egoire was right: do you know those nasty creatures have gone and
left every speck of the supper dishes unwashed? I've got half a mind
to give them both warning to-morrow morning."

Fanny had come in from the kitchen to the sitting-room, and the above
homily was addressed to her husband who stood lighting his cigar. He
had lately taken to smoking.

"You'd better do nothing of the kind; you wouldn't find it easy to
replace them. Put up a little with their vagaries: this sort of thing
only happens once a year."

"How do you know it won't be something else just as ridiculous
to-morrow? And that idiot of a Minervy; what do you suppose she told
me when I insisted on her staying to wash up things? She says, last
whatever you call it, her husband wanted to act hard-headed and staid
out after dark, and when he was crossing the bayou, the spirits jerked
him off his horse and dragged him up and down in the water, till he
was nearly drowned. I don't see what you're laughing at; I guess you'd
like to make out that they're in the right."

Hosmer was perfectly aware that Fanny had had a drink, and he rightly
guessed that Morico had given it to her. But he was at a loss to
account for the increasing symptoms of intoxication that she showed.
He tried to persuade her to go to bed; but his efforts to that end
remained unheeded, till she had eased her mind of an accumulation of
grievances, mostly fancied. He had much difficulty in preventing her
from going over to give Melicent a piece of her mind about her lofty
airs and arrogance in thinking herself better than other people. And
she was very eager to tell Therese that she meant to do as she liked,
and would stand no poking of noses in her business. It was a good
while before she fell into a heavy sleep, after shedding a few maudlin
tears over the conviction that he intended to leave her again, and
clinging to his neck with beseeching enquiry whether he loved her.

He went out on the veranda feeling much as if he had been wrestling
with a strong adversary who had mastered him, and whom he was glad to
be freed of, even at the cost of coming inglorious from the conflict.
The night was so dark, so hushed, that if ever the dead had wished to
step from their graves and take a stroll above ground, they could not
have found a more fitting hour. Hosmer walked very long in the
soothing quiet. He would have liked to walk the night through. The
last three hours had been like an acute physical