He had forgotten the time limited for the
guardianship, but the girl must soon be of age and off their hands.
If there had ever been any romantic or chivalrous impression left
upon his memory by the scene in the mayor's office, I fear he had
put it away with various other foolish illusions of his youth, to
which he now believed he was superior.
Nevertheless, he would see the colonel, and at once, and settle the
question. He looked at the address, "St. Charles Hotel." He
remembered an old hostelry of that name, near the Plaza. Could it
be possible that it had survived the alterations and improvements
of the city? It was an easy walk through remembered streets, yet
with changed shops and houses and faces. When he reached the
Plaza, scarce recognizable in its later frontages of brick and
stone, he found the old wooden building still intact, with its
villa-like galleries and verandas incongruously and ostentatiously
overlooked by two new and aspiring erections on either side. For
an instant he tried to recall the glamour of old days. He
remembered when his boyish eyes regarded it as the crowning work of
opulence and distinction; he remembered a ball given there on some
public occasion, which was to him the acme of social brilliancy and
display.
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