with his fine eyes lookinginto mine with a great interest and something of admiration. 

"I asked of her if she would not throw herself before that belovedgood Timms if a knife was aimed at his heart; and she perceived fromthat question that she must give to me the paper. A heart that hasfelt a great tragedy draw near a beloved one can speak without wordsto another who sees also a beloved in danger. Is it that you slept inease, my Gouverneur Faulkner, after you had received that paper? Itgrieved me that you should sit at work while I was at dancing, " Ianswered to him as I drew nearer and laid my hand with timidity uponthe sleeve of his coat. 

"My God, boy, do they grow many like you in France?" was the answerthat the great Gouverneur Faulkner made to me as he looked down intothe adoration of my eyes raised to his, with a question that was ofdeep bewilderment. 

"France has grown many young and fine men who--who die, my GouverneurFaulkner for her in the trenches, where I must soon go, " I answeredhim with my head drawn to its entire height in the likeness of the oldMarquis of Grez and Flanders. 

"When you go into the trenches of France, youngster, the State ofHarpeth will have a Governor on leave in the same trench, " answered methat Gouverneur Faulkner with a very gentle hand laid on the sleeve ofmy coat above the bandages of my wound, and a glow of the star in hiseyes. "Brothers by bloodshed, Marquis of Grez and Bye. "

"Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, how will you even gain the refugeof your petticoats and get away from these lies of dishonor if you areto be so pursued by--" I was asking of myself when my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, opened the door and said:

"Better see this pardon delegation now, Governor. That other matter isgoing to go to hell as fast as it can if we don't scotch it. Robert, get those letters on your desk into United States as quickly aspossible. That French deluge is upon us. Come back as soon as youcan. " With which I was dismissed into my own small anteroom. 

And what did I find in those letters?

CHAPTER XV

"BEHOLD, I AM A SPY!"

As I sat and held in my hand those papers in which were two longmessages, the one written in a very poor English and the other in avery elegant French, the woman Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, trembled with fear of a discovery of her woman's estate while thatdaredevil Robert Carruthers raged within and also turned with a deadlyhatred and distrust of the greatest gentleman that _le bon Dieu_had ever given to him to know. It was as I say, and for this reason:In the letters were announcements of the arrival of the Lieutenant, Count Edouard de Bourdon, on that Tuesday which the Madam Whitworthhad mentioned. They were written with great ceremony to my Uncle, theGeneral Robert Carruthers, as Secretary of the State of Harpeth, togive to him that information to be conveyed to His Excellency, theGouverneur Faulkner, in due form though he already had thatinformation. 

"They make into a fool my revered Uncle, the General RobertCarruthers, who would keep his State and the Gouverneur of that Statefrom dishonor!" I exclaimed to myself in my rage. "And this womanthinks to play with the life of French soldiers as she has with thatsame Gouverneur Faulkner, does she? No, there is Roberta, Marquise ofGrez and Bye, who is a soldier of her Republique by appointment fromthe great Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, to both watch and furtherthe interests of France, whom she must meet in combat first!"

And as I said these words to myself I made a rapid writing of bothpapers and with them asked admittance to the room of that falseGouverneur Faulkner, who had just dismissed the good men who had cometo thank him for his mercy shown to that poor creature Timms. 

"Walk right in, sir, " said old Cato to me as he gave a low bow of verygreat courtesy. Then he looked with eyes of great keenness into mystormy face. "Make a cross on the floor with that hoodoo in your shoe, little mas', ef you git in danger or need of luck, " he whispered tome, coming very close. And as he directed I so performed at the veryentrance of the audience chamber of the great Gouverneur of the Stateof Harpeth. Then, with a fine relief on his face, good Cato flung openthe door and announced me with great ceremony. 

In that room I found my Uncle, the General Robert, and the GouverneurFaulkner in deep consultation and they both turned towards me withanxiety in their faces. 

"What did you make of the letters, boy?" asked my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, with keen anxiety. The great Gouverneur was silent and for thefirst time since I had looked into his face my eyes did not glance inhis direction. 

"They both announce the arrival on Tuesday of the Lieutenant, theCount de Bourdon, to sign the contracts concerning the mules to besold by the State of Harpeth to the Republique of France, sir, " Ianswered in a cold and formal voice and then stood at an attention forany more questions. 

"The devil they do!" exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert, whilestill the Gouverneur Faulkner was silent. "Do they give no excuse forbeing nearly ten days ahead of time, sir?"

"No, honored Uncle, " I answered. "Madam Whitworth said to me that theGouverneur Faulkner had set that date for the arrival of theCommission, and had so informed her; and I think that to be the reasonfor absence of such excuses. " And as I made that answer, which was oneof great impertinence from a secretary to a chief who was a greatgouverneur, I looked with cold calmness into the dark star eyes undertheir black lashes, which were darting lightnings of anger at mywords. 

"God!" exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert Carruthers, and heturned white with a trembling as he faced the lightning in those eyesof the stars. But it was not to his Secretary of State that the greatGouverneur Faulkner made his denial but to his humble secretary, Robert Carruthers, who looked without fear into the very depths ofthose lightnings. 

"This is the first time I have heard of a change of date for thearrival of the commission, Robert, " he said in a calm voice as for asecond his eyes held mine, a second which was sufficient for a truthto pass from his heart and still the storm in mine. I did notunderstand all that his eyes said of a great hurt but I knew that whathe spoke was true and would always be. 

"And what were you doing gossiping with that lying hussy, sir?"demanded my Uncle, the General Robert, with instant belief in the wordof that Gouverneur Faulkner, turning his anger upon me, who stood andtook it with such a joy in my heart from the truth that had come intoit from those eyes of the night stars, that I did not even feel itsviolence. 

"_Vive la France_ and the State of Harpeth! Behold, I am a spy!"I answered him as I drew myself to my greatest height and gave thesalute which his old soldiers give to him at that raising of thebanner of the Cause that he had lost in his youth. 

"You young daredevil, you, I'm a great mind to break every bone inyour body, as I have said before, " he said to me, but I could see asmile of pride making a lightning of the gloom in his countenance overthe trouble of his affairs of state. "You keep away from--"

"Robert, " was the interruption made by my great beloved GouverneurFaulkner, "upon you will fall the task of making the plans for theentertainment of this countryman of yours. The General and I will betoo busy getting-ready-to-meet-them-on-their-own-grounds to give anytime to that. Remember, they will have to be shown the best grazingland in the valley, in motor cars. When they are done sizing us up, we'll be ready for them. The Count and his secretaries will, ofcourse, be entertained at the Mansion and you can make arrangements atthe hotel for the rest of the suite. Also will you please instruct myservants, from Cato down, how to make them comfortable and, Robert, will you confer with Mrs. Whitworth, who, as the wife of the Treasurerof the State of Harpeth while neither the General nor I have wives, must be considered as the official social representative of the State, as to what form the official entertainments must take?" And as heasked that question of me my Gouverneur Faulkner did not so much asglance at my Uncle, the General Robert, who gave an exclamation ofcontempt in his throat as he began a reading of the two papers which Ihad handed to him. 

"Also I suppose this means I must give up all hope of services fromthat fly-up-the-creek, Clendenning, " he grumbled as he read. 

"I will do as you bid me, my Gouverneur Faulkner, in all things, and Iwill be much helped by both my excellent Buzz and the beautiful MadamWhitworth, " I made answer to the question and command given to me bythe Gouverneur Faulkner, and as I mentioned the name of that lady Ilowered my eyes to the floor and waited for my dismissal. I did notwant to look into his eyes, for I did not know even then if I mightnot find that Madam Whitworth there. I only knew that whatever she didor was to him, his honor was inviolable. 

"Well, get to it all, " commanded my Uncle, the General Robert. "Getvouchers for what you spend and pay with State Department checks. Don't blow in a fortune, you young spendthrift, you, but also rememberthat the State of Harpeth is one of the richest in America and knowshow to show France real hospitality. "

"That State of Harpeth has shown that hospitality to one humble youthof France, my Uncle Robert, who has a great gratitude, " I made answerto him as I laid my cheek upon the sleeve of his coat, which was of acut in the best style for gentlemen of his age but always of thatConfederate gray, likewise affected by good Cato. Try as hard asRobert Carruthers will, he cannot force that Roberta, Marquise of Grezand Bye, at all times to refrain from a caress to the Uncle whom sheso greatly loves. 

"Clear out, sir! Depart!" was the response I got to that caress; butalways that wicked Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, finds in theface of her relative something that assures her that she can soventure at a later time. 

And as I turned away from that coldness on the part of my augustrelative I found a glow of warmth for my reviving in the eyes of mybeautiful Gouverneur Faulkner, who held out his hand to me as Istarted to the door for that departure commanded me. 

"Blood brothers never doubt each other, Robert, " he said to me as withone hand he grasped my right hand and laid the other on my above mybandage, over the wound Timms had given to me, which was now almostentirely healed. 

With the quickness of lightning I laid my cheek against the sleeve ofhis coat, in exactly the caress I had given to my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, and then did depart with an equal rapidity. 

"Can you beat him, Bill?" I heard my Uncle, the General Robert, demandas I closed the door. 

"Impossible, " was the answer I thought was returned. 

And from that audience chamber I went quickly and alone in my goodCherry to Twin Oaks, was admitted by Bonbon, whom I instructed not inany way to allow that I be interrupted, ascended to my own apartmentand seated myself in a large chair before the glowing ashes of a smallfire of fragrant chip twigs, which kind Madam Kizzie had had lighted, against what she called a "May chill, " during my toilet of themorning. Above me from the mantelshelf, that Grandmamma Carrutherslooked down with her great and noble smile, while the flame in hereyes seemed to answer that in my soul as I communed with myself. 

"What is it that you will now do, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?"I asked of myself with a slight shaking of my knees in their cheviottrousers. "It is hardly possible that you will escape from revealingyour woman's estate to this Frenchman of your own class. Here allmistakes of a man's estate are forgiven you and laid to the fact ofyour being an alien, but that Lieutenant, Count de Bourdon, will askquestions of you and perhaps has a knowledge of your relatives andfriends--indeed, must have. Also, already that wicked Madam Whitworthentertains suspicions of you. What is it that you will do?"

And after I had asked myself for a second time that question I sat andlooked into the eyes of that Grandmamma Carruthers for many longmoments and had an argument with myself; then I answered to her as Irose to my feet so that my eyes came more nearly on a level with hers:

"No, Madam Ancestress, born of her whom not an Indian or a fierce bearcould frighten away from her duty of protection to those of heraffections, I will not flee. I will stay here by the side of my Uncle, the General Robert, and my great chief, that Gouverneur Faulkner, tofight for their honor and to protect France from robbery. Then, if Ibe discovered and can do no more for them, I will go from theirpresence quickly in the night and be lost in the trenches of Francebefore I am detained. And if it be that I am not discovered before allis made well concerning those mules for transportation of food to thesoldiers of France, then I will still go away to the battlefields ofFrance before it is discovered by all who have given affection toRobert Carruthers, that he is a--lie. I will leave love for me and forFrance in all of these kind hearts, which will comfort me when I fightfor the Republique, or live for her during long years. I grieveexceedingly; but I go!"

And after that long conference with myself I called upon the telephonemy Buzz and asked of him that he meet me at the Club of Old Hickory, of which, after the required time of waiting, I was soon to be anenrolled member. 

And when I told to my Mr. Bumble Bee the fact that in the space ofbarely three days the great gentleman of France would be in Hayesvillefor the purpose of a visit and the signing of the contracts concerningour much discussed friend, the mule, he gave a very long and loudwhistle and placed his elbows upon the smoking table between us. 

"Well, this does call for hustle, " he said as he knocked from hiscigarette the ashes. "What are your plans, L'Aiglon?"

"I do not know what it is best to plan, my Buzz, " I answered inperplexity. "Of course, there must be the official reception by HisExcellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner, upon the evening of theirarrival, but more I cannot think. Also, I am commanded by HisExcellency to consult the beautiful Madam Whitworth as the onlyofficial wife of the State, on account of the title of Treasurer ofher husband. "

"Oh, Mrs. Pat will be satisfied to shine at the elbow of Governor Billat the reception and we can trust her to arrange little odd cosy hoursfor herself and any of the bunch who pleases her. It's the man end ofit we want to handle. "

"Yes, it is that man end you speak of I wish you to perform for me, myBuzz, " I assented eagerly. 

"I'll tell you what let's do, " exclaimed that Buzz with a very greatlight of enthusiasm coming into his countenance. "Let's don't try toimitate London, Paris or New York in blowing 'em off; let's give thema taste of the genuine rural thing. Let's take the bunch down to theBrice stock farm, Glencove, give 'em a barbecue done by old Cato andlet 'em see the horses run. Gee, they have got a string of youngstersthere! It will take two and a half days, for it's fifty miles downover a mighty poor road, but it's worth it when you get there. TheBrice farm is the heart of the Harpeth Valley. We took that EnglishLordkin, who came to visit Governor Bill last year, down to see oldBrice, and it took us ten days to get him to break away. "

"That we will do, my fine Mr. Bumble Bee, " I answered with gratitude. 

"Sure, it's the thing, " said my Buzz with conviction. "We pass rightthrough the grazing land of the State and we can show them the mule inthe making--the right kind of mule. We'd have to do that anyway, forthat is what they are here for. "

I feel a certainty that if I should continue to be an American man forall of the days I may live, to that three score and ten age, I wouldnever be able to gain in any way even a small portion of what my fineMr. Buzz Clendenning calls "hustle. " I went at his side for the threedays which intervened between the news of the arrival of thatLieutenant, Count de Bourdon, and that actual arrival, in what seemedto me to be the pace of a very fleet horse or even as the flight of abird. And as fast as we went from the arrangement of one detail ofentertainment to another, the beautiful Madam Whitworth went with us, with her eyes of the flower blue very bright with a great excitement. I was glad that in all matters it was necessary that my fine Buzz alsoconsult with her and thus I was not exposed to any of her wickednessalone. 

And in my own heart was also a great excitement, for it seemed to methat I was fighting a great battle for France all alone. All day Icould see that that Mr. Jefferson Whitworth and the other men ofwealth who with him were seeking to be robbers to my Country, werefirst in consultation with themselves and then with my Uncle, theGeneral Robert, and also the Gouverneur Faulkner. Would their powerfulwickedness prevail and be able to force a signing of that paper on theGouverneur? Was that in their power, I asked of myself, and in myignorance I did not know an answer and had no person to demand onefrom. There was no ease of heart to me, when the days went by and Iwas so at work with my Buzz that I had no time for words from myGouverneur Faulkner or glance from those eyes of the dawn star. Icould only murmur to myself:

"_Vive la France_ and Harpeth America!"

CHAPTER XVI

"IMMEDIATELY I COME TO YOU!"

And so the time passed until the morning upon which the same railroadtrain which had brought young Robert Carruthers down into the valleyhome of his forefathers, arrived with yet another son of France andhis secretaries and servants. All were in attendance at the station ofarrival, from the Secretary of State, the General Carruthers, who inhis large car was to take the Count de Bourdon to the Gouverneur'sMansion for immediate introduction, down to good Cato in a very newgray coat and a quite shiny black hat. 

"Stand right alongside, Robert, " commanded my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, as he arranged with impatience a large white rose I had placedupon the lapel of his very elegant gray coat. "I never did likeheathens. They make my flesh crawl. Be sure and repeat slowly all hesays, damn him!"

"He will speak to you in English very like unto that I use, I feelsure, my Uncle Robert, " I said with a great soothing. 

"He will not, sir, he will not!" answered my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, with a great impatience. "Half the blood in your veins is thegood red blood I gave you, sir, and never forget that. Look what a manit has made of you!"

"Yes, my Uncle Robert, " I answered with a great sadness but also someamusement. In my heart I prayed that always when I had left him hewould think that blood to be the good red blood of a man of honor andnot of a woman of lies. It might be that some day he would be proudthat still another man of his house had died in battle for Franceand--never know. 

It was while my eyes were covered with a mist of tears that I heardthe great railway train approaching, which was perhaps to bring me mydishonor, and I drew those tears back into my heart and steppedforward to the steps of the car from which I could see a very slightand short but very distinguished looking Frenchman about to descend. 

"I thank the good God I have never before encountered him, " I said inmy heart as I stood in front of him. 

"Lieutenant, the Count de Bourdon, I make you welcome to the State ofHarpeth, in the name of my Uncle, the Secretary of that State, " I saidto him in the language of his own country as I clapped together myheels and gave to him the bow from the waist of a French gentleman whois not a soldier. "Will you permit that I lead you to that Uncle?"

"Many thanks, Monsieur, is it Carruthers I name you after yourdistinguished relative?" he made answer to me as he returned my bowwith first one of its kind and then a military salute. 

"Robert Carruthers, sir, and at your service, " I made answer to himwith a great formality. And as I spoke I saw that he gave to me aglance of great curiosity and would have asked a question but at thatmoment my Uncle, the General Robert, stood beside us. 

"I present to you the General Carruthers, Secretary of the State ofHarpeth, Monsieur the Lieutenant, the Count de Bourdon of theforty-fourth Chasseurs of the Republique of France. " I said with againa great ceremony and a very deep bow. 

"I'm mighty glad to welcome you to Old Harpeth, Count. How did youmake the trip down? said my Uncle, the General Robert, as he held outhis large and beautiful old hand and gave to the Count Edouard deBourdon such a clasp that must have been to him most painful. And as Ibeheld that very tall grand old soldier of that Lost Cause look downupon that very polished and small representative of the French army, that American eagle began a flapping of his wings against the stringsof my heart where I had not before discovered him to reside. 

"But he is not as my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, " I said inreproof to that eagle, which made a quiet in my heart so that I couldlisten to the words returned by the man of France to the man ofAmerica. 

"I thank you, Monsieur the Secretary of Harpeth; my journey was ofgreat pleasure and comfort, " were the words which he returned in verynice English. 

"Then we'll go right up and see Governor Faulkner at the Capitolbefore lunch, Count, if that suits you, " my Uncle, the General Robert, said with a very evident relief at those words of English coming fromthat French mouth. "Here's my car over this way and this is Mr. Clendenning, who'll look after the rest of the gentlemen in your partyand bring them on up to the Capitol. "

"Monsieur, " said the Lieutenant, Count de Bourdon, with another bowand then a quick recovery as he saw that he must take the hand ofBuzz, held out to him in great cordiality. These handshakes of Americaare very confusing to those of Europe. 

I saw a great laughter almost to explosion in the eyes of my Buzz atthe very little man who had such a great manner, and I made a hurryingof him and my Uncle, the General Robert, to the large car standingbeside the station. 

"I will precede you in my Cherry, " I said as I saw both the gentlemenseated together upon the back seat of the large black machine. 

"No you don't; you take your seat right in here with us, to be on handif any bridge of this international conversation breaks down under theCount and me, " answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with sterncommand. 

"Is it that the young Monsieur Carruthers had an education in France?"asked the Lieutenant, the Count de Bourdon. "He has the air ofFrench--shall I say, youth?" And as he spoke again I saw a gleam ofdeeply aroused interest in his eyes which made my knees to tremble intheir tweed trousers. 

"Born there; son of my brother, who died at the Marne, " made answer tothe question my Uncle, the General Robert. 

"It is now that I make a remembrance. That Capitaine Carruthers wasthe husband to the very beautiful Marquise de Grez and Bye. In heryouth I was her friend. I did not know--" but as the Lieutenant, theCount de Bourdon, was making this discovery which sent a thrill offear into the toes of my very shoes, the car stopped at the mainentrance of the Capitol and halfway down the long flight of stepsstood His Excellency, the great Gouverneur Faulkner of the State ofHarpeth, waiting to receive the guest who came on a mission to himfrom a great land across the waters. Until I die and even into a spacebeyond that, I shall take that picture of magnificence which was madeby my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner as he stood in the May sunlight withhis bronze hair in a gleaming. I thought him to be a great statue ofSuccor as he held out both of his strong hands to the smaller man whohad come from a stricken land for his help. 

"_Le bon Dieu_ keep of his heart a friend of France, " I prayed asI watched those hands clasp as my Uncle, the General Robert, made theintroduction. 

And all the long hours of that long day were as dreams of sadness andfear to me as I went about the many duties of entertainment laid uponme. At luncheon at that Club of Old Hickory I sat opposite the smallFrenchman who sat on the right hand of my Gouverneur Faulkner, andopposite to me sat my Uncle, the General Robert. No business was indiscussion at that time but I could see those eyes of Frenchshrewdness make a darting from one face to another and ever they cameback to me with a great puzzle which gave to me terrible fear. 

To all the plans for his entertainment he gave an assent of delightand for that two days' journey down into the grazing lands of theHarpeth Valley he had a great eagerness until told that it was to beundertaken upon the morrow. 

"Is it not that we will be occupied on the morning of to-morrow withthe signing of those papers of importance, Your Excellency?" he askedwith a grave annoyance which was under a fine control. 

"The Secretary of State, General Carruthers, and I think it will bebest that you see the grazing lands of Harpeth and some of the mulesbeing put into condition before the signing of the contracts, " waswhat was "handed out to him, " as my Buzz would have expressed it, bymy Gouverneur Faulkner with a great courtesy and kindliness as hehelped himself to some excellent chicken prepared in a fry. I couldsee a great start of alarm come into the eyes of that smallLieutenant, the Count de Bourdon, at those calm words, but he gave nota sign of it. In my heart was a great hope that something had beendiscovered for the protection of my soldiers of France, and I alsotook to myself a portion of that excellent chicken and did make theattempt to consume it as I beheld all of those great gentlemenperforming. I believe that under excitement men possess a much greatercalmness of appetite than do women. 

"Monsieur le Gouverneur, it is not necessary that I behold those landsand those mules; the signature of the great Gouverneur of the State ofHarpeth will make a mule to grow from a desert, in the eyes of theFrench Government, " he said with a smile of great charm spreading overhis very small countenance. 

But just at this moment, when a reply would have been of anawkwardness to make, the music, which is made by a most delightfulband of black men for all eating in that Club of Old Hickory, began toplay the great Marseillaise, and with one motion all of the gentlemenin that dining room rose to their feet in respect to the distinguishedguest of that Old Hickory Club. Also many friendly glances were castupon me, which I returned with a smile of great gratitude. 

"Yes, the pen is mightier than the mule stick in his eyes, thescoundrel, " remarked my Uncle, the General Robert, as I drove to theCapitol with him in his car, while the Gouverneur Faulkner took hisguest with him in his. 

"Is any proof been found that he shall not do this robbery to France, my Uncle Robert?" I asked with great eagerness. 

"Trap is about ready to spring, but not quite. God, but Jeff Whitworthis a skilled thief! I know what he is up to but I can't quite get iton the surface. Keep the French robber busy, boy, for a little longer, and I'll land him. Here we are at the office! Now you get busy keepingthem busy--and I'll land 'em. If not, I'll go and show France whatreal fighting is and I'll take you with me into the worst trenchthey've got! Battles, indeed--they ought to have been at Chickamauga. Now depart!" With which words my Uncle, the General Robert, got out ofthe car and left me to direct it to wherever I chose. 

"I have a warmth at heart that the three men most beloved of me wouldgo onto the French battle line with me, " I murmured to myself as theblack chauffeur drove me back to that Club of Old Hickory to get meagain in company of my Buzz. "And yet it is the custom of women tobelieve that they command the deepest affection of which a man ispossessed. And, _helas_, it is believed to be impossible for acomrade that he be also a lover!"

It has been my good fortune to be one of the guests at many verybrilliant receptions of much state in some of the very grand andancient palaces of the different countries of Europe, but at none ofthem have I seen a greater brilliancy than at the one given in hisMansion by the Gouverneur Faulkner of the State of Harpeth in America. All of that old Mansion, which has the high ceilings and thedecorations of a palace, if not quite the size, was adorned with verylarge masses of a most lovely and handsome flower, which is of manyshades of a pink hue set in dark and shining leaves and which iscalled the rhododendron. There were many lights and music of asoftness I have never heard equaled, because the souls of those blackmen seem to be formed for a very strange kind of music. Also I hadnever beheld women of a more loveliness than those of the State ofHarpeth, who had come from many small cities near to Hayesville at aninvitation of very careful selection for their beauty by my Buzz. 

"Let's give him a genuine dazzle, " he had remarked while making a listfor the sending of the cards. 

And most beautiful of all those beautiful _grande dames_ was thatMadam Patricia Whitworth, who, with her husband, stood at the side ofHis Excellency, the great Gouverneur Faulkner, for the receiving ofhis guests. Her eyes of the blue flowers set in the snow of crystalswere in a gleaming and the costume that she wore was but a few wispsof gossamer used for the revealing of her radiant body. In my blackand stiff attire of the raven I stood near to the other hand of theGouverneur Faulkner and there was such an anger for her in my heartthat it was difficult that I made a return of the smile she cast uponme at every few minutes. Was there a mockery in that smile, that shehad discovered my woman's estate and was using her own beauty for achallenge to me? I could not tell nor could I judge exactly what thesmile of boldness which the Lieutenant, the Count de Bourdon, castupon me, might mean. And in doubt and anxiety I stood there in thatgreat salon for many hours to make conversation with the guest ofhonor easy with those who came to him for presentation, until at lastI was so weary that I could not make even a good night to my Uncle, the General Robert, when we entered, long after midnight, the doors ofTwin Oaks. 

When in my own apartment, alone with the beautiful Grandmamma, I castmyself upon the bed upon which my father had had birth, and wept withall my woman's heart which beat so hard under that attire of theraven. 

"Scarcely one more day and perhaps I must flee in dishonor from allthe love of these friends, " I sobbed to myself, but deeper than allthat I wept for the picture of that beautiful woman at the side of mybeloved Gouverneur Faulkner. 

And then suddenly as I lay in my weeping the telephone upon the tablebeside my bed gave a loud ringing in the darkness that was long aftermidnight. Very quickly from fear I covered my head with my pillow andwaited with a great fluttering of heart. 

Then a second time it rang with a great fury and I perceived that Imust make a response to it. 

I arose and took that receiver into my hand and spoke with a finethough husky calmness. 

"What is it?" I asked. 

"Is that you, Robert?" came the voice of my beloved Gouverneur, whichmade the heart of that anguished Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, beat into a sudden great happiness though also alarm. 

"Yes, Your Excellency. "

"Can you dress very quietly, get your car and come up here to theMansion without letting anybody know of it?"

"I will do what you command. "

"I need you, boy, and I need you quick. "

"I come. "

"Stop the car at the street beyond the side door and come in that way. Cato will let you in. Come to my bedroom quietly so as not to wakeJenkins. Can you find your way?"

For just one single long second that _grande dame_, Roberta, theMarquise of Grez and Bye, cowered in fear upon her warm bed in thehouse of her Uncle, the General Robert, at the thought of going outinto the night at the command of a man, and then that devoteddaredevil, Mr. Robert Carruthers, answered into the telephone to theGouverneur Faulkner:

"Immediately I come to you. "

CHAPTER XVII

THE TALL TIMBERS OF OLD HARPETH

Is it that there comes to the world an hour in the twenty and four inwhich it lays aside the mortality of the earth and clothes itself inan immortality of a very great awe? I think that it is so; and it wasout into the whiteness of that hour that I stepped when I hadsuccessfully passed from my room to the garden of the home of myUncle, the General Robert, which is also the home of my Americanancestors. A command for my presence had come to me from the lovedGouverneur Faulkner and it was needful that I make all possible haste;but it seemed to me that all of the beautiful faded flowers of my deadgrandmammas in that garden rose up around me for beguilement and gaveto me a perfume that they had kept in saving for the Roberta, some dayto come across the waters to them. And all of their littledescendants, the opening blossoms of spring, also gave perfume to mein a mist in the white moonlight, while a few fragrant rose vines bentto detain me as I left that home of my grandmothers to go out intothat sleeping city, alone. I had a great fear, but yet a greatdevotion drew me and in a very few minutes I had driven my Cherry fromthe garage and was on my way through the silent streets to--I did notknow what. 

At the door of the Mansion I was admitted by my good Cato, who wasattired in a very long red flannel sleeping garment, with a red capalso of the flannel tied down upon the white wool of his head. 

"Has you got dat hoodoo, little Mas'?" he demanded of me as I passedinto the hall beneath the candle in a tall stand of silver which heheld high over my head. 

"Yes, good Cato, " I made answer to him and I was indeed glad that Ihad now of a habit put his gift under the heel of my left foot. Itgave me great courage. 

"De Governor is up in his room and you kin go right up. I never heardof no such doings as is going on in dis house dis night with thatthere wild man with a gun five feet long, coming and going like dewind. Go on up, honey, and see what you kin do to dem with dathoodoo. " With which information good Cato started me up the stairs. "First door to the right, front, and don't knock, " he called in awhisper that might have come from his tomb in death as he slowlyretired into the darkness below with his candle. 

For a very long minute I stood before that door in the dim light thatcame through one of the wide windows from the moon without. 

"What is this madness that you perform, Roberta, Marquise of Grez andBye?" I made demand of myself while my knees trembled in the trousersof heavy gray worsted. 

"Robert Carruthers goes to his chief in an hour of need and he isdescended of that Madam Donaldson who had no fear of the Indian or thebear when there was danger to her beloved, " I made answer to myselfand softly I turned the handle of that door and entered the room ofthe Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"Is that you, Robert?" came a question in his voice from a large tableover by the window. The room was entirely in shadow, except for theshaded light upon the table, under whose rays I remarked the head andshoulders of that Gouverneur Faulkner, at whose bidding I had come outinto the dead of the night. "Come over here and walk softly, so as notto stir up Jenkins, " he commanded me and I went immediately to hisside, even if I did experience a difficulty in the breath of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. 

"What is it that you wish, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" I asked as Ilooked down upon him as he sat with a paper in his hand regarding itintently. And as I looked I observed that he, as well as I, had notentirely disrobed after that very brilliant reception. He haddiscarded his coat of the raven and also what is called a vest inAmerica, and he was very beautiful to me in the whiteness of his veryfine linen above which his dark bronze hair with its silver crests, that I had always observed to be in a very sleek order, was tossedinto a mop that resembled the usual appearance of my own. His eyeswere very deep under their heavy lashes but of the brilliancy of thestars in the blackness of a dark night. 

"Sit down here under the light beside me, " was his next command to me, and he reached out one of his slender and powerful hands and drew medown into a chair very close beside him. 

"What is it?" I asked as my head came so close to his that I felt thewarmth of his breath on my cold cheek. 

"Hold these two fragments of paper together and translate the Frenchwritten upon them literally, " he said to me as he handed me two smallpieces of paper upon which there was writing. 

And this is what I discovered to be written:

 "Honored Madam:

 "The one at the head of all has sent me to this place to inspect grazing lands and make report. I send in a report of what is not here and the signing of the papers by your Gouverneur Faulkner must be done quickly in blindness before a discovery of what is not--"

"It is written to a woman, " I said very quietly as I made a finish ofreading. 

"Yes, boy, to a woman. I have made my last fight to--to hold an oldbelief, which in some way seemed to be--be one of my foundationstones. The General is right: they are all alike, the soft, beautiful, lying things. The truth is not in them, and their own or a man's honoris a plaything. That piece of paper was sent me by a man up in themountains of Old Harpeth, who loves me with the same blood bond that Ilove you, boy, all on account of a gun struck up in the hands of hisenemy. Here's the note he sent with it. 

 "Bill, we cotched a furren man fer a revenue up by the still at Turkey Gulch and this was in his pocket. I made out to read yo name. I send it. The man is kept tied. What is mules worth? Send price and what to do with this man critter by son Jim. Hell, Bill, they ain't no grazing fer five thousand mules on Paradise Ridge, but I know a place. Jim Todd. "

"What is the significance of this paper, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" Iasked after I had made the attempt to translate to myself the verypeculiar writing he had given to me. 

"I do not know just exactly myself, Robert, " answered my GouverneurFaulkner as he dropped his head upon his hands while he rested hiselbows on the polished table among its scattered papers. "I amconvinced now that this mule contract business is the plot against myhonor that the General believes it to be and has been trying to get toa legal surface. In some way Jim Todd has got hold of one end of theconspiracy. It has been hard for me to believe that a woman would sellme out. If I take it to her in the morning I'll perhaps get anexplanation that will satisfy me. The men who are in with JeffWhitworth are the best financiers in the State and it is impossible tobelieve that--"

Very suddenly it happened in my heart to know what to compel that verylarge man beside me to do for the rescue of his honor. He must see thematter, not through the lies of that beautiful Madam Whitworth, theinstrument of that very ugly husband, but he must look into the matterwith his blood friend, that Mr. Jim Todd. 

"You must go immediately to that Mr. Jim Todd and his prisoner todiscover truth, Your Excellency, " I said with a very firmdetermination as I looked straight into his sad eyes that had in themalmost the look of shame for dishonor. 

"It's twenty-four hours on horseback across Old Harpeth fromSpringtown, boy. The trip would take three days. I can't do it withthese guests here, even if they are robbers. I'll have to stay and digdown to the root of the matter here. I may find it in the hearts of myfriends, " he answered me with a look of great despair. 

"The root of the matter is that man who is a prisoner, my GouverneurFaulkner. I say that you go; that you start while yet it is night andwhile no man can advise you not to take that journey. It can be donewhile this entertainment to the farm of the Brices is made for theinspection of mules and also the running of horses. It is necessary!"As I spoke to him in that manner a great force rose in me that Ipoured out to him through my eyes. 

"Great Heavens, boy, I believe I'll do it. I could never get anythingif I went when they knew I was going, but I might find out the wholething if I went to it in secret. If I go now they'll not have time toget their breath before I am back. I'll be able to think out there isthose hills and I'm--a--man who needs to think--with a visionunobscured. " For a long minute my Gouverneur Faulkner sat with hishead bowed in his hands as he rested his elbows on that table, then herose to his feet. "Let's get away while it is still the dead of night, Robert. I'll leave a note with Cato to tell the General that I'vetaken you, and nobody except himself must know where I have gone orwhy. He'll put up the right bluff and we'll be back before they getanything out of him. It's three o'clock and we must be far out on theroad by daybreak. We'll take your car and leave it in hiding atSpringtown, where by sunup we'll get horses to cross the mountains. "

"Is it that I must go for three days out into those mountains withyou, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" faltered that ridiculous and troublesomeRoberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. 

"Why, no, Robert, unless--unless--Oh, well, I suppose this prisoner ofJim's can speak English as they all can. I rather wanted you--butperhaps it is best for me to fight it out alone. Will you help me packa bag? Get the one from my dressing room while I take a plunge. "

"Quick, Robert Carruthers, make an excuse to that Roberta, Marquise ofGrez and Bye, who is of such a foolishness, that you must go with yourbeloved Gouverneur Faulkner for his aid, " I said to myself. 

"It is necessary that your foreign secretary accompany you to dealwith that gentleman of France who is in prison, my GouverneurFaulkner, " I said with decision as I rose from the side of the tablewith a great quickness. "I must return home for a few necessities ofmy toilet for those three days, but I will be back in what that goodKizzie says to be a jiffy, when speaking of cooking that is delayed. "

"Good, " answered me my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner. Then he laid hishand upon my shoulder as we stood together in the dimness out from therays of the light. "There is something in your eyes, Robert, thatrenews my faith in the truths of--of life. I'm going out into thewilderness on a grave mission whose result may shake down some housesof--of cards, but because of your being with me I feel as if I werestarting off on a picnic or a day's fishing at the age of ten. Now, I'll hurry. " And as he spoke my Gouverneur Faulkner made a start inthe direction of his room for the bath. 

"Is it that I may begin the packing of your bag for you, YourExcellency, before I go for those necessities of my own?" I asked ofhim. 

"Won't be time for you to go home, boy, " he answered me, looking at aclock upon the mantel over his large fireplace. "You are still in yourevening clothes, I see. But that's easy: you climb into that pink coatand a pair of those corduroy trousers of mine you see hanging in mydressing room. I haven't hunted for two years but they are stillthere. Put linen in that saddlebag on the shelf for us both out of thedrawers in the old chest over there. Take heavy socks to go under theleggings. You'd better put on a flannel shirt, too, and take an extraone for both of us. We'll travel light. I'll only be in the bath acouple of minutes. " With which assurance he entered the room of thebath and closed the door upon me. 

"_Mon Dieu_, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye!" was all that Iallowed myself to exclaim as I made a very quick rush for thatdressing room, switched on the light, flung off my coat, seized a pairof corduroy riding breeches that hung in a corner beside another pair, discarded my own of broadcloth and struggled with both of my legs thesame moment into them. Then in a hurry as great as I shall ever know Idiscovered a gray flannel shirt in a drawer of the very tall oldmahogany chest and inserted myself into that with an equal rapidity. Awide leather belt made the two very large garments secure around mywaist and I again allowed breath to come into my lungs. I then openeda very queer bag which I knew to be for a saddle, that was upon ashelf in the dressing room, and began to put things into it accordingto directions of the Gouverneur Faulkner. The other pair of thoseriding breeches I laid with another of the flannel shirts in a greatconspicuousness upon a chair in the bedroom directly in front of thedoor from the dressing room. 

"We're going to make a record get-away, boy, " said that GouverneurFaulkner to me as in a few minutes he came, clothed in those ridingtrousers and that flannel shirt, to the door of his dressing room, where I was just making a finish of putting needful clothing into hisbag. "You'll find the other things we need in the bathroom. Put it allin while I get together a few papers I want. We can start now in twominutes. "

"All is ready now, my Gouverneur Faulkner, " I made the announcementafter a wading into that very wet room of the bath and a return. 

"Here, give me the bag, and you go ahead with this electric torch. Quiet now, " admonished that Gouverneur Faulkner to me as we took ourdeparture through the dark hall. 

"This is the maddest escapade that a Governor of this ancient Statehas ever undertaken, and the weight of years has slid from me, boy, "said that Gouverneur Faulkner to me as the Cherry made a long glidefrom the city out into the open road. 

The day was just beginning to come with its light from behind the verylarge and crooked old mountain that is called Old Harpeth, when myGouverneur Faulkner made me to turn my good Cherry from off the mainroad into a little road, of much narrowness and of beautiful browndirt the color of the riding trousers that I wore, and stop beside avery humble, small house, which was covered with a vine in beautifulbud, and around which many chickens hovered in waiting for a morningbreakfast. Behind the small house was a large barn and as I made anice turn and stop beside the white gate a man in a blue garment thatI now know is called overalls, came to the door of the barn. 

"Hello, Bud. Are Lightfoot and Steady in good condition for a tripacross to Turkey-Gulch?" called my Gouverneur Faulkner as he alightedfrom the car. 

"Fit as fiddles, Governor Bill, " answered the man as he came to thegate to shake hands with the Gouverneur Faulkner. "'Light and come into breakfast. Granny has got a couple of chickens already in theskillet. And say, I want you to see what Mandy have got in the bedwith her. Ten pounds, Gov. "

"Congratulations, Bud; that is some--boy?" said my Gouverneur Faulknerwith a question as he again grasped the hand of the large man. 

"Naw, Gov; we didn't have no luck this first shot but I tells Mandythat we've got about a dozen more chanstes if she does as well by meas she oughter. Anyway what's the matter with a gal child?" And thenice young father of the poor little female made a bristle of hisdisposition in defense of his daughter. 

"Not a thing on earth, Bud; except that the whole sex are the unknownquantity. This is my secretary, Robert Carruthers, the General'snephew. Come in, Robert, and you'll have one square meal in your lifeif you never get another. Get me the usual food wallet together, Bud, please, and let me have it and the horses the very moment I'veswallowed the last bite of my drum bone, will you? We've got to ridefast and far to-day and I want nobody on my trail. Understand?"

"Yep, Gov, " was the answer that good Bud man made as my GouverneurFaulkner and I took our way through many chickens into the low littlehouse. 

"God bless my soul, if here ain't the Governor come for a bite withGranny Bell this fine morning!" exclaimed a very nice old lady fromabove a stove, which was steaming with food of such an odor as tocreate a madness in my very empty stomach. 

"More than any bite, Granny, " answered my Gouverneur Faulkner as hecame beside the stove to shake hands with the nice hostess. 

"I'd like to feed you some gold, fried in silk. Governor Bill, ferthat mercy to my nephew Timms. I can't say what I feels and finishthis cream gravy the right color for you, " and as she spoke the fineold friend of my Gouverneur Faulkner wept as she shook a steamingsauce in a black pan and turned with the left hand a golden piece ofbread upon another part of the stove. 

"I don't need anything more than your 'well done, ' Granny, " answeredmy Gouverneur Faulkner as he laid a gentle hand on the tremblingshoulder of the nice old lady. "This youngster here got the word fromMary and you can give him both of the liver wings if you want to showyour gratitude to him. "

"God bless you, young gentleman, and you shall have anything thatGranny Bell has to give you in gratitude. Now draw up two chairs andfall to, boys, " and as she spoke she set the dishes of a beautifulodor upon a very clean table beside the stove. 

"Is it that I may wash the grease stains of the car from my handsbefore eating, dear Madam?" I asked of her. 

"Back porch, you'll find the bucket and pan and towel, youngster. Ican't wait for you, " made answer my Gouverneur Faulkner as he laughedand began upon the repast that must of necessity be a hurried one. 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CAMP HEAVEN

And I was very glad indeed that he did not go with me for that toiletto my hands, for it might have happened that a noise would havedeprived me of a very beautiful thing that I discovered, through awindow under a vine of roses that opened upon that back porch. 

A very pretty young girl, with hair the color of the maize in thefields, lay upon a white bed beneath a quilt of many colors. Hersleeping garment was drawn back from her breast, against which lay alittle human person drinking therefrom with much energy. The eyes ofthe mother were closed and her arm held the babe loosely as if in adeep dreaming. I softly poured the water into the basin, made clean myhands and quietly withdrew into the kitchen, with much care that I didnot awaken her. On my cheeks I could feel a deep glow of color, andsomething within my heart pounded with force against my own breastunder its gay red coat of a hunting man. I could not raise my eyes tothose of my Gouverneur Faulkner and I ate not as much of that goodbreakfast as Robert Carruthers could have consumed if the woman in hisheart had not been so stirred. 

And all of that long day in the soft early spring which was burstinginto a budding and a flowering under the feet of our horses and aboveour heads in the trees, it was the woman Roberta that rode at the sideof my Gouverneur Faulkner, with her heart at an ache under her coat ofa man. It was with a difficulty that I forced my eyes to meet and makeanswer to the merriment and joy of the woods in his deep ones; and Iwas of a great gladness when the descending of the sun brought amoon-silvered twilight down upon us from the young green branches ofthe large trees of the forest through which we rode. 

"Time to make camp. We've got to old Jutting Rock. You are halfway upbetween heaven and earth, youngster, " said my Gouverneur Faulkner ashe drew to a halt his horse in front of me and pointed down into thedim valley that lay at our feet. 

"I am glad that we have made this Camp Heaven, " I answered to him as Islid from my horse, ungirthed him, and drew from his back the heavysaddle he had worn for the day, as I had been taught by my father todo after a day's hunting, if no grooms came immediately. "Is it thatyou have hunger, my Gouverneur Faulkner?"

"Only about ten pounds of food craving, " he made answer to me with alarge laugh that was the first I had ever heard him to give forth. "I'll rustle the fire and water if you'll open the food wallet andfeed the horses. "

"Immediately I will do all of that, " I made an answer to him andbecause of the happiness of that laugh he had given forth, a gladnessrose in my heart that made me again that merry boy Robert. 

And it was with a great industry for a short hour that we prepared theCamp Heaven for a sojourn of a night. Upon a very nice hot fire I putgood bacon to cook and my Gouverneur set also the pot of coffee uponthe coals. Then, while I made crisp with the heat the brown cornpones, with which that Granny Bell had provided us, he brought a largearmful of a very fragrant kind of tree and threw it not far into theshadow of the great tree which was the roof to our Camp Heaven. 

"Bed, " he said as he came and stood beside the fire in a largetowering over me. I dropped beyond rescue a fragment of that cornbread into the extreme heat of the coals, but I said with a greatcomposure and a briefness like unto his words:

"Supper. "

"Why is it that a man thinks he wants more of life's goods thanfatigue, supper and bed, do you suppose, boy?" questioned myGouverneur Faulkner to me as at last in repletion he leaned backagainst our giant rooftree, between two of whose hospitable largeroots we had made our repast, and lighted a pipe of great fragrancewhich he had taken from his pocket. 

"I would not possess happiness even though I had this nice supper, ifI was alone in this great forest, Your Excellency; I would have fear, "I answered him with a small laugh as I took my corduroy knees into myembrace and looked off into that distant valley below us which wasbeginning to glow with stars of home lights. 

"Didn't I tell you once that you don't count, that you are justmyself, youngster? You ought not to know I am here. I don't know youexist except as a form of pleasure of which I do not ask the reason, "was the answer that my Gouverneur Faulkner made to me. 

"I excuse myself away with humbleness for impertinence, YourExcellency, " I returned to him. 

"If you tried, do you think you could call me Bill, just for to-night, boy?" was the answer he made to my excuses as he puffed a beautifulring of smoke at me. 

"I could not, " I answered with an indignation. 

"I heard you call Sue Tomlinson 'Sue' the first night you danced withher. "

"But that Mademoiselle Sue is a woman, my Gouverneur Faulkner, " Ianswered with haste. 

"That's the reason that women get at us to do us, youngster; we don'tapproach them as human to human but we go up on their blind side andthey come back at us in the dark with a knife. " And as he spoke all ofthe gayness of joy was lost from the voice of my beloved Gouverneurand in its place was a bitterness. 

"With pardon I say that it is not a truth of all women, YourExcellency, " I answered with pride as my head went up high at hiscondemnation of the sex of which I was one. 

"You don't know what you are talking about, youngster. They all thinkI am cold and pass me along, except a few experienced ladieswho--shall I say?--adventure for graft with me. I've been too busyreally to love or let love but I know 'em and you don't. Let's stoptalking about what concerns neither of us and go to bed. See thisyoung cedar tree? I'm going to throw my blanket across it and withthese extra boughs I'll make a genuine cradle for each of us on theopposite sides of the trunk. Then we'll cover with your blanket and beas comfortable as two middies in their hammocks in a man of war. Thisis a piece of woodcraft of my own invention and I'm proud of it, oldscout. "

And while he talked my Gouverneur Faulkner had prepared those cradlesof our blankets unstrapped from the saddles of the horses at feedingtime, seated himself upon the edge of one of them and began to pullfrom his feet his riding boots. "Take off your boots and your coat, youngster, and turn in. I'll take the windward side and you canbivouac against the fire. Good night!" As he finished speaking myGouverneur Faulkner rolled beneath that blanket upon the outer edgeand left for me the hammock next to the fire, sheltered from a coolwind that had begun to come up from the valley. 

Almost immediately, so that I should not have a fright, I lifted theblanket and crawled into the branches of the fragrant tree. Even as Idid so I perceived a loud breathing of deep sleep from my GouverneurFaulkner; but to me came no repose. 

Awake through the bright night, I lay there in the sweet branches ofthe young tree beside the great Gouverneur of one of the greateststates of America and perceived clearly the pass to which my course oflies and dishonor had led me. And from that wild daredevil, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, was born the honest woman Roberta who mustextricate herself from a situation not to be longer endured, even ifdiscovery was not upon me. 

"I will finish this journey with my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, " Icounseled myself, "upon which it is of a certainty that this plot forhis ruin in the world of his politics will be averted, and I willreturn to the home of my Uncle, the General Robert. If I be notdiscovered in my woman's estate in a few days' space of time I willendeavor to do some piece of loving kindness that will keep me in thememory of all who have given me love, from poor black Bonbon up to HisExcellency himself here beside me, and then I will go into thosetrenches of France to give my life for my country, perhaps not as asoldier but as a good nurse of the Red Cross. And never, never, mustany living person who has loved Robert Carruthers know that he is ahuman of dishonor. Nannette will be true to my directions to hide mysecret, and wee Pierre will keep it forever because I go to fight forFrance as he cannot. I will put with great firmness into the mind ofPierre that he is to be of a great devotion to my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, through life. 

"And what will you do for that great Gouverneur Faulkner, from whomeach day you have stolen more and more affection with your falseattitude of much loyalty, to keep from him grief at the loss of you?"I asked myself with a sob in my heart. 

"Forgive me, my beloved chief. When away from you I must die of acoldness, " I said to myself in a very low tone into the moonlight. 

"Cold? Do you want the whole blanket, youngster? Snuggle into yourcradle closer, " suddenly answered me my Gouverneur Faulkner as hereached his long arm across the tree trunk to tuck in the blanketabout me and again he was immediately in the deep sleep from which myspoken words had but partly awakened him. And then at his bidding Idid settle myself down into the fragrant boughs and I wept myself alsointo a deep sleep. 

The round sun was high over that Old Harpeth hill when I opened myeyes. For a moment I did not see clearly and then I looked straightinto the deep eyes of my Gouverneur Faulkner. Which for that firsttime I had been able to see to be the color of violets in thetwilight. He was seated beside me smoking the fragrant pipe andlooking down at me with a great wonderment that was mingled with asgreat a tenderness. 

"Boy, " he asked softly, "are you sure God has got that pattern of youput away carefully in France?"

Before I could make answer to him a picture flashed into my mind. Whenstill a child one morning I opened my eyes to find my loved fatherbending over me and in the hollow of his arm he held my mother in herbreakfast gown of lace and ribbons. He spoke:

"Some day, Celeste, a man will bend over her and watch her waken. Godgrant it will be with the love--that produced that beauty. Look atthat love curl!"

And at the recall of that picture of me into my mind, my hands flew tomy face to find that same treacherous curl had descended to my cheekfrom the mop above. With a fury of embarrassment I sprang to my feetfrom under that blanket. 

"I have a great hunger, " I said as I observed a very crisp breakfastto be prepared upon the coals of the fire. "I must have a fragment ofbacon upon the instant. " And I bent over the fire to obtain what I haddemanded for a cover to my confusion. 

"No, you don't, until you've washed that face and those hands thatstill have the supper smudge on them, in the pool down there. I leftthe soap and the dry sleeves and bosom of a flannel shirt for you. Don't you pack towels in a kit in your country?" With which laughinganswer my Gouverneur Faulkner denied unto me an immediate breakfast. 

"You thought him to admire the love curl, while he was remarking thesoil upon your face, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, " I laughed tomyself as I plunged my face into the icy pool. 

After a finish to the breakfast, my Gouverneur Faulkner gave to me theinformation that we must tether the good horses and make the remainderof the journey by walking, which we did for hardly a short hour. 

"The wildcat still is straight up Turkey Gulch and we'll have toscramble for it. It's hid like the nest of an old turkey hen, " he saidto me as we set out upon the mounting of a very steep precipice. 

"What is that word, 'wildcat still'?" I asked as I slid over a greatrock with emerald moss encrusted, and struggled beside my GouverneurFaulkner through a heavy underbrush of leafy greenness. 

"A place where men make whiskey in defiance of the law of theirState, " he answered me as he held aside a long branch of green thatwas pink tipped, so that I might slip thereunder without a scratching. 

"Are you not the law of the State, my Gouverneur Faulkner?" I asked ofhim as I pulled myself by his arm through the thickness. 

"I'm all that, but I'm the son of Old Harpeth and Jim Todd's bloodbrother first. Some day I'll smoke Jim out of his hole and get him agood job. Now, wait a minute and see what happens, " and as he spoke myGouverneur Faulkner stood very still for a long minute. As I sat athis side upon the fallen trunk of a large tree I regarded him withadmiration, because he had the aspect of some beautiful, lithe animalof the woods as he listened with a deep attention. Then very quicklyhe put his two long fingers to his mouth, and behold the call of awild bird came from between his lips. Twice it was repeated and thenhe stood again in deep attention. I made not even a little breathingas I too listened. 

Then came three clear notes of that same wild bird in reply from notvery far up the mountain from us. 

"That's Jim, the old turkey; come on!" said my Gouverneur Faulkner ashe again began to break through the leafy barriers of the low trees. 

And in a very short space of time a man emerged from a little paththat led behind a tall cliff of the gray rocks. He was a very largeand a very fierce man and I might have had a fright of him if his blueeyes had not held such a kindness and joy in them at the sight of myGouverneur Faulkner. 

"Howdy, Bill, " he said with no handshake or other form of a comrade'sgreeting. 

"Howdy, Jim, " returned my Gouverneur Faulkner in a manner of the sameindifference but with also an expression in his face of delight at thesight of his blood brother, that Mr. Jim Todd. 

"That thar boy a shet-mouth?"

"He's Bob, and as hard as a nut, " was the introduction I had from myGouverneur Faulkner. 

"Then come on, " with which command that wild man led us around thetall cliff of gray rock, over which climbed a sweet vine of rosyblossoming, which I now know to call a laurel, and we arrived in frontof a small and low hut that was built against the rocks. A clear, small stream made a very noisy way past the door of the hut, but savefor its clamor all was silent. 

"Where are the boys?" asked my Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"Hid in the bushes. I've got the man tied back in the still room. I'low he ain't no revenue but they 'low different. Come back and see ifyou kin make out his gibberish. "

"Come on, Robert, " said my Gouverneur Faulkner to me as he followedthe wild Jim into the hut and back into a room that was as a cave cutinto the rock. And I, Robert Carruthers, followed him--to my death. 

Seated upon a rude bench in that cave room, bound with a rope of greatsize, disheveled and soiled, but with all of the nobility of his greatestate in his grave face, was my adored friend, Capitaine, the Countde Lasselles! As we entered he rose beside the bench and in thatrising displayed a chain by which one of his feet was made fast to therock of the wall. 

"Good morning, sir, " said my Gouverneur Faulkner, as if greeting agentleman upon the street of that city of Hayesville. 

"Also a good morning, sir, " made reply my poor Capitaine, the Count deLasselles. And he stood with a fine and great courtesy waiting for myGouverneur Faulkner to state to him what his visit could portend, aswould he have done in his regimental room at Tour. 

And as he stood, for that very long minute, there expired the lastmoments of the life of Robert Carruthers. A stream of light fell fromthe little window high in the rock upon his luckless head as he stoodas if frozen into a statue of great fear. And as he so stood, the eyesof the Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, fell upon him and he startedforward as far as the length of the chain by which he was bound wouldallow him and from there held out his hand to the frozen boy standingin the stream of light from high heaven. 

"My most beautiful lady Roberta, do I find that it is you who havecome to my rescue?" he questioned. "I lost you, _mon enfant_, inthat great New York. "

"My beloved Capitaine, how is it that I find you thus?" I exclaimed asI went to within his reach and allowed that he take my two hands inhis poor shackled ones and put warm kisses of greeting upon them. 

And it was while I was shedding tears of pity for the imprisonment ofthat great man of France in that mountain hut in America, as he kissedmy hands, that I raised my eyes to encounter a cold lightning as of aflash on steel, from under the black brows of my Gouverneur Faulknerof the State of Harpeth, that again froze the blood in my heart. 

"You?" he asked of me in a voice that was of the same coldness andsharpness as that steel, and his beautiful mouth was set into onestraight line as he flung into my face that one word. 

CHAPTER XIX

ALL IS LOST

And to that word of challenge I made no answer, but I raised my headand looked into his eyes with a dignity that came to me as my rightfrom suffering. So regarding each other, we stood for a very shortminute in which the Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, raised his headfrom his kisses of salutation upon my hands. 

"And, _mon enfant_, is this the good Uncle to whose care you cameinto America?" asked that Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, as hereached out his imprisoned hands for a greeting to my relative. 

I did not make any answer to that question. My head raised itself yethigher, and I looked my Gouverneur Faulkner again full in the facewhile I waited to hear what he would answer of my kinship to him. 

"Sir, I am the friend of General Carruthers and I am also the Governorof the State of Harpeth. I have come across the mountains to talk withyou about the business of this contract for mules for your army and Ihave brought your young friend to assist me if I should needtranslating from or to you. We Americans, Captain, are poor handlersof any language not our own, and the matter is of much gravity. " Andas the Gouverneur Faulkner spoke those words to my Capitaine, theCount de Lasselles, with a great courtesy but also a great sternness, in which he named me not as his friend but as the friend of thatCapitaine, the Count de Lasselles, I knew that I was placed by himamong all women liars of the world and that to him his boy Robert ofhonor was of a truth dead forever. 

"It is indeed of such a gravity that I have come from the EnglishCanada to make all clear to myself, " answered my beloved Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, as he drew himself to his entire height, whichwas well-nigh as great as that of the Gouverneur of the State ofHarpeth. 

"And I have ridden a day and a night, sir, for the same purpose, "answered my great Gouverneur Faulkner with that beautiful courtesy ofbusiness I have always observed him to use in the transaction of hisaffairs in his office at the Capitol of the State of Harpeth. "And asone of us must make a beginning, will you not tell me, Captain, whyyou are here and in this predicament?"

"In a few words I will make all clear to you, Your Excellency, " madeanswer my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, with an air of courtesyequal to that of the Gouverneur Faulkner. "I sent down into your Stateof Harpeth one of my Commission, to whom I gave the direction thatwith a lack of annoying publicity he should investigate thepreparedness of the State of Harpeth to deliver those five thousand ofmules to the Republique of France as was being proposed. Behold, areport that all is well comes to me, but--ah, it is with sorrow andshame that such a thing could be done by a son of poor France whostruggles for life!--among the sheets of that report was left bymistake the fragments of a draft of a letter to an American woman, which made a partial disclosure of an intended falseness of thatstatement to me. Immediately I came alone to interview that falseofficer and I find him gone from that small town not far from hereinto your Capital. I was seeking to rapidly ride alone by directionsinto your Capital city to prevent that he make a signature, which Ihad given to him the authority to write, to those papers of so greatan importance. I was thus arrested by that man of great wildness, whose _patois_ I could not understand as he could not comprehendthe English I make use of, and you see me thus. I beg of you to tellme if that wicked signature has been made. "

"The papers have not been signed, thank God, Captain, and your veryimpatient lieutenant is being shown some Southern hospitality by theflower and chivalry of Old Harpeth. And I beg your pardon for allowingyou to be a prisoner a minute longer than necessary, " was the answermade to him by my Gouverneur Faulkner. "Untie the Captain, Jim; he'sall right. And you can bring us a little of your mountain dew while Iclear this table here to use for the papers of our business. " Andstill my Gouverneur Faulkner did not speak or look at me and in myheart I then knew that he never would. 

"I will make all ready, " I said as I lifted a large gun, a horn of abeast full of powder and several pipes with tobacco, from the table ofrough boards that stood under the window for light. 

"Ah, that is a good release! Thank you that you did not make tightenough for abrasions your cords, my good man, " said my Capitaine, theCount de Lasselles, as he stretched out his arms and then bent to makea rubbing of his ankle upon which had been the chain. 

"I said you warn't no revenue. Here, drink, stranger!" answered thewild Jim as he handed a bottle of white liquid to my Capitaine, theCount de Lasselles, and also another to my Gouverneur Faulkner. "Thatboy can suck the drippings, " he added as he looked at me with humor. 

"Get cups and water, Jim, " commanded my Gouverneur Faulkner with asmile. "Don't drink it straight, Captain. It will knock you down. "

"I will procure the cups and the water, " I said with rapidity, for Ilonged to leave that room for a few moments in which to shake from myeyes some of the tears that were making a mist before them. 

"Git a fresh bucket from the spring up the gulch, Bob, while I go beatthe boys outen the bushes with the news that they ain't no revenue. They'll want to see Bill, " was the direction that wild Jim gave to meas he placed in my hand a rude bucket and pointed up the side of thehill of great steepness. After so doing he descended around the rockby the path which we had ascended. 

"What is it that you shall do now, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?"I wept a question to myself as I dipped that bucket into a clear pooland made ready to return to the hut. "All is lost to you. 

"I do not know, " I answered to myself. 

And when I had made a safe return to the hut with a small portion ofthe water only remaining in the bucket, for the cause of many slidesin the steep descent from the pool, I found my Gouverneur Faulkner andmy Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, engaged deeply in a mass ofpapers on the table between them and with no thanks to Roberta, theMarquise of Grez and Bye, when she served to them tin cups of thewater and a liquid that I had ascertained by tasting to be of fire. Ibelieve it to be thus that in affairs of business, in the minds of menall women are become drowned. 

"Will you write this out for His Excellency, my dear Mademoiselle?"would request my good Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. 

"Thank you, " would be the reply I received from the GouverneurFaulkner of the State of Harpeth, with never one small look into myeyes that so besought his. 

And for all of the hours of that very long afternoon I sat on a lowstool beside the feet of those two great gentlemen and served them intheir communications while the heart in my breast was going into deathby a slow, cruel torture. 

The exact meaning of those papers and words of business I did notknow, but once I observed my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, throwdown his pencil and look into the face of the Gouverneur Faulkner witha great and stern astonishment. 

"The work of grafters, Captain Lasselles, with a woman as a tool. ButI yet don't see just how it was that she worked it. My Secretary ofState, General Carruthers, and I have been at work for weeks and wecould not catch the exact fraud, " made answer my Gouverneur Faulknerwith a cold sternness. 

"I was warned in Paris that beautiful American women were very muchinterested in the placing of war contracts, Monsieur le Gouverneur. Ifled upon a tug boat from the ship that I escape some for whom I hadletters of introduction which I could not ignore. "

"It was your Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, whom that MadamWhitworth sought upon the ship, Roberta, " I said to myself. 

"I think women are alike the world over, Captain, and the discussionof them and their mental and moral processes is--fruitless, " answeredmy Gouverneur Faulkner as he again took up his pencil. 

"When it happened to me to find the fragment of the letter to the ladyof America from my false lieutenant, I had a deep distress thattenderness for the sufferings of poor France should fail to be in evenone American woman's heart. And now I am in deep concern. Where am Ito obtain the good strong mules by which to transport through fieldsheavy with mud the food to my poor boys in their trenches?"

"Right here, Captain, I feel reasonably sure. I think I see a way togive you what you want at a better figure; and from it no man shallreap more than a just wage for honest work. As the Governor of theState of Harpeth, I can give you at least that assurance. " And as hespoke my Gouverneur Faulkner looked the Capitaine, the Count deLasselles, in the eyes with a fine honesty that carried with it theutmost of conviction. 

"I give thanks to _le bon Dieu_, " I said with words that werevery soft in my throat, but at which I observed the mouth of thatGouverneur Faulkner to again become as one straight line of coldness. 

"Indeed, thanks to _le bon Dieu_, Mademoiselle, " made courteousanswer to me my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. "But how will youaccomplish that purpose. Monsieur le Gouverneur?"

"As soon as I've done with these figures I'll have in Jim, yourjailer, and then you'll hear some things about the American mountainmule that you never heard before, I believe. " As he spoke, myGouverneur Faulkner proceeded with making figures with his pencil, afine glow of eagerness added to that of rage in his eyes very deepunder their brows. "Now, I'll go and call in Jim, " he said after a fewminutes of waiting, and left the room in which I was then alone withmy Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, who came to me with outstretchedhands. 

"Ah, Mademoiselle Roberta, " he exclaimed, "I am in a debt of gratitudeto you for bringing this great gentleman, your friend, to my rescueand also to the solving of this very strange situation concerningthese contracts. Indeed have you accomplished the mission for whichyou enlisted: your 'Friends for France. ' But before procedure I mustask you, little lady, why it was that you made a vanishment from thathotel of Ritz-Carlton in New York. I sought you. I sought out thatMonsieur Peter Scudder to inquire for you. Behold, he also is insorrow over the loss of you and had for me a strange news of a cup oftea thrown in the face of that Mr. Raines of Saint Louis by a memberof your family who had departed immediately into the south of America. I said to myself, 'The beautiful child does not know that your heartis in anxiety for her, ' and immediately I intended to seek you in thecity, to which the very fine lady, who had reported that 'tea fight'as she so spoke of it to her paper, directed me after my finding ofher. It is a great ease to my unhappy heart to find you in the care ofa family and friends. I make compliments on your costume of the ride. I also observed the custom of attire masculine to be on those plainsof the great West where I sought the wheat. "

"It is a great joy to me, _mon Capitaine_, that you give to meyour approval. Much has happened to me in these short weeks since youleft me in loneliness on that great ship that I must tell to you, " Isaid as a sob rose into my words. 

"Poor little girl, it will not be many hours now before I can say toyou the things that have been growing in my heart for you since thatnight upon the ship, " he said to me in a great tenderness as he raisedmy hand and bent to kiss it just as entered the great GouverneurFaulkner and the wild Jim. 

I had not the courage to gaze upon the face of my Gouverneur Faulkner, but I felt its coldness strike into my body and turn it to hardness. 

For a second I stood as a stone, then a sudden resolve rose in me andagain that daredevil seized upon my thought. I took a piece of thatwhite paper with caution and also a pencil, and with them slipped fromthe room, while that wild Jim seated himself upon my lowly stoolbeside the table at which again the two great men were writing. 

And out in the soft light that was now slowly fading from the side ofthe mountain because of the retirement of the sun, I sat me down uponthe step of the hut and wrote to my Gouverneur Faulkner this smallletter:

 "Honored Excellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner, of the State of Harpeth:

 "I go from you into the trenches of France. If your humble boy Robert has done for you any small service, I beg of you in that name that my Uncle, the General Robert, and my friends never know of my dishonor of lies about my woman's estate, but believe me to die as a soldier for France as will be the case. Make all clear for me to my Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles. It is that all women are not lies. Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. "

Then I left that letter upon the doorstep, held in place by the weightof a stone, and very softly slipped out into the shadows of thetwilight and down the mountain by the path up which that morning I hadcome with my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, then my friend. I felt acertainty that as many as two hours would those men continue in aconsulting with that wild Jim and in that time by going fleetingly Icould gain the place where were tethered the horses, before a completedarkness had come. From my honored father I had learned the ways ofwoods in hunting and also I knew that the good Lightfoot would indarkness carry me in safety to his stall in the barn of Mr. Bud Bell, beside which stood my Cherry. From there I could gain the city ofHayesville in the dead hours of the night and in those same dead hoursdepart to France, after obtaining the money I had left in my desk andwhich I had earned by my labors and would not be in the act ofstealing from the State of Harpeth. Only one night and day would I bealone in the forest and I did not care if a death should overtake me. In my body my heart was dead and why should I desire the life of thatbody?

And as I had planned I then accomplished. I discovered that Lightfootat pasture and I quickly had placed the saddle upon him and had turnedhim down the mountain to choose a safe path for both himself and me. Idid not look upon those cradles of fragrant boughs in which the boyRobert had lain at rest beside his great friend, the GouverneurFaulkner, from whom he had stolen faith and affection. 

"Why did not you also steal his pocketbook as he lay asleep besideyou, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?" I questioned myself withscorn and torture, as good Lightfoot crashed down from that CampHeaven into the dark night. 

And on we rode, the large horse with the woman upon his back, for along night, through fragrant thickets that caught at my ridingbreeches with rose tendril fingers and under thick forests of buddingtrees, through whose branches of tender leaves the wise old starslooked down upon my bitter weeping with nothing of comfort, perhapsbecause they had grown of a hardness of heart from having seen so manytears of women drop in the silence of a lonely night. 

Then came a dawn and a noon and a twilight through which I pushedforward the large horse with great cruelty, only pausing besidestreams to allow that he drink of the water and also to throw myselfdown on my face and lap the cool refreshment like do all humblethings. And, when at last the stars were again there to look down uponme, we arrived behind the barn of that Bud Bell to find all in thelittle house at rest. I thought of that small child in sleep in thearms of that woman, and a great sobbing came from my heart as I threwmyself into my Cherry, after giving a supper to good Lightfoot, andfled down the long road to the distant city of Hayesville that layaway in the valley like a great nest of glowworms in a glade of theleaves of darkness. And among those glowworms I knew that more than ahundred friends to me were beginning to go into sleep with deepaffection in their hearts for that Robert Carruthers whom wickedRoberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, was about to steal from them. Iwept as I turned my Cherry through the back street and into the garageof my Uncle, the General Robert. Then I paused. All was quiet in thehouse and no light burned in the apartments of my beloved protectorand relative. From the watch at my wrist I ascertained the hour to behalf after ten o'clock, and I knew that he was safely in cards at thatClub of Old Hickory, whose lists now bore the added one of anotherRobert Carruthers, man of honor and descendant of its founders. Alsothere was no light in the rear of the house in the apartment of thatkind Kizzie, in whose affections I had made a large place. A dim lightburned in the hall and I knew that there I would find my faithfulchocolate Bonbon sitting upon a chair by the great door in a deepsleep. And in a very few minutes I so found him. 

"It is hello there, good Bonbon, " I greeted him. 

"Howdy, Mr. Robert, " he answered me by a very large smile with verywhite teeth set in his face of extreme blackness. "The Gen'l said tocall him on the 'fome as soon as you come. "

"That I will attend to from my apartment, " I answered him and thenascended the wide dark stairway with feet which were as a weight to myankles. 

Very slowly I entered that apartment and turned on the bright light. All was in readiness for me, and on the small table under the glasscase that contained that beflowered robe of state of the deadGrandmamma Carruthers stood a vase of very fresh and innocent youngroses. 

"I would that I could remain and fulfill the destiny of a woman ofyour house, Madam Grandmamma, " I whispered to her lovely and smilingportrait on the wall opposite. "I am the last of the ladies Carruthersbut I have made a forfeit of that destiny and I must go out in thenight again in man's attire to a death that will tear asunder thetender flesh that you have borne. Good-bye!"

Then I made a commencement of a very rapid packing, in one of thosebags which I had purchased from the kind gentleman in the City of NewYork, of what raiment I knew would be suitable for a man in veryhurried traveling. I put into it the two suits of clothing for wear inthe daytime, but I discarded all of my clothing for the pursuits ofpleasure. The bag was at that moment full and I did not know that itcould be closed. Then I bethought me of that brown coat that had uponit the blood which I had been allowed to shed for my belovedGouverneur Faulkner who was now lost to me. 

"That I will take and discard the night raiment, to sleep 'as is' inthe manner spoken of by my friend, that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit, " Icounseled myself as I laid aside the silken garments that I did solike and placed in their stead the bloody coat of many wrinkles. 

After all of that was accomplished I went into a hot bath and againquickly began to assume my man's clothing, while from my eyes drippedthe slow tears that bleed from the heart of a woman. 

"You must make a great hurry, thief Roberta, for it draws nearmidnight and that is the hour that the train departs to the North, " Icautioned my weeping self. "At that hour you go forth into the worldalone. "

And then what ensued?

Very suddenly I heard the noise of a car being drawn to the curb infront of the house and the rapid steps of a man progress along thepavings of brick to the front door, at which he made a loud ringing. In not a moment was the good Bonbon at my door with a knocking. 

"The Governor is here to see you, Mr. Robert, " he informed me. 

"What shall you do, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?" I asked ofmyself. "How is it that you can be able to support the cold reproacheshe will give to you while requiring that you stay to bring dishonor toyour Uncle, the General Robert? You are caught in a trap as is ananimal. "

And then as I cowered there in my agony, very suddenly that terribledaredevil rose within me and gave to me a very strange counsel. As itwas speaking to me my gaze was fixed upon the robe of state of thebeautiful Grandmamma. 

"Very well, then, that great Gouverneur Faulkner can give hischastisement and lay his commands upon the beautiful and wickedRoberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, in proper person, and not have theprivilege of again addressing his faithful and devoted comrade Robert, who is dead. I, the Marquise Roberta of Grez and Bye, will accord tohim an interview and in the language of this United States it will be'some' interview!" With which resolve I turned to make an answer tothe faithful Bonbon at the door. 

"Where awaits His Excellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner?" I questionedto him. 

"In the hall at the bottom of the steps, " he made reply to me. 

"Attend him into the large drawing room for a waiting and make all ofthe lights to burn. Say to him that I will descend in a very smallspace of time, " I commanded. 

"Yes, sir, " he made reply and departed. 

CHAPTER XX

"YOU ARE--MYSELF!"

And then in my wickedness I began to commit a desecration on thememory of my beautiful and honored Grandmamma Carruthers. I walked tothat glass case in which reposed that gown of the beautiful floweredsilk and took it therefrom and laid it upon a chair above the soiledriding breeches of corduroy I had so lately discarded. I opened thecarved wooden box on the table underneath and took from it the silverslippers and the stockings of silk, also the lace fan and the silverband for the hair. Thereupon I walked to my mirror and commenced tomake a toilet of great care but of a great rapidity. 

My first action was to take down that lovelock and with the oil ofroses to lay it in its accustomed place upon my cheek, which burnedwith a beautiful rose of shame and at the same moment with some otheremotion that I did not understand; which emotion also made my eyes asbright as the night stars out in that Camp Heaven. The silver bandheld closely the rest of my mop and gave it the appearance of the veryclose coiffure which is the fashion of this day, and one very sweetyoung rose I put into it just above the curl with an effect of greatand wicked beauty. 

The coiffure having been accomplished, the rest of the toilet, fromthe slippers of the cloth of silver to the edge of fine old lace, nowthe color of rich cream, that rested upon the arch of my bare whitebreast was only a matter of a few moments, and then I stood away frommy mirror and beheld myself therein. 

"You are as beautiful as you are wicked, Roberta, Marquise of Grez andBye, but you go to your death in a manner befitting a _grandedame_ of your ancient house of France, whose daughters once showedthe rabble how to approach a guillotine, costumed in magnificence. Descend for that cold knife to your heart!" And so speaking, I pickedup my fan and made my way through the hall to the halfway of the widesteps. At that point a commotion occurred. 

"Lordee! It's the old lady come to ha'nt!" exclaimed my good Bonbonand with a groan he fled into the darkness in the back regions of thehouse. 

And it happened that his loud cry brought a response which came to mebefore I was quite in readiness for it. As I reached the last step ofthe wide staircase, under the bright light I raised my eyes, andbehold, the Gouverneur Faulkner to whom I had descended for thepurpose of mortal combat, stood before me!

And was it that cruel and wicked and cold Gouverneur Faulkner who wasto scourge me and keep me in the house of my Uncle, the GeneralRobert, for a dishonor? It was not. Before me stood a tall man who wasof a great paleness and a terrible fatigue also, covered with the dustof a long, hard ride, with eyes that were full of a fear, who stoodand looked at me with not one word of any kind. 

Suddenly I bowed my head and stretched out my bare arms, the one ofwhich bore the red scar from the wound suffered for him, and thussuppliant I waited to receive the reproaches that were due to me. 

And for a long minute I waited and then again for another long periodof time and no word came to me. Then I raised my head!

For all women now in the world who have the love of a man in theirhearts, and for those unborn who will come into that possession, Ipray that they may be given the opportunity to plant in the hearts ofthose men of their desire the seed of a fine loyalty and service andcomradeship, and that they may some day look into his eyes and seethat seed slowly expand into a great white flower of mate love, as Ibeheld bloom for me in the eyes of my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner. Long we stood there and looked into the soul of each other and let theflower grow, drinking from our hearts and the veins of our bodiesuntil at last it was fully open; and then I went with a love cry intohis arms held out to me, and pressed the heart of my soft woman's bodyclose against his own. 

"I think my heart has always known, though my mind's eyes were blind. God, if I had lost you into that hell of war, you daredevil!" hewhispered and I tasted the salt of his tears on my lips. 

"I am a lie, " I whispered back to him. 

"You are--myself, " he laughed through a sob, and then, while with hislarge warm hand he held my throat as a person does the stem of aflower, he pressed his lips into mine until they reached to the heartwithin me. In a moment with my hands I held him back from me. 

"I must go, my beloved, even as I have said, " I cried to him. "Icannot stay to my dishonor and to the rage and unhappiness my Uncle, the General Robert, will experience when he discovers that a girl hascheated him in his great affection and generosity to her. 

"It _is_ going to be hard on the General to have his grandmothercome to life on his hands like this, " laughed my Gouverneur Faulkner, bending and placing upon the creamy lace of my Grandmamma a kiss whichwas warm to my heart through the beflowered silk. 

"Let me die in those trenches so that he will never know, " I pleaded. 

"No, sweetheart, that would be too easy. You are going to stay righthere and face the old Forty-Two Centimeter, " he made a reply to mypleading request as he bent and laid his cheek upon the lovelock. "That curl ought to have opened my eyes when I sat and watched youopen yours day before yesterday morning, " was the remark he added tohis cruel command that I stay and face my very dreadful and so verymuch beloved Uncle, the General Robert. 

"I am afraid, " I answered as I clung to him with a trembling. 

"Yes, I know you are afraid of him--or anything, " laughed my belovedGouverneur Faulkner with a shake of my bare shoulders under his stronghands. "But perhaps these papers I have in my pocket from CaptainLasselles, who is at the Mansion getting rid of dust, will help youout after the first explosion, which you will have to stand in a veryfew minutes from now, if that hall clock is correct and I know theGeneral's habits as I think I do. "

"Oh, let me ascend and get once again into my trousers!" I exclaimedas I sought to leave the arms that again held me close. 

"Never, " said my Gouverneur Faulkner after another kiss upon the laceon my breast. "You'll just wear this ball gown until you can get somedimity, Madam, and don't you ever even mention to me--"

But just here an interruption arrived, and I sprang from the arms ofmy Gouverneur Faulkner only in time to avoid being discovered therein. My beloved Uncle, the General Robert, entered the door in a greathurry, with that much frightened Bonbon following close at his heels. 

"What's all this that fool nigger phoned about ghosts walking and--"Then he stood very still in the spot upon which his feet were placedand regarded me as I turned from the arms of my Gouverneur Faulknerand faced him. 

"My God, Governor, what has happened to my boy?" he asked, and hisfine old face was of a great whiteness and trembling. "Sam says he'sdead and the ghost--" and then came another pause in which all of thepersons present held for a long minute their breath. 

Did I make excuses and explanations and pleadings to my beloved Uncle, the General Robert, in such suffering over the death of that Robert? Idid not. I opened my strong young arms wide and took him into themwith a tenderness of such great force that it would of a necessity gointo his very heart. 

"I am a wicked girl who has come to you in lies as a boy, my UncleRobert, but I have a love that is so great for you that I will be indeath if you do not accept of it from me, " I said as I pressed mycheek in its tears against his. 

And for still another long minute all of the persons present waitedagain and I forced to remain in my throat a sob, while my belovedGouverneur Faulkner laid one of his hands on the shoulder of my Uncle, the General Robert. 

And then did come that explosion!

"You young limb of Satan, you! I could shake the life out of you if Ididn't prefer a live girl to a dead boy. I knew just such a thing asthis would happen to me in my old age for a long life of cussedness. And what's more, I'll wager I'll never be able to give a great huskything like you away. You cost as much to feed as a man. Who'd wantyou?"

But even as he stormed at me I felt his strong old arms cease fromtheir tremblings and clasp me with a very rough tenderness. 

"I do, General, " said my Gouverneur Faulkner as he attempted to takeme from that very rough embrace of my Uncle, the General Robert. "I'lltake her off your hands. "

"No, sir, I never ask personal favors of my friends, " answered myUncle, the General Robert, as he held me away from the arms of theGouverneur Faulkner with a very great determination. 

"General Carruthers, " then said my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner as hedrew his beautiful body to all the height that was possible to him, and looked into the eyes of my beloved Uncle Robert with his own, which are stars of the dawn, so that all of his heart and soul andhonor shone therefrom in a radiance, "the Marquise of Grez and Byewent a three days' journey into the wilds of the Harpeth mountainswith me to rescue my honor and for the welfare of this great State andof France. And because we thought not of ourselves but of the welfareof Harpeth and of France, and did but what was necessary as twocomrades, God has revealed to us his gift of gifts--love. As you see, she is returned to you radiant and unharmed. Have I your consent totry to win her hand in marriage?"

For no more than a long minute my Uncle, the General Robert, gazedstraight into the eyes of my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, and then avery beautiful smile did break from under those white swords crossedabove his lips, as he spoke with a great urgency:

"Would you like to take the baggage along with you to-night, Governor?Don't leave her here. I don't want a woman about my house. I can wakeup the county court clerk for a license, " he said with a finetwinkling of the eye. 

"Oh, but all friends must forgive me my deception; and then must not acourtship of great decorum be made from my Gouverneur Faulkner for thehand of the lady whom he would make his wife?" I asked with anuncertainty as I looked from my Uncle, the General Robert, to myGouverneur Faulkner. 

"I'm sorry, sir, but I think the Marquise is right and under thecircumstances I'll have to make a very public courtship, which out ofconsideration for you I'll make as ardent and rapid as possible. Onlywe three know the wonderful truth and we'll keep it to ourselves. " Andas he spoke that great Gouverneur Faulkner bent and laid a kiss ofgreat ceremony upon the hand of Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye. 

"Very well, sir, I'll keep her for a few days and have her fitted outin a lot of folderols for you, but only for a short period, mind you. A very short period!" answered my Uncle, the General Robert, with asmile that showed much delight in me. I flew to him and gave to him anembrace with my arms and also laid my cheek against his. 

"I am for always your most humble and obedient girl, my Uncle Robert, "I whispered to him. 

"Humble and obedient--no woman would know those words if she met themin her own drawing-room, " he answered to me with a great scorn but healso gave to me a shake that was of a seeming great fierceness, butthat I knew to be a caress. 

And into that caress came also another interruption of great hurry. MyBuzz entered the door with a rapidity and this exclamation:

"What's the trouble, General? I just got your phone and--" Then he toostood in a great and sudden stillness, regarding me as I stood fromthe shelter of the arms of my Uncle, the General Robert, and lookedinto his eyes of great fright. 

"My Buzz, " I said to him softly. 

"Great heavens!" he exclaimed, with terror in his eyes as he backedaway from me. "I haven't had but one glass of draft beer, General. "

"It's all right, Buzz, " answered my very wise Gouverneur Faulkner, ina voice of great soothing. "This is just--just Robert in a--a--"

"Not much Bobby, that, " answered my Buzz as he backed farther towardsthe door. "I think I'll step outside in the cool air. I haven't feltwell all day. I--" and with which remark my good Buzz turned himselfinto the arms of the lovely Mademoiselle Sue entering the door. 

"I'm tired of waiting out there in that car, Buzz, and--" And againcame an awful pause of terror. But is it not that women have a witthat is very much more rapid than is that of men? I think it is so. 

"You know, I thought Bobby was a queer kind of man and he is aperfectly lovely girl, " she said as she came towards me with a laughand her lovely arms outstretched. "I read about two French girls whogot into Germany in German uniforms, just last night in a magazine. You are some kind of a French spy about those dreadful mules, aren'tyou, Bobby dear?" And as she asked that question of me, my lovely Suegave to me a kiss upon my lips that I valued with a great gratitude. 

"Please make it that my Buzz also understands, " I pleaded to herwithin her arms. 

"Brace up, Buzz, and be nice to Bobby, even if he is a girl. Just whendid you begin not to like girls, I'd like to know?" questioned my Sueof him with a great emphasis. 

"You see why it is that I cannot go into that business of timber withyou and be married to--" I made a commencement to say to him. 

"That will do, L'Aiglon, " interrupted my Buzz with a great haste and aglance in the direction of lovely Sue. "Forget it! It is an awfulshame, for you were one nice youngster and--"

"Be a sport, Buzz, and forgive her and--love her again, " said myGouverneur Faulkner with a laugh. "That is, as much as Miss Susanwill--" But at this point my Uncle, the General Robert, caused aninterruption in the conversation. 

"What are you doing here, sir, when I left you to watch the side-stepsof that French popinjay and the Whitworth woman? Did you hear what allthat powwow was about at her tea fight this afternoon?" he demanded offine Buzz, with a great anxiety. "There's been hell to pay, since youleft, Governor, and I think this French scoundrel and Jeff's gang arepreparing to put through some sort of a private steal if you jump thetrack on them. "

"Madam Pat has got 'em all up at the Club, plotting in a corner at thelittle dinner dance we got up when his High-and-Mightiness refused therural expedition, as soon as they heard you were not to go, Governor, "said my Buzz with a great anxiety in his face. "I'd like to seeanybody put out Mrs. Pat's light when she is once lit. "

"It's all right, Buzz, and don't worry. Something has arrived to stopit all. It's up at the Mansion now and is man-sized, " answered mybeloved Gouverneur Faulkner with a great soothing. 

And after that remark there were many very long explanations that madea beginning about the crooked back of the wee Pierre, which, in aletter come to my Uncle, the General Robert, that day, was declared bythat great Doctor Burns to be of a certainty straight within the year, and that ended in the library where my Uncle, the General Robert, andmy Gouverneur Faulkner, with good Buzz, read and read yet again thepapers that my great Capitaine, the Count de Lasselles, had signed foran honest delivery of the many mules to France. I do not know all thatmy beloved Gouverneur Faulkner said to my Uncle, the General Robert, for I remained in the hall with my Sue in a discussion about thetelling without offense of the departure of Robert Carruthers to myBelle and other loved ones. And to us soon returned my Buzz of greatcuriosity. 

"There is no humbleness that I will not perform for their forgiveness, my Buzz and my Sue, " I said to them. "Seek that they grant it to me. "

"Oh, it will be so exciting and up-to-date with its spy and war flavorthat everybody will forgive you. You are a lovely darling and they'llall be glad you are a girl--all the boys especially, " said to me mySue, with a defiance at my Buzz. 

"Sure, Bobbyette, I'll see that you're no wall-flower, " he made answerto her in the person of me, with a return of that defiance. "Come on, Susan, let me take you home. Good night, old top--no, I mean _belleMarquise_" and it was a very funny thing to see that Buzz with agreat awkwardness, bend and kiss my hand at a laugh from my Sue asthey left me. 

It was not for many moments that I stood alone in the hall after thedeparture of my Sue and my Buzz, before there entered my belovedUncle, the General Robert, and also my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, who came to stand, one upon the one side of me and one upon the other. 

"Sure you wouldn't like to take her along with you to-night, Governor?" again asked my Uncle, the General Robert, with a greatfierceness but also a twinkling of the eye. 

"Only as far as your garden for a few minutes, General, " answered myGouverneur Faulkner with that laugh of a boy I had remarked oncebefore up in those mountains of Old Harpeth, and he took my hand inhis as if to lead me through one of the tall windows out into thefragrant night. 

"All right, take her and don't return her until you have to, " remarkedmy Uncle, the General Robert, as he handed me in the direction of myGouverneur Faulkner and immediately took his departure up the stairs. 

And it was under the light of the old moon, in the garden of those_grande dames_ Carruthers, that Roberta, Marquise of Grez andBye, who is the last of their line, walked with the great gentlemanwho was and is her lover. Is it that those beautiful dead Grandmammaseach planted her flowers in her own great happiness so that they wouldgive forth a very tender perfume in which to enfold the wooings oftheir daughters then not come into the world? I think it is so, and Iwas thus enwrapped in their fragrance as I was in the arms of thatgreat Gouverneur Faulkner. 

"Now I am a truth that I do love you, " I made answer to a questionthat was pressed upon my lips. 

"His woman is God's gift of truth to a man, " were the words that wereheard by those listening flowers and Roberta, Marquise of Grez andBye, who from a world at war had come home.