"Doctah Seveeah,"--it was a cold day and the young Creole stood a moment with his back to the office fire, to which he had just given an energetic and prolonged poking,--"a man was yeh, to see you, name"
Bison. "F want" to see you about Mistoo Itchlin."
The Doctor looked up with a start, and Narcisse continued:--
"Mistoo Itchlin is wuckin" in "is employment. I think "e"s please" with "im."
"Then why does he come to see me about him?" asked the Doctor, so sharply that Narcisse shrugged as he replied:--
"Reely, I cann" tell you; but tha.s.s one thing, Doctah, I dunno if you "ave notiz: the worl" halways take a gweat deal of welfa"e in a man w"en "e"s "ising. I do that myseff. Some"ow I cann" "e"p it." This bold speech was too much for him. He looked down at his symmetrical legs and went back to his desk.
The Doctor was far from rea.s.sured. After a silence he called out:--
"Did he say he would come back?" A knock at the door arrested the answer, and a huge, wide, broad-faced German entered diffidently. The Doctor recognized Reisen. The visitor took off his flour-dusted hat and bowed with great deference.
"Toc-tor," he softly drawled, "I yoost taught I trop in on you to say a verte to you apowt teh chung yentleman vot you hef rickomendet to me."
"I didn"t recommend him to you, sir. I wrote you distinctly that I did not feel at liberty to recommend him."
"Tat iss teh troot, Toctor Tseweer; tat iss teh ectsectly troot.
Shtill I taught I"ll yoost trop in on you to say a verte to you,--Toctor,--apowt Mister"-- He hung his large head at one side to remember.
"Richling," said the Doctor, impatiently.
"Yes, sir. Apowt Mister Richlun. I heff a tifficuldy to rigolict naymps.
I yoost taught I voot trop in und trop a verte to you apowt Mr. Richlun, vot maypy you t.i.tn"t herr udt before, yet."
"Yes," said the Doctor, with ill-concealed contempt. "Well, speak it out, Mr. Reisen; time is precious."
The German smiled and made a silly gesture of a.s.sent.
"Yes, udt is brecious. Shtill I taught I voot take enough time to yoost trop in undt say to you tat I heffent het Mr. Richlun in my etsteplitchmendt a veek undtil I finte owdt someting apowt him, tot, uf you het a-knowdt ud, voot hef mate your letter maypy a little tifferendt written, yet."
Now, at length, Dr. Sevier"s annoyance was turned to dismay. He waited in silence for Reisen to unfold his enigma, but already his resentment against Richling was gathering itself for a spring. To the baker, however, he betrayed only a cold hostility.
"I kept a copy of my letter to you, Mr. Reisen, and there isn"t a word in it which need have misled you, sir."
The baker waved his hand amicably.
"Sure, Tocter Tseweer, I toandt hef nutting to gomblain akinst teh vertes of tat letter. You voss mighty puttickly. Ovver, shtill, I hef sumpting to tell you vot ef you het a-knowdt udt pefore you writed tose vertes, alreatty, t"ey voot a little tifferendt pin."
"Well, sir, why don"t you tell it?"
Reisen smiled. "Tat iss teh ectsectly vot I am coing to too. I yoost taught I"ll trop in undt tell you, Toctor, tat I heffent het Mr. Richlun in my etsteplitchmendt a veek undtil I findte owdt tat he"s a--berfect--tressure."
Doctor Sevier started half up from his chair, dropped into it again, wheeled half away, and back again with the blood surging into his face and exclaimed:--
"Why, what do you mean by such drivelling nonsense, sir? You"ve given me a positive fright!" He frowned the blacker as the baker smiled from ear to ear.
"Vy, Toctor, I hope you ugscooce me! I yoost taught you voot like to herr udt. Undt Missis Reisen sayce, "Reisen, you yoost co undt tell um."
I taught udt voot pe blessant to you to know tatt you hett sendt me teh fynust p.i.s.sness mayn I effer het apowdt me. Undt uff he iss onnust he iss a berfect tressure, undt uff he aint a berfect tressure,"--he smiled anew and tendered his capacious hat to his listener,--"you yoost kin take tiss, Toctor, undt kip udt undt vare udt! Toctor, I vish you a merrah Chris"mus!"
CHAPTER x.x.xIII.
BEES, WASPS, AND b.u.t.tERFLIES.
The merry day went by. The new year, 1858, set in. Everything gathered momentum. There was a panic and a crash. The brother-in-law of sister Jane--he whom Dr. Sevier met at that quiet dinner-party--struck an impediment, stumbled, staggered, fell under the feet of the racers, and crawled away minus not money and credit only, but all his philosophy about helping the poor, maimed in spirit, his pride swollen with bruises, his heart and his speech soured beyond all sweetening.
Many were the wrecks. But over their debris, Mercury and Venus--the busy season and the gay season--ran lightly, hand in hand. Men getting money and women squandering it. Whole nights in the ball-room. Gold pouring in at the hopper and out at the spout,--Carondelet street emptying like a yellow river into Ca.n.a.l street. Thousands for vanity; thousands for pride; thousands for influence and for station; thousands for hidden sins; a slender fraction for the wants of the body; a slenderer for the cravings of the soul. Lazarus paid to stay away from the gate. John the Baptist, in raiment of broadcloth, a circlet of white linen about his neck, and his meat strawberries and ice-cream. The lower cla.s.ses mentioned mincingly; awkward silences or visible wincings at allusions to death, and converse on eternal things banished as if it were the smell of cabbage. So looked the gay world, at least, to Dr. Sevier.
He saw more of it than had been his wont for many seasons. The two young-lady cousins whom he had brought and installed in his home thirsted for that gorgeous, nocturnal moth life in which no thirst is truly slaked, and dragged him with them into the iridescent, gas-lighted spider-web of society.
"Now, you know you like it!" they said.
"A little of it, yes. But I don"t see how you can like it, who virtually live in it and upon it. Why, I would as soon try to live upon cake and candy!"
"Well, we can live very nicely upon cake and candy," retorted they.
"Why, girls, it"s no more life than spice is food. What lofty motive--what earnest, worthy object"--
But they drowned his homily in a carol, and ran away arm in arm to dress for another ball. One of them stopped in the door with an air of mock bravado:--
"What do we care for lofty motives or worthy objects?"
A smile escaped from him as she vanished. His condemnation was flavored with charity. "It"s their mating season," he silently thought, and, not knowing he did it, sighed.
"There come Dr. Sevier and his two pretty cousins," was the ball-room whisper. "Beautiful girls--rich widower without children--great catch!
_Pa.s.se_, how? Well, maybe so; not as much as he makes himself out, though." "_Pa.s.se_, yes," said a merciless belle to a blade of her own years; "a man of strong sense is _pa.s.se_ at any age." Sister Jane"s name was mentioned in the same connection, but that illusion quickly pa.s.sed.
The cousins denied indignantly that he had any matrimonial intention.
Somebody dissipated the rumor by a syllogism: "A man hunting a second wife always looks like a fool; the Doctor doesn"t look a bit like a fool, ergo"--
He grew very weary of the giddy rout, standing in it like a rock in a whirlpool. He did rejoice in the Carnival, but only because it was the end.
"Pretty? yes, as pretty as a bonfire," he said. "I can"t enjoy much fiddling while Rome is burning."
"But Rome isn"t always burning," said the cousins.
"Yes, it is! Yes, it is!"
The wickeder of the two cousins breathed a penitential sigh, dropped her bare, jewelled arms out of her cloak, and said:--
"Now tell us once more about Mary Richling." He had bored them to death with Mary.
Lent was a relief to all three. One day, as the Doctor was walking along the street, a large hand grasped his elbow and gently arrested his steps. He turned.
"Well, Reisen, is that you?"