t no one was at hand--"whether you do not think that
General Vincent loves Aimee."

"I think he does. I suspected it before, and to-day I am sure of it."

"And are not you glad?"

"That partly depends on whether Aimee loves him. I doubt whether
Vincent, who is usually a confident fellow enough, is so happy about the
matter as you are."

"Aimee is not one who will ever show herself too ready--Aimee is very
quiet--"

"Well, but, is she ready in her heart? Does she care about Vincent?"

"I do not know that she does quite, yet--though I think she likes him
very much, too. But surely she will love him--she must love him--so
much as he loves her--and so delightful, so desirable a match as it is,
in every way!"

"You think it so."

"Why, do not you? Consider how many years we have known him, and what
confidence you had in him when you sent him with our dear boys to Paris!
And now he has done great things in the south. He comes, covered with
glory, to ask us for our Aimee. What could be more flattering?"

"It was our child's future happiness that I was thinking of, when I
seemed to doubt. Vincent is full of good qualities; but he is so wholly
French that--"

"Not so French as Monsieur Pascal, who was born, brought up, and
employed at Paris; and you are pleased that he should marry Afra."

"Vincent is more French than Pascal, though he is a black. He is
devoted to Bonaparte--"

"What of that?" said Madame L'Ouverture, after a pause. "He is devoted
to you also. And are you not yourself devoted to France and to
Bonaparte? Do we not pray together for him every day of our lives?"

"Remember, Margot, to pray for him every day, as long as you live, if I
am separated from you by death or otherwise. Pray that such a blessing
may rest upon him as that he may be wise to see his duty, and strong to
do it. If he injures us, pray that he may be forgiven."

"I will," replied Margot, in a low voice; "but--"

She was lost in considering what this might mean.

"As for Vincent," resumed Toussaint, "my doubt is whether, with his
views and tastes, he ought to ally himself with a doomed man."

"Vincent is ambitious, my dear husband; and, even if he did not love our
child as he does, he might be anxious to ally himself with one so
powerful--so full of honours--with so very great a man as you. I would
not speak exactly so if we were not alone: but it is very true, now that
the Central Assembly has declared you supre