against the interests or person of any one--"

The landlord was making silent protestations, and his tenant, lost in a
wilderness of indignant emotions, stopped.

"M'sieu'," began the quadroon, but ceased and stood with an expression
of annoyance every moment deepening on his face, until he finally shook
his head slowly, and said with a baffled smile: "Ah can nod
spig Engliss."

"Write it," said Frowenfeld, lifting forward a chair.

The landlord, for the first time in their acquaintance, accepted a
seat, bowing low as he did so, with a demonstration of profound
gratitude that just perceptibly heightened his even dignity. Paper,
quills, and ink were handed down from a shelf and Joseph retired
into the shop.

Honore Grandissime, f.m.c. (these initials could hardly have come into
use until some months later, but the convenience covers the sin of the
slight anachronism), Honore Grandissime, free man of color, entered from
the rear room so silently that Joseph was first made aware of his
presence by feeling him at his elbow. He handed the apothecary--but a
few words in time, lest we misjudge.

* * * * *

The father of the two Honores was that Numa Grandissime--that mere
child--whom the Grand Marquis, to the great chagrin of the De Grapions,
had so early cadetted. The commission seems not to have been thrown
away. While the province was still in first hands, Numa's was a shining
name in the annals of Kerlerec's unsatisfactory Indian wars; and in 1768
(when the colonists, ill-informed, inflammable, and long ill-governed,
resisted the transfer of Louisiana to Spain), at a time of life when
most young men absorb all the political extravagances of their day, he
had stood by the side of law and government, though the popular cry was
a frenzied one for "liberty." Moreover, he had held back his whole
chafing and stamping tribe from a precipice of disaster, and had secured
valuable recognition of their office-holding capacities from that
really good governor and princely Irishman whose one act of summary
vengeance upon a few insurgent office-coveters has branded him in
history as Cruel O'Reilly. But the experience of those days turned Numa
gray, and withal he was not satisfied with their outcome. In the midst
of the struggle he had weakened in one manly resolve--against his will
he married. The lady was a Fusilier, Agricola's sister, a person of rare
intelligence and beauty, whom, from early c