y does
it to oblige us, out of his kindness."

"Oblige us! Oblige me! Kindness! A negro oblige me! Kind to me! That
is it; that is it. That is the way to talk under the new regime. It is
favor, and oblige, and education, and monsieur, and madame, now. What
child's play to call this a country--a government! I would not be
surprised"--jumping to his next position on this ever-recurring first
of the month theme--"I would not be surprised if Pompey has failed to
find the letter in the box. How do I know that the mail has not
been tampered with? From day to day I expect to hear it. What is to
prevent? Who is to interpose? The honesty of the officials? Honesty of
the officials--that is good! What a farce--honesty of officials! That
is evidently what has happened. The thought has not occurred to me in
vain. Pompey has gone. He has not found the letter, and--well; that is
the end."

But the General had still another theory to account for the delay in
the appearance of his mail which he always posed abruptly after the
exhaustion of the arraignment of the post-office.

"And why not Journel?" Journel was their landlord, a fellow of means,
but no extraction, and a favorite aversion of the old gentleman's.
"Journel himself? You think he is above it, _he_? You think Journel
would not do such a thing? Ha! your simplicity, Honorine--your
simplicity is incredible. It is miraculous. I tell you, I have known
the Journels, from father to son, for--yes, for seventy-five years.
Was not his grandfather the overseer on my father's plantation? I was
not five years old when I began to know the Journels. And this fellow,
I know him better than he knows himself. I know him as well as God
knows him. I have made up my mind. I have made it up carefully that
the first time that letter fails on the first of the month I
shall have Journel arrested as a thief. I shall land him in the
penitentiary. What! You think I shall submit to have my mail tampered
with by a Journel? Their contents appropriated? What! You think there
was no coincidence in Journel's offering me his post-office box just
the month--just the month, before those letters began to arrive? You
think he did not have some inkling of them? Mark my words, Honorine,
he did--by some of his subterranean methods. And all these five years
he has been arranging his plans--that is all. He was arranging theft,
which no doubt has been consummated to-day. Oh, I have regretted it--I
assure you I have r