ith good luck we shall hail the Crescent City to-morrow," remarked the
clerk, at length, as he stood regarding the speed of the boat with
admiring gaze.

"Say you so?" exclaimed Gilbert. "I must have a last game of euchre
to-night, then;" and he hurried into the saloon to make up a party.

"Hilloa, Reams!" said he to a foppish-looking fellow, lying at length on
a rosewood sofa, intent on the pages of a yellow-covered volume which he
held above his perfumed head; "come, have done with 'Ten Thousand a
Year,' and let us have a last game of cards. We shall be in New Orleans
to-morrow, so here's our last chance on _la belle_ Eclipse."

"O, give over your game!" yawned the indolent Reams. "I'm better
employed, as you see."

"No!" returned Gilbert, "I'll not give over; if you won't play, I can
find enough that will. You are a cowardly chap, Reams; because you lost
a few picayunes last night, you are afraid to try your luck again.
Where's that young fellow, Morris?"

"What, the handsome lad from old Tennessee?" said Reams, languidly
passing his taper fingers through his lavender-moistened locks; "he will
never hear of any cards save wedding ones tied with white satin, for he
has been for the last half hour on the guards in earnest conversation
with that pretty Miss Orville."

"The deuce he has!" exclaimed Gilbert with a blank expression, as he
walked away with a hasty step, leaving Reams to adjust himself to his
book again. He soon collected a group of card-players and sat down to
his game; while young Wayland Morris and sweet Alice Orville promenaded
the hurricane deck, and admired the beautiful scenery through which they
were gliding, from the lofty pilot-house, conversing with the ease and
freedom of old acquaintances; for thus ever do kindred souls recognize
and flow into each other wherever they chance to meet in this fair world
of ours.

CHAPTER II.

"My mistress hath most trembling nerves;
The buzz of a musquito doth alarm her so,
She straightway falleth into frightful fits."

It was the dinner hour at the splendid mansion of Esq. Camford, the
silver service duly laid on the marble dining-table, the heavy curtains
drooped before the broad, oriel windows, and an odor of orange flowers
pervading the apartment as the light breeze lifted their silken folds.
Colored servants, in snowy jackets and aprons, stood erect and prim in
their respecti