Landry's, Iberville or Terrebonne, whether
inhabitants of the multi-colored and many-balconied Creole quarter of
the quaint metropolis, or dwellers in the dreamy paradises of the
Teche,--mingled joyously, knowing each other, feeling in some sort
akin--whether affiliated by blood, connaturalized by caste, or simply
interassociated by traditional sympathies of class sentiment and class
interest. Perhaps in the more than ordinary merriment of that evening
something of nervous exaltation might have been discerned,--something
like a feverish resolve to oppose apprehension with gayety, to combat
uneasiness by diversion. But the hours passed in mirthfulness; the
first general feeling of depression began to weigh less and less upon
the guests; they had found reason to confide in the solidity of the
massive building; there were no positive terrors, no outspoken fears;
and the new conviction of all had found expression in the words of the
host himself,--"Il n'y a rien de mieux a faire que de s'amuser!" Of
what avail to lament the prospective devastation of cane-fields,--to
discuss the possible ruin of crops? Better to seek solace in
choregraphic harmonies, in the rhythm of gracious motion and of perfect
melody, than hearken to the discords of the wild orchestra of
storms;--wiser to admire the grace of Parisian toilets, the eddy of
trailing robes with its fairy-foam of lace, the ivorine loveliness of
glossy shoulders and jewelled throats, the glimmering of
satin-slippered feet,--than to watch the raging of the flood without,
or the flying of the wrack ...

So the music and the mirth went on: they made joy for
themselves--those elegant guests;--they jested and sipped rich
wines;--they pledged, and hoped, and loved, and promised, with never a
thought of the morrow, on the night of the tenth of August, eighteen
hundred and fifty-six. Observant parents were there, planning for the
future bliss of their nearest and dearest;--mothers and fathers of
handsome lads, lithe and elegant as young pines, and fresh from the
polish of foreign university training;--mothers and fathers of splendid
girls whose simplest attitudes were witcheries. Young cheeks flushed,
young hearts fluttered with an emotion more puissant than the
excitement of the dance;--young eyes betrayed the happy secret
discreeter lips would have preserved. Slave-servants circled through
the aristocratic press, bearing dainties and wines, praying permission
to pass in te