"We 'ad two big mitting' about it," interrupted Raoul; "my bro'r-in-law speak at both of them!"
"Who?"
"Chahlie Mandarin."
"Glad to hear it," said Doctor Keene,--which was the truth. "Besides that, I know Laussat has gone to Martinique; that the Américains have a newspaper, and that cotton is two-bits a pound. Now what I want to know is, how are my friends? What has Honoré done? What has Frowenfeld done? And Palmyre,--and Agricole? They hustled me away from here as if I had been caught trying to cut my throat. Tell me everything."
And Raoul sank the artist and bridegroom in the historian, and told him.
CHAPTER XLVII
THE NEWS
"My cousin Honoré,--well, you kin jus' say 'e bitray' 'is 'ole fam'ly."
"How so?" asked Doctor Keene, with a handkerchief over his face to shield his eyes from the sun.