human
Sir, if you please. You are, I think, Mr. Chester, notary public and attorney at law?
gpt
That is my name and trade, sir.
human
Pardon, said his detainer,
gpt
I have only my business card. He tendered it:
human
Marcel Castanado, Masques et Costumes, No. 312, rue Royale, entre Bienville et Conti.
gpt
I diz-ire your advice, he continued,
human
If your matter is not of the law I can make you no charge.
gpt
Pardon, in that case I must seek elsewhere.
human
What kind of advice do you want if not legal?
gpt
Literary.
human
Why, I'm not literary.
gpt
I think yes. You know Ovide Landry? Black man? Secon'-han' books, Chartres Street, just yonder?
human
Yes, very pleasantly, for I love old books.
gpt
Yes, and old buildings, and their histories. I know. You are now going down, as I have just been, to see again the construction of that old dome they are dim-olishing yonder, of the once state-house, previously Hotel St. Louis. I know. Twice a day you pass my shop. I am compelled to see, what Ovide also has told me, that, like me and my wife, you have a passion for the _poétique_ and the _pittoresque_!
human
Yes, Chester laughed,
gpt
This writing is done, since fifty years.
human
I've never passed literary judgment on a written page and don't suppose I ever shall.
gpt
The judgment is passed. The value of the article is pronounced great--by an expert amateur.
human
SHE? the youth silently asked himself. He spoke:
gpt
Why, then what advice do you still want--how to find a publisher?
human
No, any publisher will jump at that. But how to so nig-otiate that he shall not be the lion and we the lamb!
gpt
Why, if that's the point--
human
If that's the advice you want, he resumed,
gpt
I think we might construe it as legal, though worth at the most a mere notarial fee.
human
And contingent on--?
gpt
Contingent, yes, on the author's success.
human
Sir! I am not the author of a manuscript fifty years old!
gpt
Well, then, on the holder's success. You can agree to that, can't you?
human
Whenever you choose to leave it with me.
gpt
Sir, I cannot permit that to pass from my hand.
human
Oh! then have a copy typed for me.
gpt
That would be expensive. Then to Chester:
human
Sir, I will tell you; to-night come at our parlor, over the shop. I will read you that!
gpt
Shall we be alone?
human
Only excepting my --a tender brightness--
gpt
Then a shade of regret:
human
We are without children, me and my wife.
gpt
? Though to Chester New Orleans was still new, and though fat law-books and a slim purse kept him much to himself, he was aware that, while some Creoles grew rich, many of them, women, once rich, were being driven even to stand behind counters. Yet no such plight could he imagine of that bewildering young--young luminary who, this second time, so out of time, had gleamed on him from mystery's cloud. His earlier hope came a third time:
human
Excepting only your wife, you say? Why not also your amateur expert?
gpt
I am sorry, but --the Latin shrug--
human
Have I ever seen your wife? She's not a tallish, slender young-----?
gpt
No, my wife is neither. She's never in the street or shop. She has no longer the cap-acity. She's become so extraordinarily _un_-slender that the only way she can come down-stair' is backward. You'll see. Well, --he waved--
human
Oh! is _she_ hard up? the owner?
gpt
The owners are three, Castanado calmly said,