, at the late night hour fixed in the letter,
Cornelius met a counterfeit, thickly-veiled Johanna, and swore to marry
her.

"Black as you is? Yass! The blackeh the betteh! An' yit I'd marry you ef
you wuz pyo white!--Colo' line!--I'll cross fifty colo' lines whenev' I
feels like it!"

By midnight every Rosemonter at the ball had heard this speech repeated,
and knew that it had hardly left the mulatto's throat before he had fled
with shrieks of terror from the pretended ghosts of his earlier wives,
and with the curses of a coward's rage from the vain clutches of his
would-be captors.--But we go too fast.

XVIII.

THE PANGS OF COQUETRY

Night fell. The hotel shone. The veranda was gay with Chinese lanterns.
The muffled girls were arriving. The musicians tuned up. There were
three little fiddles, one big one, a flageolet, and a bassoon.

"Twinkling stars are laughing, love,
Laughing on you and me"

--sang the flageolet and little fiddles, while the double bass and the
bassoon grunted out their corroborative testimony with melodious
unction. Presently the instruments changed their mood, the flageolet
pretended to be a mocking-bird, all trills, the fiddles passionately
declared they were dreaming now-ow of Hallie--tr-r-r-ee!--dear
Hallie--tr-r-r-ee!--sweet Hallie--tr-r-r-ee! and the bassoon and double
bass responded from the depths of their emotions, "Hmmh! hmmh!
hm-hm-hmmh!"

Ravenel and his guests appeared on the floor; Major Garnet, too. He had
been with them, here, yonder, all day. Barbara remained at home,
although her gowns were the full length now, and she coiled her hair.
General Halliday and Fannie arrived. Her dress, they said, was the
prettiest in the room. Jeff-Jack introduced everybody to the
Northerners. The women all asked them if Suez wasn't a beautiful city,
and the guests praised the town, its site, its gardens, "its
possibilities," its ladies--!--and its classic river.

Try to look busy or dignified as he might, all these things only harried
John March. He kept apart from Fannie. Indeed, what man of any
self-regard--he asked his mangled spirit--could penetrate the crowd that
hovered about her, ducking, fawning, giggling, attitudinizing--listening
over one another's shoulders, guffawing down each other's throats? It
hurt him to see her show such indiscriminating amiability; but he felt
sure he knew her best, and hoped she was saying to herself, "Oh, that
these sycophants were go