"What a thing it is to be the people's favorite--a man of the people, that style of thing, you know--isn't it, Curtis?" said the first speaker.

"I believe you!" said Mr. Curtis, emphatically, for our old friend it was. "It is the sovereign people's pleasure to go mad about their favorite just now, and, like spoiled children, they must be humored.

What a thing the mob is, to be sure! They would shout as heartily and with as good a will if Wildair were to be hung to-night as inaugurated.

Since the days when they shouted 'Crucify Him! crucify Him! Release unto us Barrabas!' they have remained unchanged."

"I hope you don't mean to insinuate that there is any resemblance between the Jewish malefactor and the American governor--eh, Curtis?"

said his friend, laughing.

"By no means, Captain Arlingford. Wildair deserves his popularity; he is a great statesman, a real friend of his admirers, the people, and with genius enough to steer the whole republic himself. He has fought his way up; he has fought for equal rights, liberty, fraternity, equality--the French dodge, you know--and deserves to be what he is, the people's idol. Never in this good Yankee town was a new governor greeted so enthusiastically; never did the mob shout themselves hoa.r.s.e with such a right good will. By Jove! I envied him to-day, as he stood on the balcony of the hotel, with his hat off, while the sea of human beings below shouted and shouted, until they could shout no longer. It was a reception fit for a king; and never did a king look more kingly and n.o.ble than at that moment of triumph did he."

Captain Arlingford laughed.

"Whew! there's enthusiasm for you! My sober, steady-headed friend, d.i.c.k Curtis, starting off in this manner, and longing for public popularity!

I confess I should like to have witnessed his triumphal entry to-day though. I have heard that the ladies absolutely buried him alive in the showers of bouquets from the windows."

"Didn't they!" said Mr. Curtis laughing at the recollection. "As his secretary, I sat in the carriage with him, and, 'pon my honor, I was half smothered under the load of fragrant favors. Such a waving of cambric handkerchiefs, too, and how the crowd doffed their hats and hurrahed! It excites me even yet to think of it; but there sat Wildair touching his chapeau, and bowing right and left, 'with that easy grace that wins all hearts,' to quote our friend and your admirer, Miss Harper, a little."

"That last bill about the people's rights did the business for him,"

said Captain Arlingford, meditatively; "what a strong case he made out in their favor, and what an excitement it created! Well, it's a famous thing to be clever, after all; I knew it was in him, but it might never have come out so forcibly, had it not been for that loss of his two years ago. And it appears _she_ is a genius too. To think she should have painted that blood-chilling picture of Hagar, and found a brother in that poet, Randall. Don't things turn up strangely, Curtis? I wonder where she has gone, and if she will ever come back."

"Don't know! Like as not," said Mr. Curtis, sententiously.

"Splendid-looking girl she was, wasn't she, Curtis?" continued Arlingford, pursuing his own train of thought.

"Magnificent eyes, a step like an empress, and the smile of an angel."

"Come, don't draw it quite so steep, my gallient saileur boy," said Curtis; "recollect you're speaking of another man's wife, and that man not a common mortal either, but the Governor of B---- and future President of these Benighted States. Besides, what would Miss Harper say?"

"Miss Harper be--hanged!" exclaimed Arlingford, with such impatient vehemence that Curtis laughed; "that's enough about her. Are you going to the inauguration ball to-night?"

"Of course--what a question! Do you think they could have a ball fit to be seen without the presence of the irresistible, the fascinating Richard Curtis, Esq., to keep it moving? Do you think any lady as is a lady would enjoy herself if I was absent? Echo answers, 'Of course, they wouldn't;' so don't harrow my feelings again by such another question."

"Well, I see humanity and vanity are not among your failings. I suppose all the _elite_ of the city will be there?"

"You had better believe it. The _creme de la creme_ of B----. All the beauty, and wit, and gallantry of the city, as the newspapers have it. I have engaged with the editor of the _Sky Rocket_ to write him an account of the sayings and doings, for a 'consideration,' as the delicate phrase goes, which, being translated from the original Hebrew, means that he will puff our party on every occasion and no occasion, and if you don't see 'among the guests was the gallant young Captain A----, U. S. N., who paid during the evening the most marked attention to the lovely and accomplished Miss H----, whom it is whispered he is about to lead to the hymeneal altar----' h.e.l.lo! stop that! I say, Arlingford, don't choke a fellow!"

"Confound you!" said Captain Arlingford, catching him by the collar, and fairly shaking the cigar out of his mouth; "will you forever continue harping on that string? I say, let's get out of this; I hate to make one in a crowd."

"No; wait," said Curtis, laughing and adjusting his ruffled plumage. "I want to see if there is any one I know on board the steamer; I expect some friends. Here come the pa.s.sengers. What a wretched, sea-sick, sea-green-looking set. The amount of contempt I have for the ocean is something appalling."

"You had better mind how you express it before me," said Captain Arlingford, decidedly. "I--but look there, Curtis, at that lady! Oh, ye G.o.ds and little fishes! what a Juno! Eh? how? what? By the Lord Harry, Curtis!" he exclaimed, springing up excitedly, as the lady in question turned her face fully toward them; "if ever I saw Mrs. Georgia Wildair in my life, there she stands!"

"Where? where? where?" fairly shouted Curtis, catching him by the arm, and staring round in an excitement far surpa.s.sing his own. "Where?

which? when?"

"Whither? why? wherefore?" said Arlingford, laughing in spite of his surprise and excitement. "_There_, man alive! don't you see? That tall lady in black on the deck beside that intensely foreign-looking young gentleman. Why, where are your eyes? don't you see?"

"I see! I see! It's she! Hip, hip, hurrah!" shouted Mr. Curtis, waving his hat, and electrifying the crowd around him, and then, before Captain Arlingford knew what he was about, he darted off, played in and out through the crowd, dug his elbows into the ribs of all around him, and so forced his way aboard the steamer, amid the stifled shrieks and groans, and curses of his victims.

"That's what you call a summary proceeding," said Captain Arlingford, laughing; "what a living galvanic battery that fellow is--a broad-clothed barrel of gunpowder; touch him and off he goes! Well, here's to follow his example."

So saying, but in a less impetuous manner, he made his way through the throng to where stood a lady, "beautiful exceedingly," and dressed entirely in black, after the fashion of the Spanish Creoles, for one of whom, in her dark, rich beauty, she might easily have been mistaken.

"Mrs. Wildair! Good gracious, Mrs. Wildair, how _do_ you do?" exclaimed a breathless voice. "To think that you should come this day of all days!

Oh, scissors! Well, I _am_ glad to see you! Upon my word and honor, I am."

"Mr. Curtis!" exclaimed the lady, with a little cry of surprise and delight. "Why, what an unexpected pleasure to meet _you_ here! Dear Mr.

Curtis, how glad I am to see you!"

"So am I, just as glad!" said Mr. Curtis, seizing the little hand she extended, and wringing it until she winced. "Good gracious! to think of it. How _do_ you do? Well, if it isn't the most unexpected--to think that you should come home to-day of all days! Good gra---- Hey? what now?"

A vigorous slap on the shoulder that staggered him, as well it might, had jerked the last words out of him, and turning fiercely round, he saw the laughing face of the lady's companion turned toward him.

"Why, Curtis, old fellow, have you a greeting for no one but Georgia?

Come, you have shook her hand long enough; try mine now."

"Randall, my boy, how goes it? Well, I _am_ glad, and no mistake. Good gracious! what the mischief kept you so long in those barbarous foreign parts, anyhow?"

"Don't know, really," said Mr. Randall, laughing at his vehemence; "the time pa.s.sed almost imperceptibly. But you--what brings you here? I thought you were in New York."

"Well, I am not, though you mayn't believe it. h.e.l.lo! Guess who this is, Mrs. Wildair?"

"Captain Arlingford!" exclaimed Georgia, delightedly, holding out her hand; then, as the recollections of the past arose, the color mounted for an instant to her very temples.

"Yes, marm; nothing shorter," said Curtis, rubbing his hands gleefully.

"Je-rusalem! only to think of it! Well, the astonishing way things _will_ persist in turning up! Just to think of it. Why, it's like a thing in a play or a novel. Now, isn't it, Arlingford?"

"What! our coming home?" said Randall. "What do you see so extraordinary about that, Curtis?"

"No, it is not that," said Mr. Curtis, chuckling; "it's the remarkable coincidence of your coming to-day of all days--not you, but your sister.

There, don't ask me now, everybody's looking--a set of ill-mannered snipes. Arlingford, run and call a coach, there's a good boy, and I'll tell Mrs. Wildair all about it. Good gracious! if it isn't the funniest thing!"

Mr. Curtis' excitement and delight, as he danced up and down, rubbing his hands and chuckling, were so irresistible that all three, after watching him an instant, burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, and, beholding his look of dismayed surprise, laughed until the tears stood in their eyes.

"Eh! why, what the----what are you laughing at? Don't act so, don't; everybody's looking, and they'll think you're crazy," said Mr. Curtis, imploringly. "Wait a minute, I'll call a coach myself--you just hold on."

Off darted Mr. Curtis, leaving them still laughing and unable to stop, and ere five minutes he was back, and whipped them off like a living whirlwind--pushed them into a coach, jumped in after, and banged the door.

"Dixon's Hotel!" he bawled to the driver, and away they rattled over the pavement.

"Now we're comfortable," said Mr. Curtis, surveying them complacently, "and, only for me, you might have stood there all night, for coaches are in demand, and hardly to be got for love or money. Oh, Jehosaphat! just to think of it! why it's _droll_!" said Mr. Curtis, thrusting his hands into his pockets, and, as the absurdity of it struck him for the first time he leaned back in the carriage, and burst into a peal of laughter that was perfectly terrific, and from the effect of which he did not recover until they reached the hotel.

"It's lucky for you, in more ways than one, that you met me," said Mr.

Curtis, as he got out and offered Georgia his arm, "for the city's full, and you wouldn't have got a room in a hotel from one end of it to the other--no, not if you went on your two blessed, bended knees and prayed for it. Here, these rooms were engaged for the governor and his suite, and this is mine, and is quite at your disposal, Mrs. Wildair."

"But, oh! Mr. Curtis, I cannot think of depriving you----"

"There--not a word! not a word!" said Mr. Curtis, briskly, as he ushered them into a sumptuously furnished apartment. "I'll camp with somebody else. And now the very first thing I want you to do is to dress and come to the ball to-night."