"Oh, ferocious! And there they met also people of the most--dignity."

"Above the average of the other hotels?"

"Well, not so--so brisk."

"Not so American?"

"Ah, you know. Well, maybe that's one reason the St. Charles, for
example, continued, while the Royal did not. Anyhow the
Royal--grandpere had the life habit of it and 'twas just across the
street. Daily they ate there; a real economy."

"But they kept the old home."

"Yes. 'Twas furnished the same but not 'run' the same. 'Twas very
difficult to keep it, even with all three stories of the servants' wing
shut up, you know?--like"--a glance indicated the De l'Isles.

"But you say Hotel Royal was soon closed."

"Yes, and then, in the worst of those days, it became the capitol.
There, in the most elegant hotel for the most elegant planters of the
South--anyhow Southwest--sat their slaves, with white men even more
abhorred, and made the laws. In that old dome, second story, they put
a floor across, and there sat the Senate! Just over that auction-block
where grandpere had bought Mingo."

"Where was he--Mingo?"

"Dead--of drink. Grandpere was in that government! Long time he was
senator. Mr. Chester, _for that_ papa was proud of him, and I am
proud."

The listener was proud of her pride. "I know," he said, "from my own
people, that in such an attitude--as your grandfather's--there was
honor a plenty for any honorable man. Ovide tells me the negroes never
wanted negro supremacy. I wonder if that's so. They were often, he
says, madly foolish and corrupt; yet their fundamental lawmaking was
mostly good. I know the State's constitution was; it was ahead of the
times."

Aline made a quick gesture: "And any of the old masters who agreed to
that could help lead!"

"Mademoiselle, how could they agree to it? Some did, I know, but
that's the wonder. Those that could not--who can blame them?"

"Ah! 'tis no longer a question of blame but of judgment. So papa used
to say. Anyhow grandpere agreed, accepted, led; until at the last, one
day, that White League--you've heard of them, how they armed and
drilled and rose against that reconstruction police in a battle on the
steamboat landing? Grandpere was in that. He commanded part of the
reconstruction forces. And papa was there, though only thirteen.
Grandpere was bayonet-wounded. They carried him away bleeding. Only
at the State-house a surgeon met them, and there, under that dome, just
a