Chapter I: Front Matter

THE GRANDISSIMES

BY GEORGE W. CABLE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALBERT HERTER

MDCCCXCIX

1899

CONTENTS

I. Masked Batteries.
II. The Fate of the Immigrant.
III. "And who is my Neighbor?"
IV. Family Trees.
V. A Maiden who will not Marry.
VI. Lost Opportunities.
VII. Was it Honoré Grandissime?
VIII. Signed--Honoré Grandissime.
IX. Illustrating the Tractive Power of Basil.
X. "Oo dad is, 'Sieur Frowenfel'?"
XI. Sudden Flashes of Light.
XII. The Philosophe.
XIII. A Call from the Rent-Spectre.
XIV. Before Sunset.
XV. Rolled in the Dust.
XVI. Starlight in the rue Chartres.
XVII. That Night.
XVIII. New Light upon Dark Places.
XIX. Art and Commerce.
XX. A very Natural Mistake.
XXI. Doctor Keene Recovers his Bullet.
XXII. Wars within the Breast.
XXIII. Frowenfeld Keeps his Appointment.
XXIV. Frowenfeld Makes an Argument.
XXV. Aurora as a Historian.
XXVI. A Ride and a Rescue.
XXVII. The Fête de Grandpère.
XXVIII. The Story of Bras-Coupé.
XXIX. The Story of Bras-Coupé, Continued.
XXX. Paralysis.
XXXI. Another Wound in a New Place.
XXXII. Interrupted Preliminaries.
XXXIII. Unkindest Cut of All.
XXXIV. Clotilde as a Surgeon.
XXXV. "Fo' wad you Cryne?"
XXXVI. Aurora's Last Picayune.
XXXVII. Honoré Makes some Confessions.
XXXVIII. Tests of Friendship.
XXXIX. Louisiana States her Wants.
XL. Frowenfeld Finds Sylvestre.
XLI. To Come to the Point.
XLII. An Inheritance of Wrong.
XLIII. The Eagle Visits the Doves in their Nest.
XLIV. Bad for Charlie Keene.
XLV. More Reparation.
XLVI. The Pique-en-terre Loses One of her Crew.
XLVII. The News.
XLVIII. An Indignant Family and a Smashed Shop.
XLIX. Over the New Store.
L. A Proposal of Marriage.
LI. Business Changes.
LII. Love Lies-a-Bleeding.
LIII. Frowenfeld at the Grandissime Mansion.
LIV. "Cauldron Bubble".
LV. Caught.
LVI. Blood for a Blow.
LVII. Voudou Cured.
LVIII. Dying Words.
LIX. Where some Creole Money Goes.
LX. "All Right".
LXI. "No!".

PHOTOGRAVURES

"They paused a little within the obscurity of the corridor, and just to reassure themselves that everything _was_ 'all right'" _Frontispiece_.

"She looked upon an unmasked, noble countenance, lifted her own mask a little, and then a little more; and then shut it quickly".

"The daughter of the Natchez sitting in majesty, clothed in many-colored robes of shining feathers crossed and recrossed with girdles of serpent-skins and of wampum".

"Aurora,--alas! alas!--went down upon her knees with her gaze fixed upon the candle's flame".

"The young man with auburn curls rested the edge of his burden upon the counter, tore away its wrappings and disclosed a painting".

"Silently regarding the intruder with a pair of eyes that sent an icy chill through him and fastened him where he stood, lay Palmyre Philosophe".

"On their part, they would sit in deep attention, shielding their faces from the fire, and responding to enunciations directly contrary to their convictions with an occasional 'yes-seh,' or 'ceddenly,' or 'of coze,' or,--prettier affirmation still,--a solemn drooping of the eyelids".

"Bras-Coupé was practically declaring his independence on a slight rise of ground hardly sixty feet in circumference and lifted scarce above the water in the inmost depths of the swamp".

"'Ma lill dotter, wad dad meggin you cry? Iv you will tell me wad dad mague you cry, I will tell you--on ma _second word of honor_'--she rolled up her fist--'juz wad I thing about dad 'Sieur Frowenfel!'".

"His head was bowed, a heavy grizzled lock fell down upon his dark, frowning brow, one hand clenched the top of his staff, the other his knee, and both trembled violently".

"The tall figure of Palmyre rose slowly and silently from her chair, her eyes lifted up and her lips moving noiselessly. She seemed to have lost all knowledge of place or of human presence".

"They turned in a direction opposite to the entrance and took chairs in a cool nook of the paved court, at a small table where the hospitality of Clemence had placed glasses of lemonade".

_In addition to the foregoing, the stories are illustrated with eight smaller photogravures from drawings by Mr. Herter_.