The General was on his feet as if by the touch of a spring.
"I must go!"
"Ah! no, papa," said the son.
"But, yes, I must."
"But wait, papa, I had just now something to speak of"--
"Well?" said the General, standing with his hand on the door, and with rather a dark countenance.
Dr. Mossy touched his fingers to his forehead, trying to remember.
"I fear I have--ah! I rejoice to see your name before the public, dear papa, and at the head of the ticket."
The General"s displeasure sank down like an eagle"s feathers. He smiled thankfully, and bowed.
"My friends compelled me," he said.
"They think you will be elected?"
"They will not doubt it. But what think you, my son?"
Now the son had a conviction which it would have been madness to express, so he only said:
"They could not elect one more faithful."
The General bowed solemnly.
"Perhaps the people will think so; my friends believe they will."
"Your friends who have used your name should help you as much as they can, papa," said the Doctor. "Myself, I should like to a.s.sist you, papa, if I could."
"A-bah!" said the pleased father, incredulously.
"But, yes," said the son.
A thrill of delight filled the General"s frame. _This_ was like a son.
"Thank you, my son! I thank you much. Ah, Mossy, my dear boy, you make me happy!"
"But," added Mossy, realizing with a tremor how far he had gone, "I see not how it is possible."
The General"s chin dropped.
"Not being a public man," continued the Doctor; "unless, indeed, my pen--you might enlist my pen."
He paused with a smile of bashful inquiry. The General stood aghast for a moment, and then caught the idea.
"Certainly! cer-tain-ly! ha, ha, ha!"--backing out of the door--"certainly! Ah! Mossy, you are right, to be sure; to make a complete world we must have swords _and_ pens. Well, my son, "_au revoir;_" no, I cannot stay--I will return. I hasten to tell my friends that the pen of Dr. Mossy is on our side! Adieu, dear son."
Standing outside on the _banquette_ he bowed--not to Dr. Mossy, but to the balcony of the big red-brick front--a most sunshiny smile, and departed.
The very next morning, as if fate had ordered it, the Villivicencio ticket was attacked--ambushed, as it were, from behind the Americain newspaper. The onslaught was--at least General Villivicencio said it was--absolutely ruffianly. Never had all the lofty courtesies and formalities of chivalric contest been so completely ignored. Poisoned b.a.l.l.s--at least personal epithets--were used. The General himself was called "antiquated!" The friends who had nominated him, they were positively sneered at; dubbed "fossils," "old ladies," and their caucus termed "irresponsible"--thunder and lightning! gentlemen of honor to be termed "not responsible!" It was a.s.serted that the nomination was made secretly, in a private house, by two or three unauthorized harum-scarums (that touched the very bone) who had with more caution than propriety withheld their names. The article was headed, "The Crayfish-eaters"
Ticket." It continued further to say that, had not the publication of this ticket been regarded as a dull hoax, it would not have been suffered to pa.s.s for two weeks unchallenged, and that it was now high time the universal wish should be realized in its withdrawal.
Among the earliest readers of this production was the young Madame. She first enjoyed a quiet gleeful smile over it, and then called:
"Ninide, here, take this down to Dr. Mossy--stop." She marked the communication heavily with her gold pencil. "No answer; he need not return it."
About the same hour, and in a neighboring street, one of the "not responsibles" knocked on the Villivicencio castle gate. The General invited him into his bedroom. With a short and strictly profane harangue the visitor produced the offensive newspaper, and was about to begin reading, when one of those loud nasal blasts, so peculiar to the Gaul, resounded at the gate, and another "not responsible" entered, more excited, if possible, than the first. Several minutes were spent in exchanging fierce sentiments and slapping the palm of the left hand rapidly with the back of the right. Presently there was a pause for breath.
"Alphonse, proceed to read," said the General, sitting up in bed.
"De Crayfish-eaters" Ticket"--began Alphonse; but a third rapping at the gate interrupted him, and a third "irresponsible" re-enforced their number, talking loudly and wildly to the waiting-man as he came up the hall.
Finally, Alphonse read the article. Little by little the incensed gentlemen gave it a hearing, now two words and now three, interrupting it to rip out long, rasping maledictions, and wag their forefingers at each other as they strode ferociously about the apartment.
As Alphonse reached the close, and dashed the paper to the floor, the whole quartet, in terrific unison, cried for the blood of the editor.
But hereupon the General spoke with authority.
"No, Messieurs," he said, b.u.t.toning his dressing-gown, savagely, "you shall not fight him. I forbid it--you shall not!"
"But," cried the three at once, "one of us must fight, and you--you cannot; if _you_ fight our cause is lost! The candidate must not fight."
"Hah-h! Messieurs," cried the hero, beating his breast and lifting his eyes, "_grace au ciel_. I have a son. Yes, my beloved friends, a son who shall call the villain out and make him pay for his impudence with blood, or eat his words in to-morrow morning"s paper. Heaven be thanked that gave me a son for this occasion! I shall see him at once--as soon as I can dress."
"We will go with you."
"No, gentlemen, let me see my son alone. I can meet you at Maspero"s in two hours. Adieu, my dear friends."
He was resolved.
"_Au, revoir,_," said the dear friends.
Shortly after, cane in hand, General Villivicencio moved with an ireful stride up the _banquette_ of Rue Royale. Just as he pa.s.sed the red-brick front one of the batten shutters opened the faintest bit, and a certain pair of lovely eyes looked after him, without any of that round simplicity which we have before discovered in them. As he half turned to knock at his son"s door he glanced at this very shutter, but it was as tightly closed as though the house were an enchanted palace.
Dr. Mossy"s door, on the contrary, swung ajar when he knocked, and the General entered.
"Well, my son, have you seen that newspaper? No, I think not. I _see_ you have not, since your cheeks are not red with shame and anger."
Dr. Mossy looked up with astonishment from the desk where he sat writing.
"What is that, papa?"
"My faith! Mossy, is it possible you have not heard of the attack upon me, which has surprised and exasperated the city this morning?"
"No," said Dr. Mossy, with still greater surprise, and laying his hand on the arm of his chair.