human
Papa was very old for his age, she continued.
gpt
You may see that by his being in the battle with _grandpère_ at thirteen years. And because of that precocity he got much training of the mind--and spirit--from _grandpère_ that usually is got much later. I think that is what my aunts mean when they tell you papa's life was dramatic. It _was_ so, yet not in the manner they mean, the manner of _grandpère's_ life; you understand?
human
You mean it was not melodramatic?
gpt
Ah! the word I wanted! Mr. Chester, when we get over being children, those of us who do, why do we try so hard to live without melodrama?
human
Oh, mademoiselle, you know well enough. You know that's what melodrama does, itself? What is it, in essence, but a struggle to rise out of itself into a higher drama, of the spirit----?
gpt
A divine comedy! Yes. Well, that is what my father's life seems to me.
human
With tragic elements in it, of course?
gpt
Oh! How could it be high comedy without? But except that one battle the tragedy was not--eh--crude, like _grandpère's_; was not physical. Once he said to me: 'There are things in life, in the refined life, very quiet things, that are much more tragic than bloodshed or death or the defying of death.'
human
In the refined life,
gpt
Yes! and he _was_ refined, yet never weak. 'Strength,' he said, 'valor, truth, they are the foundations; better be dead than without them. Yet one can have them, in crude form, and still better be dead. The noble, the humane, the chaste, the beautiful, 'tis with them we build the superstructure, the temple, of life--Mr. Chester, if you knew French I could tell you that better.
human
I doubt it. Go on, please, time's a-flying.
gpt
Well, you see how tragic was that life! Papa saw it and said: 'It shall not be tragic alone. I will build on it a comedy higher, finer, than tragedy. That's what life is for; mine, yours, the world's,' he said to me. Mr. Chester, you can imagine how a daughter would love a father like that, and also how mamma loved him--for years--before they could marry.
human
Your mother was a Creole, I suppose?
gpt
No, mamma was French. After _grand'mère_ had followed _grandpère_--above--papa, looking up some of the once employees of T. Chapdelaine & Son, to raise the old concern back to life, arranged with them that while they should reinstitute it here he would go live in France, close to the producers of the finest goods possible. You see? And he did that many years with a kind of success; but smaller and smaller, because little by little the taste for those refinements was passing, while those department stores and all that kind of thing--you understand--h'm?