you going, Madame Delphine?"

She almost leaped from the ground.

"Oh, Pere Jerome! _mo pas conne_,--I dunno. You know w'ere's dad 'ouse
of Miche Jean Tomkin? _Mo courri 'ci, mo courri la,--mo pas capale li
trouve_. I go (run) here--there--I cannot find it," she gesticulated.

"I am going there myself," said he; "but why do you want to see Jean
Thompson, Madame Delphine?"

"I '_blige_' to see 'im!" she replied, jerking herself half around away,
one foot planted forward with an air of excited preoccupation; "I god
some' to tell 'im wad I '_blige_' to tell 'im!"

"Madame Delphine----"

"Oh! Pere Jerome, fo' de love of de good God, show me dad way to de
'ouse of Jean Tomkin!"

Her distressed smile implored pardon for her rudeness.

"What are you going to tell him?" asked the priest.

"Oh, Pere Jerome,"--in the Creole _patois_ again,--"I am going to put an
end to all this trouble--only I pray you do not ask me about it now;
every minute is precious!"

He could not withstand her look of entreaty.

"Come," he said, and they went.

* * * * *

Jean Thompson and Doctor Varrillat lived opposite each other on the
Bayou road, a little way beyond the town limits as then prescribed. Each
had his large, white-columned, four-sided house among the
magnolias,--his huge live-oak overshadowing either corner of the darkly
shaded garden, his broad, brick walk leading down to the tall,
brick-pillared gate, his square of bright, red pavement on the
turf-covered sidewalk, and his railed platform spanning the
draining-ditch, with a pair of green benches, one on each edge, facing
each other crosswise of the gutter. There, any sunset hour, you were
sure to find the householder sitting beside his cool-robed matron, two
or three slave nurses in white turbans standing at hand, and an excited
throng of fair children, nearly all of a size.

Sometimes, at a beckon or call, the parents on one side of the way would
join those on the other, and the children and nurses of both families
would be given the liberty of the opposite platform and an ice-cream
fund! Generally the parents chose the Thompson platform, its outlook
being more toward the sunset.

Such happened to be the arrangement this afternoon. The two husbands sat
on one bench and their wives on the other, both pairs very quiet,
waiting respectfully for the day to die, and exchanging only occasional
comments on matters of light moment as they passe