e has hitherto been known! His
_mistress_--all! that is another affair. An alliance of this nature is
pardonable. The "society" of the South is satisfied with the
_slave-mistress_; but the _slave-wife_--that is an impossibility, an
incongruity not to be borne!

I knew that the gifted Eugenie was above the common prejudices of her
class; but I should have expected too much to suppose that she was above
this one. No; noble, indeed, must be the soul that could have thrown
off this chain, coiled around it by education, by habit, by example, by
every form of social life. Notwithstanding all--notwithstanding the
relations that existed between herself and Aurore, I could not expect
this much. Aurore was her companion, her friend; but still Aurore was
_her slave_!

I trembled for the result. I trembled for our next interview. In the
future I saw darkness and danger. I had but one hope, one joy--the love
of Aurore!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I rose from my sleepless couch. I dressed and ate my breakfast
hurriedly, mechanically.

That finished, I was at a loss what to do next. Should I return to the
plantation, and seek another interview with Eugenie. No--not then. I
had not the courage. It would be better, I reflected, to permit some
time to pass--a day or two--before going back. Perhaps Mademoiselle
would send for me?

Perhaps--At all events, it would be better to allow some days to elapse.
Long days they would be to me!

I could not bear the society of any one. I shunned conversation;
although I observed, as on the preceding day, that I was the object of
scrutiny--the subject of comment among the loungers of the "bar," and my
acquaintances of the billiard-room. To avoid them, I remained inside my
room, and endeavoured to kill time by reading.

I soon grew tired of this chamber-life; and upon the third morning I
seized my gun, and plunged into the depth of the forest.

I moved amidst the huge pyramidal trunks of the cypresses, whose thick
umbellated foliage, meeting overhead, shut out both sun and sky. The
very gloom occasioned by their shade was congenial to my thoughts; and I
wandered on, my steps guided rather by accident than design.

I did not search for game. I was not thinking of sport. My gun rested
idly in the hollow of my arm. The raccoon, which in the more open woods
is nocturnal, is here abroad by day. I saw the creature plunging his