r's eagerness. Perhaps she
might discover in him her own especial demon of self-introspection.

"N-o," he replied, "I reckon we went mostly for the fun of the thing."

"Fi donc!" she cried. "But wait till you are old. Oh yes, we have them
too, those blessed, over-petted veterans of the Grande Armee. They are
in the Hotel des Invalides, with medals to diagnose their glory. Oh, la,
la, but there's a pleasant fashion! The people, the politicians, they
forget the hot blood that fought simply because there were pretty blows
to strike. They see only the gray hairs. 'Honneur aux patriotes!' You
wait, monsieur. You, too, will be made into the hero, ex post facto, and
you will believe it yourself. Yes, with the wolves, one learns to howl."

"N-o," said the young Confederate, "we--we got licked."

They talked--he rather--of Missouri. He was not reluctant to have
stirred the memories of his home, not with one who could listen as she
did. In his heart settled a warmth that was good, and the glow of it
shone on his face. He became aware that the gray eyes were upon him,
taking conscious note of his hair, his mouth, his chin, as though she
were really seeing him for the first time. What made a girl do that way?
He felt queerly, it being thus brought to him that he had awakened
interest in a woman, but the tribute she paid him was ennobling, and a
deep thankfulness, though to whom or for what he had not the least idea,
made more kindly and good the cheery warmth around his heart. The gray
eyes had never sparkled on him in coquetry as they sometimes did on
other men, and now they were grave and sweet. It was a phase of
Jacqueline that only her maid had known.

The marquise gathered that Missour-_i_, as she called it, was an
exceedingly strange and fascinating region. She learned that it was a
state, like a department in France, like her own Bourbonnais for
instance. But there the comparison ended. The rest was all startling
versatility. For the inhabitants had not only taken both sides during
the Civil War, but through their governor had proclaimed themselves an
independent republic into the bargain. They must be unusual citizens,
those Missourians.

But they were strangest because they did not seem to be actors. They did
not refine living into a cult, with every pleasure and pain classified
and weighed out and valued. No, they actually lived. It was hard to
realize this, but in the end she did, and with ever increasing wonder,
w