is friendship and
patronage.

When he disembarked at New Orleans he had already entered into a
partnership with one of the most notable members of the gambling
fraternity, and purchased an interest in one of those "palaces" where
games of chance attracted and destroyed their thousands.

The newspapers made the gay throngs of that gayest of all cities
familiar with the incidents of David's advent. He and Pepeeta became the
talk of the town. They rented a fashionable house, and swung out into
the current of the mad life of the metropolis of the South.

For a little while this excitement and glory softened the pain in the
heart of the man who believed himself to be a murderer and encouraged
him to hope that it might eventually pass away. He played recklessly but
successfully, for he was a transient favorite of the fickle goddess.
When gambling lost its power to drown the voice of conscience, there
was the race, the play and the wine cup! To each of them appealing in
turn, he went whirling madly around the outer circles of the great
maelstrom in which so many brilliant youths were swallowed in those
ante-bellum days.

CHAPTER XIX.

ALIENATION

"There can never be deep peace between two spirits, never mutual
respect, until, in their dialogue, each stands for the whole
world."--Emerson.

For two years David and Pepeeta lived together in New Orleans. They were
years full of import, and of trouble. A baby came to them, lingered a
few weeks, and then died.

David pursued the occupation he had chosen, with the vicissitudes of
fortune usually attending the votaries of games of chance, and the moral
and spiritual deterioration which they invariably develop.

Pepeeta altered strangely. Her bloom disappeared and an expression of
sadness became habitual on her face. She was surrounded by luxuries of
every kind, but they did not give her peace. With an ambition which
never flagged she sought self improvement, and attained it to a
remarkable degree. Endowed with an inherited aptitude for culture, she
read and studied books, observed and imitated elegant manners, and
rapidly absorbed the best elements of such higher life as she had access
to, until her natural beauty and charm were wonderfully enhanced. Yet
she was not happy, for her life with David had brought her nothing but
surprise and disappointment; something had come between them, she knew
not what.

"Dey des growed apaht," said the old negro "