s being acquainted with the fact of this debt, which I had
fancied a secret between Richards and myself.

"And how do you know that, my dear M. Menou?"

Menou smiled at my question. "You forget," said he, "that I am only just
returned from New Orleans. One hears and learns many things when one
opens one's ears to the gossip of the _haut-ton_ of the capital."

"Ha, ha!" said I, a little sarcastically, and glancing at the man's
straw hat, and unbleached trousers and jacket; "Monsieur Menou--the
plain and unsophisticated Monsieur Menou, also a _haut-ton_ man?"

"My wife was a M----y; my grandfather was president of the Toulouse
parliament," replied the Creole quietly, to my somewhat impertinent
remark.

I bowed. My suspicions concerning Indian blood were unfounded then.

"And have my proceedings and follies really served as tea-table talk to
the New Orleans' gossips?" said I.

"Don't let that annoy you," replied Menou. "Let the world talk; and you,
on your part, prove to it that you are a more sensible man than it
takes you for. Will you put yourself for a while entirely under my
guidance?"

"Very willingly," said I.

"And promise to abide by my advice."

"I promise to do so."

"Then," continued Menou, "you must let me have, to use as I think
proper, eight out of the eleven thousand dollars which you have lying
idle."

"And Richards?" said I.

"Can do without them better than you can. It is very well to be
generous, but not to the extent of injuring yourself. Here is a receipt
for the sum in question. I will account to you for its expenditure."

And with these words he handed me the receipt. He had evidently laid a
little plot to force me to my own good. It went decidedly against the
grain with me to requite Richards' hospitality and friendship by
claiming back the money I had lent him, and for which he no doubt had
good use. At the same time, it would have been rather Quixotic to let my
own plantation go to rack and ruin for want of the funds by which he was
profiting; and moreover, I had given Menou my word to be guided by him;
so I put the receipt and my romantics in my pocket, and returned to the
house to give my adviser an order for the money.

Julie and Louise scarcely seemed to observe our entrance. Both had their
hands full--the one with cookery and domestic matters, the other with
the ginghams and muslins, which she was rending and tearing with a
vigour that caused the noise to be heard fifty ya