La bonne aventure, oh gai! n'est-ce pas, mon pere?_"

There was no resisting his eager gaiety. And when he quoted the nursery
song that my mother used to sing, my stubborn resentment--at what? who
can say?--broke and melted away, and I was smiling back into the bright,
merry eyes. Once more he held out his hand, and this time I took it
gladly. Father L'Homme-Dieu looked on in delight; it was a good moment.

After that the talk flowed freely. I found that the young marquis,
having come on a pleasure tour to the United States, had travelled thus
far out of the general route to look up the graves of some of his
mother's people, who had come out with Baron Castine, but had left him,
as my ancestor had done, on account of his marriage with the Indian
princess. They were the Belleforts of Blanque.

"Bellefort!" I cried. "That name is on several stones in our old
burying-ground. The Belforts of our village are their descendants,
Father L'Homme-Dieu."

"Not Ham?" cried the father, bursting into a great laugh. "Not Ham
Belfort, Jacques?"

I laughed back, nodding. "Just Ham, father!"

I never saw Father L'Homme-Dieu so amused. He struck his hands together,
and leaned back in his chair, repeating over and over, "Ham Belfort!
Cousin of the Marquis de Ste. Valerie! Ham Belfort! Is it possible?"

The young nobleman looked from one to the other of us curiously.

"But what?" he asked. "Ham! _c'est-a-dire, jambon, n'est-ce pas?_"

"It is also a Biblical name, marquis!" said Father L'Homme-Dieu. "I must
ask who taught you your catechism!"

"True! true!" said the marquis, slightly confused. "_Sem, Ham, et
Japhet_, perfectly! and--I have a cousin, it appears, named Jam--I
should say, Ham? Will you lead me to him, M. D'Arthenay, that I embrace
him?"

"You shall see him!" I said. "I don't think Ham is used to being
embraced, but I will leave that to you. I will take you to see him, and
to see the graves in the burying-ground, whenever you say."

"But now, at the present time, this instant!" cried Ste. Valerie,
springing from his chair. "Here is Father L'Homme-Dieu dying of me, in
despair at his morning broken up, his studies destroyed by chatter. Take
me with you, D'Arthenay, and show me all things; Ham, also his brothers,
and Noe and the Ark, if they find themselves also here. Amazing country!
astonishing people!"

So off we went together, he promising Mrs. Sparrow to return in time for
dinner, and informing her that she was