, and Boitelle, after his first
astonishment at discovering that this negress had as good principles as
honest French girls, that she exhibited a regard for economy, industry,
religion and good conduct, loved her more on that account, and was so
charmed with her that he wanted to marry her.

He told her his intentions, which made her dance with joy. She had also
a little money, left her by, a female oyster dealer, who had picked her
up when she had been left on the quay at Havre by an American captain.
This captain had found her, when she was only about six years old,
lying on bales of cotton in the hold of his ship, some hours after his
departure from New York. On his arrival in Havre he abandoned to the
care of this compassionate oyster dealer the little black creature, who
had been hidden on board his vessel, he knew not why or by whom.

The oyster woman having died, the young negress became a servant at the
Colonial Tavern.

Antoine Boitelle added: "This will be all right if my parents don't
oppose it. I will never go against them, you understand, never! I'm
going to say a word or two to them the first time I go back to the
country."

On the following week, in fact, having obtained twenty-four hours'
leave, he went to see his family, who cultivated a little farm at
Tourteville, near Yvetot.

He waited till the meal was finished, the hour when the coffee baptized
with brandy makes people more open-hearted, before informing his parents
that he had found a girl who satisfied his tastes, all his tastes, so
completely that there could not exist any other in all the world so
perfectly suited to him.

The old people, on hearing this, immediately assumed a cautious manner
and wanted explanations. He had concealed nothing from them except the
color of her skin.

She was a servant, without much means, but strong, thrifty, clean,
well-conducted and sensible. All these things were better than money
would be in the hands of a bad housewife. Moreover, she had a few sous,
left her by a woman who had reared her, a good number of sous, almost
a little dowry, fifteen hundred francs in the savings bank. The old
people, persuaded by his talk, and relying also on their own judgment,
were gradually weakening, when he came to the delicate point. Laughing
in rather a constrained fashion, he said:

"There's only one thing you may not like. She is not a white slip."

They did not understand, and he had to explain at some length an