ll,' she said, 'mamma says he has been angry with his
son for fifteen years.' 'But what did his son do?' I said. 'Nothing,'
said she. '_Ma foi_,' I said, 'me, I too would be angry if my son had
done nothing for fifteen years'--ho, ho, ho!"

"It is not true," said the General.

The old General cleared his throat, and smiled as by compulsion.

"You know, General," said Madame, looking distressed, "it was nothing to
joke about, but I had to say so, because I did not know what your son
had done, nor did I wish to hear any thing against one who has the honor
to call you his father."

She paused a moment to let the flattery take effect, and then proceeded:

"But then another lady said to me; she said, 'For shame, Clarisse, to
laugh at good Dr. Mossy; nobody--neither General Villivicencio, neither
any other, has a right to be angry against that noble, gentle, kind,
brave'"--

"Brave!" said the General, with a touch of irony. "So she said,"
answered Madame Delicieuse, "and I asked her, 'how brave?' 'Brave?' she
said, 'why, braver than _any soldier_, in tending the small-pox, the
cholera, the fevers, and all those horrible things. Me, I saw his father
once run from a snake; I think _he_ wouldn't fight the small-pox--my
faith!' she said, 'they say that Dr. Mossy does all that and never wears
a scapula!--and does it nine hundred and ninety-nine times in a thousand
for nothing! _Is_ that brave, Madame Delicieuse, or is it not?'--And,
General,--what could I say?"

Madame dropped her palms on either side of her spreading robes and
waited pleadingly for an answer. There was no sound but the drumming of
the General's fingers on his sword-hilt. Madame resumed:

"I said, 'I do not deny that Mossy is a noble gentleman;'--I had to say
that, had I not, General?"

"Certainly, Madame," said the General, "my son is a gentleman, yes."

"'But,' I said, 'he should not make Monsieur, his father, angry.'"

"True," said the General, eagerly.

"But that lady said: 'Monsieur, his father, makes himself angry,' she
said. 'Do you know, Madame, why his father is angry so long?' Another
lady says, 'I know!' 'For what?' said I. 'Because he refused to become a
soldier; mamma told me that.' 'It cannot be!' I said."

The General flushed. Madame saw it, but relentlessly continued:

"'_Mais oui_,' said that lady. 'What!' I said, 'think you General
Villivicencio will not rather be the very man most certain to respect a
son who has the courage to b