d
laughing merrily--since it was laugh or perish.

"No, gentlemen," she heard Julian say, "this is the last-st st-straw. A
nigger wench made up to counterfeit a member of our family, and the part
given her which that member of our family was to have played! ...
Overlook--oh, good God, sir, we've done nothing but overlook, every hour
of day and night since we started."

From the other three came responses too quiet to be understood. Ramsey
half rose toward the clerk and sank again, begging him to carry her
errand on to the brothers, and he had softly moved forward as far as to
the exhorter when that person, still on his feet, called to Julian:

"Yass! an' thah ah cause to believe said niggeh----"

Two small interruptions came at once, provoking a general laugh: Julian,
staring at him in heavy abstraction, said dreamily, "Ho--ho--hold your
tongue," while the clerk, at "John the Baptist's" side, gently grasped
between the shoulders a fold of his coat, mildly suggested, "Have a
seat," and put him so suddenly off his balance that he plumped heavily
into his chair--quite enough to rouse the mirth of a company already a
trifle nervous. And now Julian was heard again:

"No, Luce, you can stay, I'll go alone--or with--thank you, general! Oh,
senator, we are not blind, sir, though every time we overlook some
insult they think we are. Good Lord! do you reckon we don't see that all
this laugh is at us, got up at our expense, and has been at us since the
first turn of this boat's wheels at Canal Street? We saw--_and_
overlooked--that vile attempt to take our two ladies up the river
without us, starting the instant they got aboard and leaving us at the
water's edge a laughing-stock for passengers, crew, and pantry boys!"

Both senator and general coaxed him to sit down, but the most he would
concede was to drop his voice as he continued: "You know, gentlemen, and
they know, that any true man would as soon be slapped in the face and
spit upon as to be laughed at.... No, I--" His words became
indistinguishable.

Ramsey was in anguish. She would have glided forward with her tidings
and summons but for the clerk blocking the path half-way. A stir of
annoyance ran through the gathering, here grave, there facetious, but it
stopped short as a new figure moved quietly past Ramsey and stood beside
the clerk. It was Hugh, and the general interest revived. He exchanged a
word or two with the clerk, who turned and left the cabin while Hug