o; Mrs. Lasette is a fine writer, but that nervous,
fervid and impassioned style is so unlike hers, that I do not think she
wrote one line of it, though she might have overlooked it, and made
some suggestions, but even if it were so that some one else wrote it, we
know that no one else delivered it, and that her delivery was
excellent."

"That is so; why, she excelled all the other girls. Do you know what was
the difference between her and the other girls?"

"No; what was it?" said Mr. Thomas.

"They wrote from their heads, she wrote from her heart. Annette has
begun to think; she has been left a great deal to herself, and in her
loneliness, she has developed a thoughtfulness past her years, and I
think that a love for her race and a desire to serve it has become a
growing passion in her soul; her heart has supplied her intellect."

"Ah, I think from what you say that I get the true clue to the power and
pathos with which she spoke this morning and that accounts for her
wonderful success."

"Yes," said Mr. Luzerne,[14] "it is the inner life which develops the
outer life, and just such young people as Annette make me more hopeful
of the future of the race."

Mrs. Lasette witnessed Annette's graduation with intense interest and
pleasure. Grandmother Harcourt looked the very impersonation of
satisfaction as she gathered up the floral gifts, and modestly waited
while Annette received the pleasant compliments of admiring friends.

At his request Mr. Thomas introduced Mr. Luzerne to Annette, who in the
most gracious and affable manner, tendered to Annette his hearty
congratulations which she modestly received, and for the time being all
went merry as a marriage bell.

Chapter XIII

"What a fool he is to refuse my offer," thought the saloon-keeper.
"What a pity it is," said Mr. Thomas to himself, "that a man of his
education and ability should be engaged in such accursed business."

After refusing the saloonkeeper's offer Mr. Thomas found a job of
work. It was not a job congenial to his feelings, but his motto was,
"If I do not see an opening I will make one." After he had turned
from Mr. Englishman's workshop, burning with a sense of wrong which
he felt powerless to overcome, he went on the levee and looked around
to see if any work might be picked up by him as a day laborer. He saw
a number of men singing, joking and plying their tasks with nimble
feet and apparently no other care upon their minds than me