ld not rally
from it; and it was his utter hopelessness that made him give way so
completely. So, my poor child, this is your present situation: your
father's estates are sold, and are now in the hands of strangers;
your father's money is now at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean; so
that to return to France is, for the present, at least, not to be
thought of.

"For my part," continued Cazeneau, as Mimi sat there dumb with horror
at hearing this fresh and crushing news, "I do not see anything in
your situation which need give you one moment's uneasiness. You have
lost your father, but your father's best friend still lives, and he
will never see the daughter of his friend know one single trouble, if
he can help it. We were more than brothers. Suppose you try to think
of me with something of the same confidence that your father felt. I,
for my part, will put you in his place. You shall never know a care.
You may consider yourself rich. You shall have no trouble except that
deep sorrow which you feel as a fond daughter."

"I cannot live in America," moaned Mimi, despairingly, recoiling in
her heart from Cazeneau, and dreading him more than ever. "I cannot.
I want to go home; or, if I have no home, I want to go to France. I
will enter a convent."

Cazeneau smiled at this.

"Such a wish, dear child," said he, "is quite natural now, in the
first freshness of your bereavement; but time alleviates all sorrow,
and you may think differently hereafter. As to returning to France,
you shall most certainly do that. I intend to go back after a time;
and you will once more live in our dear, native land. But, for the
present, let us not talk of these things. Louisbourg is now our
destination. Fear nothing. You shall not know a care. You shall be
guarded from every want, and every wish shall be gratified. You shall
find yourself surrounded by the most anxious, and tender, and
solicitous care for your happiness."

These last words were spoken in a warmer and more impassioned manner
than Cazeneau had thus far used, and their effect upon Mimi was so
much the more unpleasant. He then raised her hand to his lips with
respectful affection, and took his departure.

Mimi was for a time quite overwhelmed. The sorrow which she had
experienced for her father gave way to a new feeling--one of terror,
deep, dark, and irremovable--about herself and her own future. All
Cazeneau's words recurred to her, and the more she thought of them,
the more