'He must have slipped in through the washhouse door, for he flits past me and joins 'em, cold as ice.
'"One does what one can," he says. "I sell buttons. And you, Marquise?"
'"I?" - she waves her poor white hands all burned - "I am a cook - a very bad one - at your service, Abbe. We were just talking about you."
They didn't treat him like they talked of him. They backed off and stood still.
'"I have missed something, then," he says. "But I spent this last hour playing - only for buttons, Marquise - against a noble savage, the veritable Huron himself."
'"You had your usual luck, I hope?" she says.
'"Certainly," he says. "I cannot afford to lose even buttons in these days."
'"Then I suppose the child of nature does not know that your dice are usually loaded, Father Tout-a-tous," she continues. I don't know whether she meant to accuse him of cheating. He only bows.
'"Not yet, Mademoiselle Cunegonde," he says, and goes on to make himself agreeable to the rest of the company. And that was how I found out our Monsieur Peringuey was Count Charles Maurice Talleyrand de Perigord.'
Pharaoh stopped, but the children said nothing.
'You've heard of him?' said Pharaoh.
Una shook her head.
'Was Red Jacket the Indian he played dice with?' Dan asked.
'He was. Red Jacket told me the next time we met. I asked if the lame man had cheated. Red Jacket said no - he had played quite fair and was a master player. I allow Red Jacket knew. I've seen him, on the Reservation, play himself out of everything he had and in again. Then I told Red Jacket all I'd heard at the party concerning Talleyrand.
'"I was right," he says. "I saw the man's war-face when he thought he was alone. That's why I played him. I played him face to face. He's a great chief. Do they say why he comes here?"
'"They say he comes to find out if Big Hand makes war against the English," I said.
'Red Jacket grunted. "Yes," he says. "He asked me that too. If he had been a small chief I should have lied. But he is a great chief.
He knew I was a chief, so I told him the truth. I told him what Big Hand said to Cornplanter and me in the clearing - 'There will be no war.' I could not see what he thought. I could not see behind his face. But he is a great chief. He will believe."
'"Will he believe that Big Hand can keep his people back from war?" I said, thinking of the crowds that hooted Big Hand whenever he rode out.
'"He is as bad as Big Hand is good, but he is not as strong as Big Hand," says Red Jacket. "When he talks with Big Hand he will feel this in his heart. The French have sent away a great chief.
Presently he will go back and make them afraid."
'Now wasn't that comical? The French woman that knew him and owed all her losses to him; the Indian that picked him up, cut and muddy on the street, and played dice with him; they neither of 'em doubted that Talleyrand was something by himself - appearances notwithstanding.'
'And was he something by himself?' asked Una.
Pharaoh began to laugh, but stopped. 'The way I look at it,'he said, 'Talleyrand was one of just three men in this world who are quite by themselves. Big Hand I put first, because I've seen him.'
'Ay,' said Puck. 'I'm sorry we lost him out of Old England.
Who d'you put second?'
'Talleyrand: maybe because I've seen him too,' said Pharaoh.
'Who's third?'said Puck.
'Boney - even though I've seen him.'
'Whew!' said Puck. 'Every man has his own weights and measures, but that's queer reckoning.'
'Boney?' said Una. 'You don't mean you've ever met Napoleon Bonaparte?'
'There, I knew you wouldn't have patience with the rest of my tale after hearing that! But wait a minute. Talleyrand he come round to Hundred and Eighteen in a day or two to thank Toby for his kindness. I didn't mention the dice-playing, but I could see that Red Jacket's doings had made Talleyrand highly curious about Indians - though he would call him the Huron. Toby, as you may believe, was all holds full of knowledge concerning their manners and habits. He only needed a listener. The Brethren don't study Indians much till they join the Church, but Toby knew 'em wild. So evening after evening Talleyrand crossed his sound leg over his game one and Toby poured forth. Having been adopted into the Senecas I, naturally, kept still, but Toby 'ud call on me to back up some of his remarks, and by that means, and a habit he had of drawing you on in talk, Talleyrand saw I knew something of his noble savages too. Then he tried a trick. Coming back from an emigre party he turns into his little shop and puts it to me, laughing like, that I'd gone with the two chiefs on their visit to Big Hand. I hadn't told. Red Jacket hadn't told, and Toby, of course, didn't know. 'Twas just Talleyrand's guess. "Now," he says, my English and Red Jacket's French was so bad that I am not sure I got the rights of what the President really said to the unsophisticated Huron. Do me the favour of telling it again." I told him every word Red Jacket had told him and not one word more. I had my suspicions, having just come from an emigre party where the Marquise was hating and praising him as usual.
'"Much obliged," he said. "But I couldn't gather from Red Jacket exactly what the President said to Monsieur Genet, or to his American gentlemen after Monsieur Genet had ridden away.
'I saw Talleyrand was guessing again, for Red Jacket hadn't told him a word about the white men's pow-wow.'
'Why hadn't he?' Puck asked.
'Because Red Jacket was a chief. He told Talleyrand what the President had said to him and Cornplanter; but he didn't repeat the talk, between the white men, that Big Hand ordered him to leave behind.
'Oh!' said Puck. 'I see. What did you do?'
'First I was going to make some sort of tale round it, but Talleyrand was a chief too. So I said, "As soon as I get Red Jacket's permission to tell that part of the tale, I'll be delighted to refresh your memory, Abbe." What else could I have done?
'"Is that all?" he says, laughing. "Let me refresh your memory. In a month from now I can give you a hundred dollars for your account of the conversation."
'"Make it five hundred, Abbe," I says.
'"Five, then," says he.
