"Was I hurrying? Pardon, but I'm afraid they'll be calling us again."
The pair rose, but stood. "Well, when a kind of government was made of
that part of the State held by the Union, and the military governor
wanted both _grandpere_ and his father to take some public offices, his
father made excuse of his age and of a malady--taken from that
hospital--which soon occasioned him to die."

"I've seen his tomb, in St. Louis cemetery, with its epitaph of barely
two words--'Adieu, Chapdelaine.' Who supplied that? Old friends,
after all?"

"A few old, a few new, and one the governor."

"Did the governor propose the words?"

"No. If I tell you you won't tell? Ovide. But _grandpere_ he took
the office. And so that put him yet more distant from old friends
except just two or three who believed the same as he did."

"And our Royal Street coterie, of course."

"Ah, not those you see now; but their parents, yes. They were
faithful; though sometimes, some of them, sympathizing differently.
Well, and so there was _grandpere_ working to repair a _piece_ of the
State, when at last the war finished and the reconstruction of the
whole State commenced. He and Ovide were both of that State convention
they mobbed in the 'July riot.' Some men were killed in that riot.
_Grandpere_ was wounded, also Ovide. Those were awful times to
_grand'mere_, those years of the reconstruction. _Grandpere_ he--"
The girl glanced backward, then turned again, smiling. The four
chaperons were going indoors without them.

"Yes," Chester said, "your _grandpere_ I can imagine----"

"Well, go ahead; imagine, to me."

"No. No, except just enough to see him with no choice of party
allegiance but between a rabble up to the elbows in robbery and an old
regime red-handed with the rabble's blood."

"Ah, so papa told me, after _grandpere_ was long gone, and me on his
knee asking questions. 'Reconstruction, my dear child--' once he
answered me, ''twas like trying to drive, on the right road, a frantic
horse in a rotten harness, and with the reins under his tail!' Ah, I
wish you could have known him, Mr. Chester--my father!"

"I know his daughter."

"Well, I suppose--I suppose we must go in."

"With the story almost finished?"

"We'll, maybe finish inside--or--some day."

XXIV

T. CHAPDELAINE & SON

The seniors were found at a table for four.

Mme. De l'Isle explained: "But! with only four to sit down there, how
was it possib