Frank ate alone, and went forth alone to see the parade. The professor remained in bed, apparently in a state of utter collapse.
The night after Mardi Gras in New Orleans the Krewe of Proteus holds its parade and ball. The parade is a most dazzling and magnificent spectacle, and the ball is no less splendid.
The streets along which the parade must pass were lined with a dense mass of people on both sides, while windows and balconies were filled.
Shortly after the appointed time the parade started.
It consisted of a series of elaborate and gorgeous floats, the whole forming a line many blocks in length.
Hundreds of flaring torches threw their lights over the moving tableau, and it was indeed a splendid dream.
Never before had Frank seen anything of the kind one-half as beautiful, and he was sincerely glad they had reached the Crescent City in time to be present at Mardi Gras.
The stampede of the Texan steers and the breaking up of the parade that day had made a great sensation in New Orleans. Every one had heard of the peril of the Flower Queen, and how she was rescued by a handsome youth who was said to be a visitor from the North, but whom nobody seemed to know.
Now, the Krewe of Proteus was composed entirely of men, and it was their policy to have nobody but men in their parade. These men were to dress as fairies of both sexes, as they were required to appear in the tableau of "Fairyland."
But the managers of the affair had conceived the idea that it would be a good scheme to reconstruct the wrecked flower barge and have the Queen of Flowers in the procession.