The Dodge Club Part 73

"G.o.d in Heaven!" he cried, bounding to his feet.

"Ugo!" exclaimed the other.

"Luigi!"

And the two men, in true Italian fashion, sprang into one another's arms.

"And is my best friend, and oldest friend, the brother of your betrothed?" asked Gonfaloniere of d.i.c.k.

But d.i.c.k only nodded. He was quite mystified by all this. An explanation, however, was soon made. The two had been educated together, and had fought side by side in the great movements of '48, under Garibaldi, and in Lombardy.

For full an hour these two friends asked one another a torrent of questions. Luigi asked Gonfaloniere about his exile in America; whereupon the other described that exile in glowing terms--how he landed in Boston, how d.i.c.k, then little more than a lad, became acquainted with him, and how true a friend he had been in his misery. The animated words of Gonfaloniere produced a striking effect. Luigi swore eternal friendship with d.i.c.k, and finally declared that he must come and see Pepita that very day.

So, leaving Gonfaloniere with the promise of seeing him again, Luigi walked with d.i.c.k out to the place where he lived. The reason why he had not wanted him to see Pepita that day was because he was ashamed of their lodgings. But that had pa.s.sed, and as he understood d.i.c.k better he saw there was no reason for such shame. It was a house within a few rods of the church.

d.i.c.k's heart throbbed violently as he entered the door after Luigi and ascended the steps inside the court-yard. Luigi pointed to a door and drew back.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Door.]

d.i.c.k knocked.

The door opened.

"Pepita!"

To describe such a meeting is simply out of the question.

"I knew you would come," said she, after about one solid hour, in which not a single intelligible word was uttered.

"And for you! Oh, Pepita!"

"You do not think now that I was cruel?" and a warm flush overspread the lovely face of the young girl.

"Cruel!" (and d.i.c.k makes her see that he positively does not think so).

"I could not do otherwise."

"I love you too well to doubt it."

"My brother hated you so. It would have been impossible. And I could not wound his feelings."

"He's a splendid fellow, and you were right."

"Padre Liguori showed him what you were, and I tried to explain a little," added Pepita, shyly.

"Heaven bless Padre Liguori! As for you--you--"

"Don't."

"Well, your brother understands me at last. He knows that I love you so well that I would die for you."

Tears came into Pepita's eyes as the sudden recollection arose of d.i.c.k's misadventure on the road.

"Do you remember," asked d.i.c.k, softly, after about three hours and twenty minutes--"do you remember how I once wished that I was walking with you on a road that would go on forever?"

"Yes."

"Well, we're on that track now."

[The Historian of these adventures feels most keenly his utter inadequacy to the requirements of this scene. Need he say that the above description is a complete _fiasco_? Reader, your imagination, if you please.]

CHAPTER LVII.

THE DODGE CLUB IN PARIS ONCE MORE.--b.u.t.tONS'S "JOLLY GOOD HEALTH."

Not very long after the events alluded to in the last chapter a brilliant dinner was given in Paris at the "Hotel de Lille et d'Albion." On the arrival of the Senator and b.u.t.tons at Paris they had found Mr. Figgs and the Doctor without any trouble. The meeting was a rapturous one. The Dodge Club was again an ent.i.ty, although an important member was not there. On this occasion the one who gave the dinner was b.u.t.tONS!

[Ill.u.s.tration: He's A Jolly Good Fellow.]

All the delicacies of the season. In fact, a banquet. Mr. Figgs shone resplendently. If a factory was the sphere of the Senator, a supper-table was the place for Mr. Figgs. The others felt that they had never before known fully all the depth of feeling, of fancy, and of sentiment that lurked under that placid, smooth, and rosy exterior. The Doctor was epigrammatic; the Senator sententious; b.u.t.tons uproarious.

d.i.c.k's health was drunk in b.u.mpers with all the honors:

"For he's a jolly good fe-e-e-e-e-e-llow!

For he's a jolly good fe-e-e-e-e-e-llow!!

For he's a jolly good FE-E-E-E-E-E-LLOW!!!

Which n.o.body can deny!"