a notion lying somewhere deep in her
consciousness that the world must one day be taken seriously; but that
contingency was yet too far away to disturb the harmony of her days.

She had eagerly responded to her brother's suggestion of spending a
summer with him in Louisiana. Hitherto, having passed her summers
North, West, or East as alternating caprice prompted, she was ready at
a word to fit her humor to the novelty of a season at the South. She
enjoyed in advance the startling effect which her announced intention
produced upon her intimate circle at home; thinking that her whim
deserved the distinction of eccentricity with which they chose to
invest it. But Melicent was chiefly moved by the prospect of an
uninterrupted sojourn with her brother, whom she loved blindly, and to
whom she attributed qualities of mind and heart which she thought the
world had discovered to use against him.

"You got to set mighty still in this pirogue."

"Yes, I know; you told me so before," and she laughed.

"W'at are you laughin' at?" asked Gregoire with amused but uncertain
expectancy.

"Laughing at you, Gregoire; how can I help it?" laughing again.

"Betta wait tell I do somethin' funny, I reckon. Ain't this a putty
sight?" he added, referring to the dense canopy of an overarching
tree, beneath which they were gliding, and whose extreme branches
dipped quite into the slow moving water.

The scene had not attracted Melicent. For she had been engaged in
observing her companion rather closely; his personality holding her
with a certain imaginative interest.

The young man whom she so closely scrutinized was slightly undersized,
but of close and brawny build. His hands were not so refinedly white
as those of certain office bred young men of her acquaintance, yet
they were not coarsened by undue toil: it being somewhat an axiom with
him to do nothing that an available "nigger" might do for him.

Close fitting, high-heeled boots of fine quality incased his feet, in
whose shapeliness he felt a pardonable pride; for a young man's
excellence was often measured in the circle which he had frequented,
by the possession of such a foot. A peculiar grace in the dance and a
talent for bold repartee were further characteristics which had made
Gregoire's departure keenly felt among certain belles of upper Red
River. His features were handsome, of sharp and refined cut; and his
eyes black and brilliant as eyes of an alert and intelligent animal