In Madeira Place | Page 3

the market, and the great building standing here.
Ah! yes! M. Sorel identifies the building. Then he is informed that many government officers are there. He knew it very well before.
The conversation goes a step farther.
Mr. Fox is one of those officers. The government is at present in need of a gentleman absolutely trustworthy, for certain important duties: perhaps to judge of silks; perhaps to oversee the weighing of sugar, of iron, of diamonds; perhaps to taste of wines. Who can say what service this great government may not need from its children!
With some labor, since the English is only a translucent, and not a transparent medium to Sorel, this is made clear. Still the horizon is dark.
Mr. Fox draws his chair nearer, facing Sorel, who looks uneasy: Sorel's feelings, to the thousandth degree of subdivision, are always declaring themselves in swift succession upon his face.
Mr. Fox proceeds.
"The great officer of the custom-house, the collector--"
"Le chef?" interrupts Sorel.
--yes, the chef (Mr. Fox seizes upon the word and clings to it),--the chef has been speaking anxiously to Mr. Fox about this vacancy: Mr. Fox is in the chefs confidence.
"Ah!" from Sorel, in a tone of utter bewilderment.
"We must have," the chef had said to Mr. Fox,--"we must have for this place a noble man, a man with a large heart" (the exact required dimensions Mr. Fox does not give); "a man who loves his government, a man who has showed himself ready to die for her; we must have"--here Mr. Fox bends forward and lays his hand upon Sorel's knee, and looks him in the eye,--"we must have--a soldier!"
"Ah!" says Sorel, moving his chair back a little, unconsciously, "il faut un soldat! I un-'stan',--le chef 'e boun' to 'ave one sol'ier!"
Still no comprehension of the stranger's object. Curiosity, however, prompts Sorel at this point to an inquiry: "'Ow much 'e goin' pay 'im?"
Mr. Fox suggests that he guess. M. Sorel guesses, boldly, and high,--almost insolently high,--eight dollars a week: she is so generous, la République!
Higher!
"Higher!" Sorel's eyes open. He guesses again, and recklessly: "Dix dollars par semaine; you know--ten dol-lar ever-y week."
Try again,--again,--again! He guesses,--madly now, as one risks his gold at Baden: twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen.
Yes, eighteen dollars a week, and more--a thousand dollars every year.
Sorel wipes his brow. A thousand dollars in one year! It is like a temptation of the devil.
Sorel ventures another inquiry. The chef of the customhouse, esteeming the old sol'iers so highly, is an old sol'ier himself,--is it not so? He has fought for his country? Doubtless he has lost an arm. And Sorel instinctively lets his right arm hang limp, as if the sleeve were empty.
No; the chef was an editor and a statesman in the time of the war. He had greatly desired to go to fight, but his duties did not permit it. Still, he loves the old soldier.
Another advance in the conversation, this time by Mr. Fox.
The government, it seems, has now awakened, with deep distress, to the fact that one class of her soldiers she has hitherto forgotten. The government--that is, the chef of the customhouse--had this very morning said to Mr. Fox that this class of old soldiers must be brought forward, for trust and for honor. "We must choose, for this vacant place," the chef had said,--here Mr. Fox brings his face forward in close proximity to Sorel's astonished countenance,--"we must have, not only an old soldier, but--a Frenchman!"
"Ah!"
"Such a soldier lives here," says Mr. Fox; "is it not true? So brave, so honest, so modest, so faithful! Ready to die for his country; worthy of trust and worthy of reward!"
"Mais!" with amazement. Yes, such a sol-'ier lives here. But can it be that monsieur refers to our Fidèle?
Precisely so!
Whereupon Sorel, hard, hairless, but French, weeps, and embraces Mr. Fox as the representative of the great government at Washington; and, weeping and laughing, leads him downstairs and presents him to Fidèle and to the bear-leaders, and opens a bottle of weak vinegar.
Such an ovation as Fidèle receives! And such a generous government! To send a special messenger to seek out the old sergeant in his retirement! So thoughtful! But it is all of a piece with its unfailing care in the past.
Fidèle begins, on the spot, to resume something of his former erectness and soldierly bearing; to shake off the stoop and slouch which lameness and the drawing about of his "musique" have given him. He wishes to tell the story of Lookout Mountain.
As Mr. Fox is about to go, he recollects himself. Oh, by the way, one thing more. It is not pleasant to mingle sadness with rejoicing. But Mr. Fox is the reluctant bearer of a gentle reproach from the great government at Washington. Her French children,--are they not just a little remiss? And when she is