white cover of the little table.
Removing the lid from the dish, she hobbled back a few steps to regard
her guest with triumphant expectation. "Dat make yo' eat."

"What a cook you are, mammy!" he said, lightly. "You would give a
longing tooth to satiety."

"De debil blow de fire," she answered, chuckling.

"Then the devil is a _chef de cuisine_. This sauce is bewitching."

"Yo' like it?" Delighted.

"Tis a spell in itself. Confess, mammy, Old Nick mixed it?"

"No, he only blow de fire," she reiterated, with a grin.

"Any one been to see me, mammy?"

"Only dat Mexican gemmen; dat gemmen been here befo' who take yo'
message about de troops; when dey go from New Orleans; how many dey
am!"

"You know that, auntie?" he asked quickly. "You know that I--"

"Yes, honey," she answered, shaking her head. "Yo' be berry careful,
Mar's'r Edward."

"What did he want?" said the land baron, quickly.

"He gib me dis." And the crone handed her visitor a slip of paper on
which a few words were written. "What dat mean?"

"It means I am going away, mammy," pushing back his chair.

"Gwine away!" she repeated. "When's yo' gwine?"

"To-morrow; perhaps to-night even; down the river, auntie!" Rising and
surveying himself in a mirror.

"How long yo' gwine away foh?"

"Perhaps forever, auntie!"

"Not foh good, Mar's'r Edward? Not foh good?" He nodded and she broke
into loud wailings. "Yo's gwine and yo' old mammy'll see yo' no
moh--no moh! I knows why yo's gwine, Mar's'r Edward. I's heard yo'
talkin' about her in yo' sleep. But yo' stay and yo' mammy has a
love-charm foh yo'; den she's yo's, foh suah."

This offer, coming from one of her uncanny reputation, would have been
accepted with implicit faith by most of the dwellers in that locality,
superstitious to the last degree, but Mauville laughed carelessly.

"Pshaw, mammy! Do you think I would fly from a woman? Do I look as
though I needed a charm?"

"No; she mus' worship yo'!" cried the infatuated crone.

Then a change passed over her puckered face and she lifted her arms
despairingly, rocking her body to and fro, while she mumbled
unintelligible words which would have caused the negroes to draw away
from her with awe, for the spell was on her. But the land baron only
regarded her carelessly as she muttered something pertaining to spells
and omens.

"Come, auntie," he said impatiently at last, "you know I don't believe
in this tom-foolery."

She turned to him veh