in the subjec' of friddom! 'Tis true, only friddom of negro',
yet still--friddom! An', _messieurs et mesdames_, that is now the
precise moment when that whole worl' is _wile_ on that _topique_;
friddom of citizen', friddom of nation', friddom of race', friddom of
the sea'! And there is ferociouz demand for short storie' joint' on
that _topique_, biccause now at the lazt that whole worl' is biccome
furiouzly conscientiouz to get at the bottom of that _topique_; an'
biccause those negro' are the lowez' race, they are there, of co'se, ad
the bottom!"

"M. Beloiseau?" the chair--hostess--said; and Scipion, with languor in
his voice but a burning fervor in his eye, responded:

"I think Mr. Chezter he's speaking with a too great modestie--or else
_dip_-lomacie. Tha'z not good! If _fid_-elitie to art inspire me a
conceitednezz as high"--his upthrown hand quivered at arm's length--"as
the flagpole of Hotel St. Louis dome yonder, tha'z better than a
modestie withoud that. That origin-al manuscrip' we don't want that
ag-ain; we've all read that. But I think Mr. Chezter he's also maybe
got that _riv_-ision in his pocket, an' we ought to hear, now, at ones,
that _riv_-ision!"

Miles. Corinne and Yvonne led the applause, and presently Chester was
reading:

XXVII

THE HOLY CROSS

This is a true story. Only that fact gives me the courage to tell it.
It happened.

It occurred under my own eyes when they were far younger than now, on a
beautiful island in the Caribbean, some twelve hundred miles
southeastward from Florida, the largest of the Virgin group--the island
of the Holy Cross. Its natives called it Aye-Aye. Columbus piously
named it Santa Cruz and bore away a number of its people to Spain as
slaves, to show them what Christians looked like in quantity and how
they behaved to one another and to strangers. You can hear much about
Santa Cruz from anybody in the rum-trade.

It has had many owners. As with the woman in the Sadducee's riddle,
she of many husbands, seven political powers have had this mermaid as
bride. Spain, the English, the Dutch, the Spaniards again, the French,
the Knights of Malta, the French again, who sold her to the Guiana
Company, who in 1734 passed her over to the Danes, from whom the
English captured her in 1807 but restored her again at the close of
Napoleon's wars. Thus, at last, Denmark prevailed as the ruling power;
but English remained the speech of the people. The islan