The colonel thanked him, and then drifted into the wider field of
domestic delicacies,--the preserving of fruits, the making of pickles
as practiced on the plantations by the old Virginia cooks,--the colonel
waxing eloquent over each production, and the future wine merchant
becoming more and more enchanted as the colonel flowed on.
When he rose to go the grocer had a mental list of the things he would
send the colonel in the morning all arranged in his commercial head,
and so great was his delight that, after shaking hands with me once
and with the colonel three times, he would also have extended that
courtesy to Chad had not that perfectly trained servant checkmated him
by filling his extended palm with the rim of his own hat.
[Illustration]
When Chad returned from bowing him through the tunnel, the lines in
his face a tangle of emotions, the colonel was standing on the mat,
in his favorite attitude--back to the fire, coat thrown open, thumbs
in his armholes, his outstretched fingers beating woodpecker tattoos
on his vest.
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