language made me specially acceptable. They had meantime managed
to marry the fellow to a woman nearly twice his age, comparatively
well off: the only profession he was really fit for. But it was
not all cakes and ale. The first time I called on the couple she
spied a little spot of grease on the poor devil's pantaloons and
made him a screaming scene of reproaches so full of sincere passion
that I sat terrified as at a tragedy of Racine.

Of course there was never question of the money I had advanced him;
but his sisters, Miss Angele and Miss Mary, and the aunts of both
families, who spoke quaint archaic French of pre-Revolution period,
and a host of distant relations adopted me for a friend outright in
a manner which was almost embarrassing.

It was with the eldest brother (he was employed at a desk in my
consignee's office) that I was having this talk about the merchant
Jacobus. He regretted my attitude and nodded his head sagely. An
influential man. One never knew when one would need him. I
expressed my immense preference for the shopkeeper of the two. At
that my friend looked grave.

"What on earth are you pulling that long face about?" I cried
impatiently. "He asked me to see his garden and I have a good mind
to go some day."

"Don't do that," he said, so earnestly that I burst into a fit of
laughter; but he looked at me without a smile.

This was another matter altogether. At one time the public
conscience of the island had been mightily troubled by my Jacobus.