"Drops the _de Villivicencio?_ but I think the _de Villivicencio_ drops him, ho, ho, ho,--_diable!_"
Next to the residence of good Dr. Mossy towered the narrow, red-brick-front mansion of young Madame Delicieuse, firm friend at once and always of those two antipodes, General Villivicencio and Dr. Mossy.
Its dark, covered carriage-way was ever rumbling, and, with nightfall, its drawing-rooms always sent forth a luxurious light from the lace-curtained windows of the second-story balconies.
It was one of the sights of the Rue Royale to see by night its tall, narrow outline reaching high up toward the stars, with all its windows aglow.
The Madame had had some tastes of human experience; had been betrothed at sixteen (to a man she did not love, "being at that time a fool," as she said); one summer day at noon had been a bride, and at sundown--a widow. Accidental discharge of the tipsy bridegroom"s own pistol. Pa.s.s it by! It left but one lasting effect on her, a special detestation of quarrels and weapons.
The little maidens whom poor parentage has doomed to sit upon street door-sills and nurse their infant brothers have a game of "choosing" the beautiful ladies who sweep by along the pavement; but in Rue Royale there was no choosing; every little damsel must own Madame Delicieuse or n.o.body, and as that richly adorned and regal favorite of old General Villivicencio came along they would lift their big, bold eyes away up to her face and pour forth their admiration in a universal--"Ah-h-h-h!"
But, mark you, she was good Madame Delicieuse as well as fair Madame Delicieuse: her principles, however, not constructed in the austere Anglo-Saxon style, exactly (what need, with the lattice of the Confessional not a stone"s throw off?). Her kind offices and beneficent schemes were almost as famous as General Villivicencio"s splendid alms; if she could at times do what the infantile Washington said he could not, why, no doubt she and her friends generally looked upon it as a mere question of enterprise.
She had charms, too, of intellect--albeit not such a sinner against time and place as to be an "educated woman"--charms that, even in a plainer person, would have brought down the half of New Orleans upon one knee, with both hands on the left side. _She_ had the _whole_ city at her feet, and, with the fine tact which was the perfection of her character, kept it there contented. Madame was, in short, one of the kind that gracefully wrest from society the prerogative of doing as they please, and had gone even to such extravagant lengths as driving out in the _Americain_ faubourg, learning the English tongue, talking national politics, and similar freaks whereby she provoked the unbounded worship of her less audacious lady friends. In the centre of the cl.u.s.ter of Creole beauties which everywhere gathered about her, and, most of all, in those incomparable companies which a.s.sembled in her own splendid drawing-rooms, she was always queen lily. Her house, her drawing-rooms, etc.; for the little brown aunt who lived with her was a mere piece of curious furniture.
There was this notable charm about Madame Delicieuse, she improved by comparison. She never looked so grand as when, hanging on General Villivicencio"s arm at some gorgeous ball, these two bore down on you like a royal barge lashed to a ship-of-the-line. She never looked so like her sweet name, as when she seated her prettiest lady adorers close around her, and got them all a-laughing.
Of the two balconies which overhung the _banquette_ on the front of the Delicieuse house, one was a small affair, and the other a deeper and broader one, from which Madame and her ladies were wont upon gala days to wave handkerchiefs and cast flowers to the friends in the processions. There they gathered one Eighth of January morning to see the military display. It was a bright blue day, and the group that quite filled the balcony had laid wrappings aside, as all flower-buds are apt to do on such Creole January days, and shone resplendent in spring attire.
The sight-seers pa.s.sing below looked up by hundreds and smiled at the ladies" eager twitter, as, flirting in humming-bird fashion from one subject to another, they laughed away the half-hours waiting for the pageant. By and by they fell a-listening, for Madame Delicieuse had begun a narrative concerning Dr. Mossy. She sat somewhat above her listeners, her elbow on the arm of her chair, and her plump white hand waving now and then in graceful gesture, they silently attending with eyes full of laughter and lips starting apart.
"_Vous savez_," she said (they conversed in French of course), "you know it is now long that Dr. Mossy and his father have been in disaccord.
Indeed, when have they not differed? For, when Mossy was but a little boy, his father thought it hard that he was not a rowdy. He switched him once because he would not play with his toy gun and drum. He was not so high when his father wished to send him to Paris to enter the French army; but he would not go. We used to play often together on the _banquette_--for I am not so very many years younger than he, no indeed--and, if I wanted some fun, I had only to pull his hair and run into the house; he would cry, and monsieur papa would come out with his hand spread open and"--
Madame gave her hand a malicious little sweep, and Joined heartily in the laugh which followed.
"That was when they lived over the way. But wait! you shall see: I have something. This evening the General"--
The houses of Rue Royale gave a start and rattled their windows. In the long, irregular line of balconies the beauty of the city rose up. Then the houses jumped again and the windows rattled; Madame steps inside the window and gives a message which the housemaid smiles at in receiving.
As she turns the houses shake again, and now again; and now there comes a distant strain of trumpets, and by and by the drums and bayonets and clattering hoofs, and plumes and dancing banners; far down the long street stretch out the shining ranks of gallant men, and the fluttering, over-leaning swarms of ladies shower down their sweet favors and wave their countless welcomes.
In the front, towering above his captains, rides General Villivicencio, veteran of 1814-15, and, with the gracious pomp of the old-time gentleman, lifts his c.o.c.ked hat, and bows, and bows.
Madame Delicieuse"s balcony was a perfect maze of waving kerchiefs. The General looked up for the woman of all women; she was not there. But he remembered the other balcony, the smaller one, and cast his glance onward to it. There he saw Madame and one other person only. A small blue-eyed, broad-browed, scholarly-looking man whom the arch lady had lured from his pen by means of a mock professional summons, and who now stood beside her, a smile of pleasure playing on his lips and about his eyes.
"_Vite!_" said Madame, as the father"s eyes met the son"s. Dr. Mossy lifted his arm and cast a bouquet of roses. A girl in the crowd bounded forward, caught it in the air, and, blushing, handed it to the plumed giant. He bowed low, first to the girl, then to the balcony above; and then, with a responsive smile, tossed up two splendid kisses, one to Madame, and one, it seemed--
"For what was that cheer?"
"Why, did you not see? General Villivicencio cast a kiss to his son."
The staff of General Villivicencio were a faithful few who had not bowed the knee to any abomination of the Americains, nor sworn deceitfully to any species of compromise; their beloved city was presently to pa.s.s into the throes of an election, and this band, heroically unconscious of their feebleness, putting their trust in "re-actions" and like delusions, resolved to make one more stand for the traditions of their fathers. It was concerning this that Madame Delicieuse was incidentally about to speak when interrupted by the boom of cannon; they had promised to meet at her house that evening.
They met. With very little discussion or delay (for their minds were made up beforehand), it was decided to announce in the French-English newspaper that, at a meeting of leading citizens, it had been thought consonant with the public interest to place before the people the name of General Hercule Mossy de Villivicencio. No explanation was considered necessary. All had been done in strict accordance with time-honored customs, and if any one did not know it it was his own fault. No eulogium was to follow, no editorial indors.e.m.e.nt. The two announcements were destined to stand next morning, one on the English side and one on the French, in severe simplicity, to be greeted with profound gratification by a few old gentlemen in blue cottonade, and by roars of laughter from a rampant majority.
As the junto were departing, sparkling Madame Delicieuse detained the General at the head of the stairs that descended into the tiled carriage-way, to wish she was a man, that she might vote for him.
"But, General," she said, "had I not a beautiful bouquet of ladies on my balcony this morning?"
The General replied, with majestic gallantry, that "it was as magnificent as could be expected with the central rose wanting." And so Madame was disappointed, for she was trying to force the General to mention his son. "I will bear this no longer; he shall not rest," she had said to her little aunt, "until he has either kissed his son or quarrelled with him."
To which the aunt had answered that, "_coute que coute_, she need not cry about it;" nor did she. Though the General"s compliment had foiled her thrust, she answered gayly to the effect that enough was enough; "but, ah! General," dropping her voice to an undertone, "if you had heard what some of those rosebuds said of you!"
The old General p.r.i.c.ked up like a country beau. Madame laughed to herself, "Monsieur Peac.o.c.k, I have thee;" but aloud she said gravely:
"Come into the drawing-room, if you please, and seat yourself. You must be greatly fatigued."
The friends who waited below overheard the invitation.
"_Au revoir, General_," said they.
"_Au revoir, Messieurs,_" he answered, and followed the lady.
"General," said she, as if her heart were overflowing, "you have been spoken against. Please sit down."
"Is that true, Madame?"
"Yes, General."
She sank into a luxurious chair.
"A lady said to-day--but you will be angry with me, General."
"With you, Madame? That is not possible."
"I do not love to make revelations, General; but when a n.o.ble friend is evil spoken of"--she leaned her brow upon her thumb and forefinger, and looked pensively at her slipper"s toe peeping out at the edge of her skirt on the rich carpet--"one"s heart gets very big."
"Madame, you are an angel! But what said she, Madame?"
"Well, General, I have to tell you the whole truth, if you will not be angry. We were all speaking at once of handsome men. She said to me: "Well, Madame Delicieuse, you may say what you will of General Villivicencio, and I suppose it is true; but everybody knows"--pardon me, General, but just so she said--"all the world knows he treats his son very badly.""
"It is not true," said the General.
"If I wasn"t angry!" said Madame, making a pretty fist. "How can that be?" I said. "Well," 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; n.o.body--neither General Villivicencio, neither any other, has a right to be angry against that n.o.ble, 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: