s
la surface,--les Orleanistes les Bonapartistes_; don' we say so? _Mais,
il n'y en a pas, ici_,--you know, we ain' got none here; don' we say
so? We ain' got no _factionnaires_ here! _Mais non!_" Then, lowering his
voice to a hoarse whisper: "_Votre bonne republique,_" he said,--"_c'est
une republique du theatre!_"

He had hardly closed the door behind him, when he opened it again, and
put in his head, and with his hard, mocking laugh, demanded, "_Qu'est-ce
que c'est qu'un 'Boss'?_" And as he walked down the hall, I could still
hear his scornful laughter.

He never came to see me again. I sometimes heard of him through Carron,
who had succeeded to Fidele's position and had elevated a considerable
part of his following: for several weeks they were employed at three
dollars a day in the navy-yard, where, to their utter mystification,
they moved, with a certain planetary regularity, ship-timber from the
west to the east side of the yard, and then back from the east side to
the west. You remember reading about this in the published accounts of
our late congressional contest.

Though Sorel never visited me again, I occasionally saw him: once near
the evening-school, when I went as a guest; once in the long market;
once in the post-office; and once he touched me on the shoulder, as
I was leaning over the street railing, by the dock, looking down at a
Swedish bark. Each time he had but one thing to say; and having said it,
he would break into his harsh, ironical laugh, and pass along:--

"_Qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un 'Boss'?_"

And Fidele?

Still, if you will go to Madeira Place at sunset, you may see the cap
and blouse come slowly in. Still the old sergeant sits at the head of
the table. But his ideal is gone; his idol has clay feet. No longer does
he describe to new-comers from France the receipt of his pension. All
the old fond pride in it is gone, and he takes the money now as dollars
and cents.

In the conversation, however, around the table the great government at
Washington is by no means forgotten. Sometimes Sorel tells his guests
about the Boss.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Madeira Place, by Heman White Chaplin

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