calling out, "_Grosse
tante!--oh, Grosse tante!_"

The sound of her voice brought to the door a negress--coal black and
so enormously fat that she moved about with evident difficulty. She
was dressed in a loosely hanging purple calico garment of the mother
Hubbard type--known as a _volante_ amongst Louisiana Creoles; and on
her head was knotted and fantastically twisted a bright _tignon_. Her
glistening good-natured countenance illumined at the sight of Therese.

"_Quo faire to pas woulez rentrer, Tite maitresse?_" and Therese
answered in the same Creole dialect: "Not now, _Grosse tante_--I shall
be back in half an hour to drink a cup of coffee with you." No English
words can convey the soft music of that speech, seemingly made for
tenderness and endearment.

As Therese turned away from the gate, the black woman re-entered the
house, and as briskly as her cumbersome size would permit, began
preparations for her mistress' visit. Milk and butter were taken from
the safe; eggs, from the India rush basket that hung against the wall;
and flour, from the half barrel that stood in convenient readiness in
the corner: for _Tite maitresse_ was to be treated to a dish of
_croquignoles_. Coffee was always an accomplished fact at hand in the
chimney corner.

_Grosse tante_, or more properly, Marie Louise, was a Creole--Therese's
nurse and attendant from infancy, and the only one of the family
servants who had come with her mistress from New Orleans to
Place-du-Bois at that lady's marriage with Jerome Lafirme. But her
ever increasing weight had long since removed her from the possibility
of usefulness, otherwise than in supervising her small farm yard. She
had little use for "_ces neges Americains_," as she called the
plantation hands--a restless lot forever shifting about and changing
quarters.

It was seldom now that she crossed the river; only two occasions being
considered of sufficient importance to induce her to such effort. One
was in the event of her mistress' illness, when she would install
herself at her bedside as a fixture, not to be dislodged by any less
inducement than Therese's full recovery. The other was when a dinner
of importance was to be given: then Marie Louise consented to act as
_chef de cuisine_, for there was no more famous cook than she in the
State; her instructor having been no less a personage than old Lucien
Santien--a _gourmet_ famed for his ultra Parisian tastes.

Seated at the base of a grea