wife of the State, on account of the title of Treasurer of
her husband."

"Oh, Mrs. Pat will be satisfied to shine at the elbow of Governor Bill
at the reception and we can trust her to arrange little odd cosy hours
for herself and any of the bunch who pleases her. It's the man end of
it we want to handle."

"Yes, it is that man end you speak of I wish you to perform for me, my
Buzz," I assented eagerly.

"I'll tell you what let's do," exclaimed that Buzz with a very great
light of enthusiasm coming into his countenance. "Let's don't try to
imitate London, Paris or New York in blowing 'em off; let's give them
a taste of the genuine rural thing. Let's take the bunch down to the
Brice stock farm, Glencove, give 'em a barbecue done by old Cato and
let 'em see the horses run. Gee, they have got a string of youngsters
there! It will take two and a half days, for it's fifty miles down
over a mighty poor road, but it's worth it when you get there. The
Brice farm is the heart of the Harpeth Valley. We took that English
Lordkin, who came to visit Governor Bill last year, down to see old
Brice, and it took us ten days to get him to break away."

"That we will do, my fine Mr. Bumble Bee," I answered with gratitude.

"Sure, it's the thing," said my Buzz with conviction. "We pass right
through the grazing land of the State and we can show them the mule in
the making--the right kind of mule. We'd have to do that anyway, for
that is what they are here for."

I feel a certainty that if I should continue to be an American man for
all of the days I may live, to that three score and ten age, I would
never be able to gain in any way even a small portion of what my fine
Mr. Buzz Clendenning calls "hustle." I went at his side for the three
days which intervened between the news of the arrival of that
Lieutenant, Count de Bourdon, and that actual arrival, in what seemed
to me to be the pace of a very fleet horse or even as the flight of a
bird. And as fast as we went from the arrangement of one detail of
entertainment to another, the beautiful Madam Whitworth went with us,
with her eyes of the flower blue very bright with a great excitement.
I was glad that in all matters it was necessary that my fine Buzz also
consult with her and thus I was not exposed to any of her wickedness
alone.

And in my own heart was also a great excitement, for it seemed to me
that I was fighting a great battle for France all alone. All day I
could see th