“Why, I don’t think you’d know where it is,” he said at length. “I’m from Catawba.”
“Catawba—yes!” the old woman pressed on eagerly. “And what part of Catawba? What town?”
“Why,”—he stared at her, gape-jawed with amazement—“a place called Altamont.”
“Altamont!” she crowed jubilantly. “Altamont—yes! Altamont—of course!”
“You know it?” he said incredulously. “You’ve heard of it?”
“Heard of it! Why, my boy, I’ve been there seven times!” She chuckled with triumph, then went on with a wild and incoherent eagerness. “Little Mother, they call me… I am known everywhere…. Letters… cablegrams… the Governor of Arkansas…” she babbled. “I gave up everything… spent my fortune…. Ah, my boy, I love the Americans…. They call me Little Mother…. Altamont!… A beautiful town!… Do you know Doctor Bradford and his family?… And how is Harold?… What’s Alice doing now—has she married?… a lovely girl…. And how is George Watson?… What’s he doing, eh?… Is he still secretary of the Chamber of Commerce?… And Mrs. Morgan Hamilton…. And Charles McKee—ah, how I should like to see all my dear old friends in Altamont again.”
“You—you know them—all those people?” he gasped, hearing as in a dream the great cathedral bells throng out upon the air of night.
“Know them!… I know everyone in the town…. I always stay with Doctor Bradford and his family…. Ah, what lovely people, my boy…. How good they have been to me…. I love Americans!… Little Mother, they call me,” she went on in a strange, tranced tone, her eyes burning feverishly as she spoke—“’As the brave little woman who is known to thousands of Our Boys as the Little Mother of the Stars and Stripes stood before the great audience that packed the City Auditorium last night as it had never been packed before in its whole history, it is safe to say there was not a dry eye in the great’—Yvonne!” She broke sharply away from her mysterious recitation, and again addressed herself excitedly to the hotel woman—“I know his town… I know his family… I know his father and mother… I have stayed at their house!… They are all dear friends of mine!… Quick! Tell Madame Vatel that an American friend of mine is here…. Tell her it is going to be a great thing for her… for Orléans… for all of us…. Tell her he is going to write about the hotel in The New York Times… you will
