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to have sought out only that graceful structure for its blessing. And then there was a dull rumble. It was the first omnibus,--the first throb in the great artery of the reviving city. I looked up. The church was again in shadow. WITH THE ENTREES "Once, when I was a pirate--!" The speaker was an elderly gentleman in correct evening dress, the room a tasteful one, the company of infinite respectability, the locality at once fashionable and exclusive, the occasion an unexceptionable dinner. To this should be added that the speaker was also the host. With these conditions self-evident, all that good breeding could do was to receive the statement with a vague smile that might pass for good-humored incredulity or courteous acceptation of a simple fact. Indeed, I think we all rather tried to convey the impression that our host, when he WAS a pirate,--if he ever really was one,--was all that a self-respecting pirate should be, and never violated the canons of good society. This idea was, to some extent, crystallized by the youngest Miss Jones in the exclamation, "Oh, how nice!" "It was, of course, many years ago, when I was quite a lad." We all murmured "Certainly," as if piracy were a natural expression of the exuberance of youth. "I ought, perhaps, explain the circumstances that led me into this way of life." Here Legrande, a courteous attache of the Patagonian legation, interposed in French and an excess of politeness, "that it was not of a necessity," a statement to which his English neighbor hurriedly responded, "Oui, oui." "There ess a boke," he continued, in a well-bred, rapid whisper, "from Captain Canot,--a Frenchman,--most eenteresting--he was--oh, a fine man of education--and what you call a 'slavair,'" but here he was quietly nudged into respectful silence. "I ran away from home," continued our host. He paused, and then added, appealingly, to the two distinguished foreigners present: "I do not know if I can make you understand that this is a peculiarly American predilection. The exodus of the younger males of an American family against the parents' wishes does not, with us, necessarily carry any obloquy with it. To the average American the prospect of fortune and a better condition lies OUTSIDE of his home; with you the home means the estate, the succession of honors or titles, the surety that the conditions of life shall all be kept intact. With us the children who do not expe
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