into bed by Tom, where he immediately dropped into a perfectly
senseless sleep.

As soon as there was sufficient light, Tom started for the house of
the Signor; judging that he was safe from his master for three hours
at least. Notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, Madame made her
appearance in a very few moments after her servant informed her who
was in waiting, and the Signor soon followed. In the course of the
next hour and a half an incredible amount of talking was done in negro
"lingo" and broken English. The impetuous Signor strode up and down,
clenching his fists, cursing slavery, and sending Fitzgerald to the
Devil in a volley of phrases hard enough in their significance, though
uttered in soft-flowing Italian.

"Swearing does no good, my friend," said Madame; "besides, there isn't
time for it. Rosabella must be brought away immediately. Bruteman will
be on the alert, you may depend. She slipped through his fingers once,
and he won't trust Fitzgerald again."

The Signor cooled down, and proposed to go for her himself. But that
was overruled, in a very kind way, by his prudent wife, who argued
that he was not well enough for such an exciting adventure, or to
be left without her nursing, when his mind would be such a prey to
uneasiness. It was her proposition to send at once for her cousin
Duroy, and have him receive very particular directions from Tom how to
reach the island and find the cottage. Tom said he didn't know whether
he could get away for an hour again, because his master was always
very angry if he was out of the way when called; but if Mr. Duroy
would come to the hotel, he would find chances to tell him what to do.
And that plan was immediately carried into effect.

While these things were going on in New Orleans, Mrs. Fitzgerald was
taking frequent drives about the lovely island with her mother, Mrs.
Bell; while Rosa was occasionally perambulating her little circuit of
woods on the back of patient Thistle. One day Mrs. Fitzgerald and her
mother received an invitation to the Welby plantation, to meet some
Northern acquaintances who were there; and as Mrs. Fitzgerald's
strength was not yet fully restored, Mrs. Welby proposed that they
should remain all night. Chloe, who had lost her own baby, was chosen
to nurse her master's new-born heir, and was consequently tied so
closely that she could find no chance to go to the cottage, whose
inmates she had a great longing to see. But when master and