ritish flag will be floating over this
town within ninety days!" and he went on whittling the back of
his chair.

From this main question, the conversation branched out to the subject of
land titles. Would that great majority of Spanish titles, derived from
the concessions of post-commandants and others of minor authority,
hold good?

"I suppose you know what ---- thinks about it?"

"No."

"Well, he has quietly purchased the grant made by Carondelet to the
Marquis of ----, thirty thousand acres, and now says the grant is two
hundred _and_ thirty thousand. That is one style of men Governor
Claiborne is going to have on his hands. The town will presently be as
full of them as my pocket is of tobacco crumbs,--every one of them with
a Spanish grant as long as Clark's ropewalk and made up since the rumor
of the Cession."

"I hear that some of Honore Grandissime's titles are likely to turn out
bad,--some of the old Brahmin properties and some of the
Mandarin lands."

"Fudge!" said Dr. Keene.

There was also the subject of rotation in office. Would this provisional
governor-general himself be able to stand fast? Had not a man better
temporize a while, and see what Ex-Governor-general Casa Calvo and
Trudeau were going to do? Would not men who sacrificed old prejudices,
braved the popular contumely, and came forward and gave in their
allegiance to the President's appointee, have to take the chances of
losing their official positions at last? Men like Camille Brahmin, for
instance, or Charlie Mandarin: suppose Spain or France should get the
province back, then where would they be?

"One of the things I pity most in this vain world," drawled Doctor
Keene, "is a hive of patriots who don't know where to swarm."

The apothecary was drawn into the discussion--at least he thought he
was. Inexperience is apt to think that Truth will be knocked down and
murdered unless she comes to the rescue. Somehow, Frowenfeld's really
excellent arguments seemed to give out more heat than light. They were
merciless; their principles were not only lofty to dizziness, but
precipitous, and their heights unoccupied, and--to the common
sight--unattainable. In consequence, they provoked hostility and even
resentment. With the kindest, the most honest, and even the most modest,
intentions, he found himself--to his bewilderment and surprise--sniffed
at by the ungenerous, frowned upon by the impatient, and smiled down by
the good-natured in a mann