es, and straggling yellow whiskers on
his chin. I thought to question him about the city.

"Well, friend, how goes the world in Paris?"

"Much the same as ever, yet your Paris is new to me."

"Indeed? You are not of the city; of what place, then?"

"Of Languedoc, in the south, where the skies are bluer and the wind
does not cut you through as it does in this damp Paris of yours."

"Yes, I thought you of Languedoc, from your speech. So the climate is
with us in our parts beyond the seas. Beneath our southern sun ice is
a thing almost unknown, and the snow never comes."

"And where do you live, my lord?" his eyes wide open and shallow.

I felt somewhat flattered at his artless recognition of the difference
In our stations.

"In Biloxi; the Southern Provinces, Louisiana," I explained, "whereof
Bienville is governor."

Afterward I thought I could remember a knowing twinkle in the fellow's
eye, which passed unnoticed at the moment.

"Ah, I hear much of the colonies; it must be a goodly land to dwell in,
but for the savages and the cannibals."

I laughed outright.

"Verily, friend, we have no cannibals worse than the barbarous
Spaniards who wait but the chance to slaughter our garrison," and
before I was aware, I had told him of my voyage from Biloxi, and of
going to Versailles, stopping short only of giving the purpose of my
visit to Paris. I was sore ashamed of the indiscretion. When I looked
I found him laughing silently to himself, laughing at me.

"Then you are Captain de Mouret?" he asked with purest Parisian
intonation, and the courtesy of a gentleman.

"How do you know?" I attempted to be stern, but somehow my effort fell
flat. "How do you know?"

"Well, I've been expecting you," and he brushed his hand across his
chin, wiping the yellow whiskers away before my astonished eyes.

"I am Jerome de Greville. Claude told me of your coming, but I wished
to make sure. We have examined your baggage," he went on frankly,
unmindful of my ill-concealed disapproval, "but found nothing in the
way of identification. You see," he apologized, "these things are
necessary here, in affairs of this nature, if a fellow would preserve
the proper connection between his head and his body."

He rolled up his whiskers, laid aside a yellow wig, and I could see he
was as Serigny had described. He was not as tall as I, but strongly
built, and some two good years my senior.

"Captain, if you will allow me I will t