Satisfied with her son's quarters, Mrs. Chester returned to her hotel
and had just dined when her telephone rang.
"Mme.--oh, Mme. De l'Isle, I'm so please'----"
The instrument reciprocated the pleasure. "If Mrs. Chezter was not too
fat-igue' by travelling, monsieur and madame would like to call."
Soon they appeared and in a moment whose brevity did honor to both
sides had established cordial terms. Rising to go, the pair asked a
great favor. It made them, they said, "very 'appy to perceive that Mr.
Chezter, by writing, has make his mother well acquaint' with that li'l'
coterie in Royal Street, in which they, sometime', 'ave the honor to be
include'." "The honor" meant the modest condescension, and when Mrs.
Chester's charming smile recognized the fact the pair took fresh
delight in her. "An' that li'l' coterie, sinze hearing that from
Beloiseau juz' this evening, are anxiouz to see you at ones; they are,
like ourselve', so fon' of yo' son; and they cannot call all
together--my faith, that would be a procession! And bi-side', Mme.
Castanado she--well--you understan' why that is--she never go' h-out.
Same time M. Castanado he's down-stair' waiting----
"Shall I go around there with you? I'll be glad to go." They went.
Through that "recommend'" of Chester, got by Thorndyke-Smith for the
law firm, and by him shown to M. De l'Isle, the coterie knew that the
pretty lady whom they welcomed in Castanado's little parlor was of a
family line from which had come three State governors, one of whom had
been also his State's chief justice. One of her pleasantest
impressions as she made herself at ease among them, and they around her
and Mme. Castanado, was that they regarded this fact as honoring all
while flattering none. She found herself as much, and as kindly, on
trial before them as they before her, and saw that behind all their
lively conversation on such comparatively light topics as the World
War, greater New Orleans, and the decay of the times, the main question
was not who, but what, she was. As for them, they proved at least
equal to the best her son had ever written of them.
And they found her a confirmation of the best they had ever discerned
in her son. In her fair face they saw both his masculine beauty and
the excellence of his mind better interpreted than they had seen them
in his own countenance. A point most pleasing to them was the palpable
fact that she was in her son's confidence. Evidently, though arriving
sooner than expected, her coming was due to his initiative. Clearly he
had written things that showed a juncture wherein she, if but prompt
enough, might render the last great service of her life to his. Oh,
how superior to the ordinary American slap-dash of the matrimonial
lottery! They felt that they themselves had taken the American way too
much for granted. Maybe that was where they were unlike Mlle. Aline.
But she was not there, to perceive these things, nor her aunts, to be
seen and estimated. The evening's outcome could be but inconclusive,
but it was a happy beginning.
Its most significant part was a brief talk following the mention of the
Castanado soldier-boy's engagement. His expected letter had come,
bringing many pleasant particulars of it, and the two parents were
enjoying a genuine and infectious complacency. "And one thing of the
largez' importanze, Mrs. Chezter," madame said with sweet enthusiasm,
"--the two they are of the one ril-ligion!"
Was the announcement unlucky, or astute? At any rate it threw the
subject wide open by a side door, and Mrs. Chester calmly walked in.
"That's certainly fortunate," she said. Every ear was alert and
Beloiseau was suddenly eager to speak, but she smilingly went on: "It's
true that, coming of a family of politicians, and being pet
daughter--only one--of a judge, I may be a trifle broad on that point.
Still I think you're right and to be congratulated."
The whole coterie felt a glad thrill. "Ah, madame," Beloiseau
exclaimed, "you are co'rec'! But, any'ow, in a caze where the two
faith' _are_ con-_tra_-ry 'tis not for you Protestant' to be diztres'
ab-out! You, you don' care so much ab-out those myzterie' of bil-ief
as about those rule' of conduc'. Almoze, I may say, you run those
_rule_' of conduc' into the groun'--and tha'z right! And bis-ide', you
'ave in everything--politic', law, trade, society--so much the upper
han'--in the bes' senze--ah, of co'se in the bes' senze!--that the
chil'ren of such a case they are pretty sure goin' to be Protestant!"
Mrs. Chester, having her choice, to say either that marriages across
differences of faith had peculiar risks, or that Geoffry's uncle, the
"Angel of the Lord," had married, happily, a Catholic, chose neither,
let the subject be changed, and was able to assure the company that the
missive on Geoffry's desk was no bulky manuscript, but a neat thin
letter under one two-cent stamp.
"Accept'!" they cried, "that beautiful true story of 'The 'Oly Crozz'
is accept'! Mesdemoiselles they have strug the oil!"
Mme. Castanado had a further conviction:
"'Tis the name of it done that! They coul'n' rif-use that name!--and
even notwithstanding that those publisher' they are maybe Protestant!"
The good nights were very happy. The last were said five squares away,
at the hotel, to which the De l'Isles brought her back afoot. "And
to-morrow evening, four o'clock," madame said, "I'll come and we'll go
make li'l' visite at those Chapdelaine'."
Mrs. Chester had but just removed her hat when again the telephone;
from the hotel office--"Your son is here. Yes, shall we send him up?"