to the forest.

I studied the parasites--the huge llianas, with branches like
tree-trunks, black and gnarled; the cane-vines, with pretty star-like
flowers; the muscadine grape-vines, with their dark purple clusters; the
_bignonias_, with trumpet-shaped corollas; the _smilacae_, among which
are conspicuous the _Smilax rotundifolia_, the thick bamboo-briar, and
the balsamic sarsaparilla.

Not less interesting were the vegetable forms of cultivation--the
"staples" from which are drawn the wealth of the land. These were the
sugar-cane, the rice-reed, the maize and tobacco-plants, the cotton
shrub, and the indigo. All were new to me, and I studied their
propagation and culture with interest.

Though a month apparently passed in idleness, it was, perhaps, one of
the most profitably employed of my life. In that short month I acquired
more real knowledge than I had done during years of classic study.

But I had learnt one fact that I prized above all, and that was, that _I
was beloved by Aurore_!

I learnt it not from her lips--no words had given me the assurance--and
yet I was certain that it _was_ so; certain as that I lived. Not all
the knowledge in the world could have given me the pleasure of that one
thought!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"_Aurora loves me_!"

This was my exclamation, as one morning I emerged from the village upon
the road leading to the plantation. Three times a week--sometimes even
more frequently--I had made this journey. Sometimes I encountered
strangers at the house--friends of Mademoiselle. Sometimes I found her
alone, or in company with Aurore. The latter I could never find alone!
Oh! how I longed for that opportunity!

My visits, of course, were ostensibly to Mademoiselle. I dared not seek
an interflow with the slave.

Eugenie still preserved the air of melancholy, that now appeared to have
settled upon her. Sometimes she was even sad,--at no time cheerful. As
I was not made the confidant of her sorrows, I could only guess at the
cause. Gayarre, of course, I believed to be the fiend.

Of him I had learnt little. He shunned me on the road, or in the
fields; and upon _his_ grounds I never trespassed. I found that he was
held in but little respect, except among those who worshipped his
wealth. How he was prospering in his suit with Eugenie I knew not. The
world talked of such a thing as among the "probabilities"--though one of