human
Landry, I had not the faintest idea that that young lady was nearer than Castanado's shop!
gpt
You seem yourself to forget that you are here by business appointment. And what of it if you have seen her, or she seen you, here--or anywhere?
human
Only this: that I've met her so often by pure--by chance, on that square you speak of, I bound for the court-house, she for I can't divine where--for I've never looked behind me!--that I've had to take another street to show I'm a gentleman. This very morn'--oh!--and now! here! How can I explain--or go unexplained?
gpt
Will you leave that to my wife, so unlearned yet so wise and good? For the young lady's own sake my wife, _without_ explaining, will see that you are not misjudged.
human
Good! Right! Any explanation would simply belie itself. Yes, let her do it! But, Landry----
gpt
Yes?
human
For heaven's sake don't let her make me out a goody-goody. I haven't got this far into life without making moral mistakes, some of them huge. But in this thing--I say it only to you--I'm making none. I'm neither a marrying man, a villain, nor an ass.
gpt
My wife can manage that. Maybe it's good you came here. It may well be that the young lady herself would be glad if some one explained her to you.
human
Hoh! does an angel need an explanation?
gpt
I should say, in Royal Street, yes.
human
Then for mercy's sake give it! right here! you! come! The youth laughed.
gpt
Mercy to me, I mean. But--wait! Tell me; couldn't Castanado have given it, as easily as you?
human
You never gave Castanado this chance.
gpt
How do you know that? Oh, never mind, go ahead--full speed.
human
Well, she's an orphan, of a fine old family----
gpt
Obviously! Creole, of course, the family?
human
Yes, though always small in Louisiana. Creole except one New England grandmother. But for that one she would not have been here just now.
gpt
Humph! that's rather obscure but--go on.
human
Her parents left her without a sou or a relation except two maiden aunts as poor as she.
gpt
Antiques?
human
Yes. She earns their living and her own.
gpt
You don't care to say how?
human
She wouldn't like it. 'Twould be to say where.
gpt
She seems able to dress exquisitely.
human
Mr. Chester, a woman would see with what a small outlay that is done. She has that gift for the needle which a poet has for the pen.
gpt
Ho! that's _charmingly_ antique. But now tell me how having a Yankee grandmother caused her to drop in here just now. Your logic's dim.
human
You are soon to go to Castanado's to see that manuscript story, are you not?
gpt
Oh, is it a story? Have you read it?
human
Yes, I've read it, 'tis short. They wanted my opinion. And 'tis a story, though true.
gpt
A story! Love story? very absorbing?
human
No, it is not of love--except love of liberty. Whether 'twill absorb you or no I cannot say. Me it absorbed because it is the story of some of my race, far from here and in the old days, trying, in the old vain way, to gain their freedom.
gpt
Has--has mademoiselle read it?
human
Certainly. It is her property; hers and her two aunts'. Those two, they bought it lately, of a poor devil--drinking man--for a dollar. They had once known his mother, from the West Indies.
gpt
He wrote it, or his mother?
human
The mother, long ago. 'Tis not too well done. It absorbs mademoiselle also, but that is because 'tis true. When I saw that effect I told her of a story like it, yet different, and also seeming true, in this old magazine. And when I began to tell it she said, 'It _is_ true! My Vermont _grand'mère_ wrote that! It happened to her!'
gpt
How queer! And, Landry, I see the connection. Your magazine being one of a set, you couldn't let her read it anywhere but here.
human
I have to keep my own rules.
gpt
Let me see it. . . . Oh, now, why not? What was the use of either of us explaining if--if----?
human
Now, he said,
gpt
My job requires me, the youth said,
human
It's getting dark. No, don't make a light, it's your closing time and I've a strict engagement. Here's a deposit for this magazine; a fifty. It's all I have--oh, yes, take it, we'll trade back to-morrow. You must keep your own rules and I must read this thing before I touch my bed.
gpt
Even the first few lines absorb you?
human
No, far from it. Look here. Chester read out:
gpt
It may be that the writer preferred to tell it as fiction, and that only something in me told me 'tis true. Something still tells me so.
human
Chester smilingly thought to himself when, the evening's later engagement being gratifyingly fulfilled, he sat down with the story.
gpt
And so you were grand'mère to our Royal Street miracle. And you had a Southern uncle! So had I! though yours was a planter, mine a lawyer, and yours must have been fifty years the older. Well, '_Now, Maud_,' for my absorption!
human
Burn that if you don't want it, had tossed him a fat document indorsed:
gpt
Later the nephew had glanced it over, but, like
human
Maud's story, its first few lines had annoyed his critical sense and he had never read it carefully. The amazing point was that
gpt
and this