n (as the most
considerable junior present) explained to him it was intended for a
public building, a kind of prefecture.

"_He! quoi?_" cried he, relapsing into French. "_Qu'est-ce que vous me
chantez la?_ O, in America," he added, on further information being
hastily furnished. "That is anozer sing. O, very good--very good."

The idea of the required certificate had to be introduced to his mind in
the light of a pleasantry--the fancy of a nabob little more advanced
than the Red Indians of "Fennimore Cooperr"; and it took all our talents
combined to conceive a form of words that would be acceptable on both
sides. One was found, however: Corporal John engrossed it in his
undecipherable hand, the master lent it the sanction of his name and
flourish, I slipped it into an envelope along with one of the two
letters I had already prepared in my pocket, and as the rest of us moved
off along the boulevard to breakfast, Pinkerton was detached in a cab
and duly committed it to the post.

The breakfast was ordered at Lavenue's, where no one need be ashamed to
entertain even the master; the table was laid in the garden; I had
chosen the bill of fare myself; on the wine question we held a council
of war, with the most fortunate results; and the talk, as soon as the
master laid aside his painful English, became fast and furious. There
were a few interruptions, indeed, in the way of toasts. The master's
health had to be drunk, and he responded in a little well-turned speech,
full of neat allusions to my future and to the United States; my health
followed; and then my father's must not only be proposed and drunk, but
a full report must be despatched to him at once by cablegram--an
extravagance which was almost the means of the master's dissolution.
Choosing Corporal John to be his confidant (on the ground, I presume,
that he was already too good an artist to be any longer an American
except in name) he summed up his amazement in one oft-repeated
formula--"_C'est barbare!_" Apart from these genial formalities, we
talked, talked of art, and talked of it as only artists can. Here in the
South Seas we talk schooners most of the time; in the Quarter we talked
art with the like unflagging interest, and perhaps as much result.

Before very long the master went away; Corporal John (who was already a
sort of young master) followed on his heels; and the rank and file were
naturally relieved by their departure. We were now among equals; the