“There are just three places where these figures disagree and I have marked them carefully, L’Aiglon,” he said as at last he laid down both pieces of the paper.  “These French specifications and figures that floored you, represent the ideal mule in bulk and these United States figures promise the same multitude in scrub.  I thought as much.  You just run in there to Bill with them and then forget you ever saw them, and we’ll be on our way to the girls in ten minutes.  Bobby, I mean it when I say that men in your and my positions of trust just forget facts and figures the minute we get out of sight of our chiefs.  And we forget the chiefs too, believe me.  Now run along and come out to the car on the same trot.”

“Is it of honor not to tell to the Gouverneur Faulkner that you assisted me in this task, my Buzz?” I asked of him with anxiety.

“No need to tell him—­it’s all in the same office and will come to me for filing.  Don’t say anything that will bring on talk that keeps us from Sue and the gang.  Just run!” With which advice my kind Buzz disappeared through the door into the office of my Uncle, the General Robert, as I softly opened the door of the room of the Gouverneur Faulkner and entered into his presence.  And in that presence I found also my Uncle, the General Robert, in a very grave consultation with the Gouverneur Faulkner.

“The papers completed, Your Excellency,” I said in a very low and meek tone of my voice as I laid the papers beside him on the table and prepared to take the running departure that my Buzz had commanded of me.

“Bless my soul, are you here and at work, young man?  I thought you were asleep after all that gallivanting, and was just preparing to blow you up out of bed over the telephone,” exclaimed my Uncle, the General Robert, with great fierceness of manner but also a great pleasure of eyes at the sight of me in the character of such a nice Secretary to the Gouverneur of Harpeth.

“Robert arrived five minutes after I did and ten minutes before you came into the building, General,” said that Gouverneur Faulkner, with a twinkle of great enjoyment in his eyes.  “He’s done a day’s work before we have begun.  Will you have your luncheon sent up from the restaurant with ours, Robert?  Just order the usual things for us and any kind of frills you care for.  Shall I say snails?”

“I thank Your Excellency deeply but I am engaged that I luncheon and dance with Mr. Buzz Clendenning in his club in the country if I may be given permission to go,” I answered as I laid my fingers with affection on the arm of my Uncle, the General Robert, as I stood beside him.

“Nonsense, sir!  You’ll not join those jackanapes in their gambols during business hours.  Order yourself up a slice of pie and a glass of buttermilk along with mine and sit down here to listen to matters of business by which you can profit.  Luncheon and dancing!  No, pie and business, I say, pie and business!” And the fierceness of my Uncle, the General Robert, made me retire several feet away from him in astonishment and in the direction of the Gouverneur Faulkner.