"Pardon," said his detainer, "I have only my business card." He
tendered it: "Marcel Castanado, Masques et Costumes, No. 312, rue
Royale, entre Bienville et Conti."

"I diz-ire your advice," he continued, "on a very small matter neither
notarial, neither of the law. Yet I must pay you for that, if you can
make your charge as--as small as the matter."

The young lawyer's own matters were at a juncture where a fee was a
godsend, yet he replied:

"If your matter is not of the law I can make you no charge."

The costumer shrugged: "Pardon, in that case I must seek elsewhere."
He would have moved on, but Chester asked:

"What kind of advice do you want if not legal?"

"Literary."

The young man smiled: "Why, I'm not literary."

"I think yes. You know Ovide Landry? Black man? Secon'-han' books,
Chartres Street, just yonder?"

"Yes, very pleasantly, for I love old books."

"Yes, and old buildings, and their histories. I know. You are now
going down, as I have just been, to see again the construction of that