n the sky? Brute
that you are, you are not blind. I see you, too, have an eye to
opportunities, and know when to enter the drawing-room."

"Hush!"

Again I listened. When I had first halted, it was through motives of
delicacy. I did not wish to appear too suddenly before the open window,
which would have given me a full view of the interior of the apartment.
I had paused, intending to herald my approach by some noise--a feigned
cough, or a stroke of my foot against the floor. My motives had
undergone a change. I now listened with a design. I could not help it.

Aurore was speaking.

I bent my ear close to the window. The voice was at too great a
distance, or uttered too low, for me to hear what was said. I could
hear the silvery tones, but could not distinguish the words. She must
be at the further end of the room, thought I. _Perhaps, upon the sofa_.
This conjecture led me to painful imaginings, till the throbbings of my
heart drowned the murmur that was causing them.

At length Aurore's speech was ended. I waited for the reply. Perhaps I
might gather from that what _she_ had said. The tones of the male voice
would be loud enough to enable me--

Hush! hark!

I listened--I caught the sound of a voice, but not the words. The sound
was enough. It caused me to start as if stung by an adder. _It was the
voice of Monsieur Dominique Gayarre_!

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

A RIVAL.

I cannot describe the effect produced upon me by this discovery. It was
like a shock of paralysis. It nailed me to the spot, and for some
moments I felt as rigid as a statue, and almost as senseless. Even had
the words uttered by Gayarre been loud enough to reach me, I should
scarce have heard them. My surprise for the moment had rendered me
deaf.

The antagonism I had conceived towards the speaker, so long as I
believed it to be the brute Larkin, was of a gentle character compared
with that which agitated me now. Larkin might be young and handsome; by
Scipio's account, the latter he certainly was _not_: but even so, I had
little fear of _his_ rivalry. I felt confident that I held the heart of
Aurore, and I knew that the overseer had no power over _her person_. He
was overseer of the field-hands, and other slaves of the plantation--
their master, with full licence of tongue and lash; but with all that, I
knew that he had no authority over Aurore. For reasons I could not
fathom, the treatment of the quadroon was,