ve undervalued you, Mr. Ritchie," he said. "You have
no peer. I am unworthy to accompany you, and furthermore, it would be
useless."

"And why useless!" I inquired, laughing.

"You have doubtless seen the lady, and she is yours, said he.

"You forget that I am in love with a miniature," I said.

In half an hour we were packed and ready, the horses had arrived, we
bade good-by to Madame Bouvet and rode down the miry street until we
reached the road behind the levee. Turning southward, we soon left
behind the shaded esplanade and the city's roofs below us, and came to
the first of the plantation houses set back amidst the dark foliage.
No tremor shook the fringe of moss that hung from the heavy boughs, so
still was the day, and an indefinable, milky haze stretched between
us and the cloudless sky above. The sun's rays pierced it and gathered
fire; the mighty river beside us rolled listless and sullen, flinging
back the heat defiantly. And on our left was a tropical forest in all
its bewildering luxuriance, the live-oak, the hackberry, the myrtle, the
Spanish bayonet in bristling groups, and the shaded places gave out a
scented moisture like an orangery; anon we passed fields of corn and
cotton, swamps of rice, stretches of poverty-stricken indigo plants,
gnawed to the stem by the pest. Our ponies ambled on, unmindful; but
Nick vowed that no woman under heaven would induce him to undertake such
a journey again.

Some three miles out of the city we descried two figures on horseback
coming towards us, and quickly perceived that one was a gentleman, the
other his black servant. They were riding at a more rapid pace than the
day warranted, but the gentleman reined in his sweating horse as he
drew near to us, eyed us with a curiosity tempered by courtesy, bowed
gravely, and put his horse to a canter again.

"Phew!" said Nick, twisting in his saddle, "I thought that all Creoles
were lazy."

"We have met the exception, perhaps," I answered. "Did you take in that
man?"

"His looks were a little remarkable, come to think of it," answered
Nick, settling down into his saddle again.

Indeed, the man's face had struck me so forcibly that I was surprised
out of an inquiry which I had meant to make of him, namely, how far we
were from the Saint-Gre plantation. We pursued our way slowly, from
time to time catching a glimpse of a dwelling almost hid in the distant
foliage, until at length we came to a place a little more pretent