“He is not a man that would put faith in the Temple story, either, and I understand he is kindly disposed towards you.”

“I lived in his house nearly a year.”

“He is not a bad fellow for the new sort.  I feel certain of him.  He is coaxing my friendship because of ancient amity between the houses of Du Plessy and De Ferrier.”

“Did you say, monsieur, that Bonaparte intends to restore Madame de Ferrier’s lands?”

“They have been given to one of his rising officers.”

“Then he will not restore them?”

“Oh, yes, with interest!  His plan is to give her the officer for a husband.”

VII

Even in those days of falling upon adventure and taking hold of life with the arrogance of young manhood, I knew the value of money, though it has always been my fault to give it little consideration.  Experience taught me that poverty goes afoot and sleeps with strange bed-fellows.  But I never minded going afoot or sharing the straw with cattle.  However, my secretary more than once took a high hand with me because he bore the bag; and I did mind debt chasing my heels like a rising tide.

Our Iroquois had their cottages in St. Regis and their hunting cabins on Lake George.  They went to church when not drunk and quarrelsome, paid the priest his dues, labored easily, and cared nothing for hoarding.  But every step of my new life called for coin.

As I look back on that hour the dominating thought rises clearly.

To see men admitting that you are what you believe yourself to be, is one of the triumphs of existence.  The jewel-case stamped identification upon me.  I felt like one who had communicated with the past and received a benediction.  There was special provision in the way it came to me; for man loves to believe that God watches over and mothers him.

Forgetting—­if I had ever heard—­how the ancients dreaded the powers above when they had been too fortunate, I went with the marquis in high spirits to the Rue Ste. Croix.  There were pots of incense sending little wavers of smoke through the rooms, and the people might have peopled a dream.  The men were indeed all smooth and trim; but the women had given rein to their fancies.

Our hostess was a fair and gracious woman, of Greek ancestry, as Bonaparte himself was, and her daughter had been married to his favorite general, the marquis told me.

I notice only the unusual in clothing; the scantiness of ladies’ apparel that clung like the skin, and lay upon the oak floor in ridges, among which a man must shove his way, was unusual to me.

I saw, in space kept cleared around her chair, one beauty with nothing but sandals on her feet, though these were white as milk, silky skinned like a hand, and ringed with jewels around the toes.

Bonaparte’s youngest sister stood receiving court.  She was attired like a Bacchante, with bands of fur in her hair, topped by bunches of gold grapes.  Her robe and tunic of muslin fine as air, woven in India, had bands of gold, clasped with cameos, under the bosom and on the arms.  Each woman seemed to have planned outdoing the others in conceits which marked her own fairness.