The Last Gentleman

gone when I got here. And I got here on time.”
    â€œIs anyone else there?”
    â€œNobody but Miss Rita.”
    â€œNever mind. Give Miss Kitty a message.”
    â€œOh yes suh.”
    â€œTell her I got hurt at the college, got hit in the head, and had a relapse. She’ll understand. Tell her I’ve been sick but I feel better.”
    â€œYes suh. I’ll sho tell her. Sick? ” David, aiming for the famous Negro sympathy, hit instead on a hooting incredulity. David, David, thought the engineer, shaking his head, what is going to happen to you? You ain’t white nor black nor nothing.
    â€œI’m better now. Tell her I’ll call her.”
    â€œYes suh.”
    â€œGoodbye, David.”
    â€œGoodbye, Mist’ Billy!” cried David, stifling his hilarity. He reached Mr. Vaught at Confederate Chevrolet.
    â€œBilly boy!” cried the old fellow. “You still at school?”
    â€œSir? Well, no sir. I—”
    â€œYou all right, boy?”
    â€œYes sir. That is, I was hurt—”
    â€œHow bad is it down there now?”
    â€œDown here?”
    â€œHow did you get out? They didn’t want to let Kitty leave. I had to go get her myself last night. Why, they kept them down in the basement of the sorority house all night. Man, they got the army in there.”
    â€œYes sir,” said the engineer, understanding not a single word save only that some larger catastrophe had occurred and that in the commotion his own lapse had been set at nought, remitted.
    â€œYou sure you all right?”
    â€œI was knocked out but I got away the next morning,” said the engineer carefully. “Now I’m on my way to find—” He faltered.
    â€œJamie. Good.”
    â€œYes. Jamie. Sir,” he began again. This one thing he clearly perceived: the ruckus on the campus dispensed him and he might say what he pleased.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œSir, please listen carefully. Something has happened that I think you should know about and will wish to do something about.”
    â€œIf you think so, I’ll do it.”
    â€œYes sir. You see, Kitty’s check has been lost or stolen, the check for one hundred thousand dollars.”
    â€œWhat’s that?” Mr. Vaught’s voice sounded as if he had crept into the receiver. All foolishness aside: this was money, Chevrolets.
    The engineer had perceived that he could set forth any facts whatever, however outrageous, and that they would be attended to, acted upon and not held against him.
    â€œMy suggestion is that you stop payment, if it is possible.”
    â€œIt is possible,” said the old man, his voice pitched at perfect neutrality. The engineer could hear him riffling through the phone book as he looked up the bank’s number.
    â€œIt was endorsed over to me, if that is any help.”
    â€œIt was endorsed over to you,” repeated the other as if he were taking it down. Very well then, it is understood this time, what with one thing and another, that it is for you to tell me and for me to listen. This time.
    â€œI tried to reach Kitty but couldn’t. Tell her that I’ll call her.”
    â€œI’ll tell her.”
    â€œTell her I’ll be back.”
    â€œYou’ll be back.”
    After he hung up, he sat gazing at the old jail and thinking about his kinsman, the high sheriff. Next to the phone booth was the Dew Drop Inn, a rounded comer of streaked concrete and glass brick, a place he knew well. It belonged to a Negro named Sweet Evening Breeze who was said to be effeminate. As he left and came opposite the open door, the sound came: psssst! —not four feet from his ear.
    â€œEh,” he said, pausing and frowning. “Is that you, Breeze?”
    â€œBarrett!”
    â€œWhat?” He turned, blinking. A pair of eyes gazed at him from the interior darkness.
    â€œCome in, Barrett.”
    â€œThank you all the same, but—”
    Hands were laid on him and he was yanked inside. By the same motion a shutter of memory was tripped: it was not so much that he remembered as that, once shoved out of the wings and onto stage, he could then trot through his part perfectly well.
    â€œMr. Aiken,” he said courteously, shaking hands with his old friend, the pseudo-Negro.
    â€œCome in, come in, come in. Listen, I don’t in the least blame you—” began the other.
    â€œPlease allow me to explain,” said the