old to the horses while he shouldered his
way to that gentleman. The result was that the Captain came bowing to the
carriage door, and offered his own cabin to the ladies. But the niggers
---he would take no niggers except a maid for each; and he begged Mrs.
Colfax's pardon--he could not carry her trunk.

So Virginia chose Mammy Easter, whose red and yellow turban was awry from
fear lest she be left behind and Ned was instructed to drive the rest
with all haste to Bellegarde. Captain Vance gave Mrs. Colfax his arm, and
Virginia his eyes. He escorted the ladies to quarters in the texas, and
presently was heard swearing prodigiously as the boat was cast off. It
was said of him that he could turn an oath better than any man on the
river, which was no mean reputation.

Mrs. Colfax was assisted to bed by Susan. Virginia stood by the little
window of the cabin, and as the Barbara paddled and floated down the
river she looked anxiously for signals of a conflagration. Nay, in that
hour she wished that the city might burn. So it is that the best of us
may at times desire misery to thousands that our own malice may be fed.
Virginia longed to see the yellow flame creep along the wet, gray clouds.
Passionate tears came to her eyes at the thought of the humiliation she
had suffered,--and before him, of all men. Could she ever live with her
aunt after what she had said? "Carrying on with that Yankee!" The
horrible injustice of it!

Her anger, too, was still against Stephen. Once more he had been sent by
circumstances to mock her and her people. If the city would only burn,
that his cocksure judgment might for once be mistaken, his calmness for
once broken!

The rain ceased, the clouds parted, and the sun turned the muddy river to
gold. The bluffs shone May-green in the western flood of light, and a
haze hung over the bottom-lands. Not a sound disturbed the quiet of the
city receding to the northward, and the rain had washed the pall of smoke
from over it. On the boat excited voices died down to natural tones; men
smoked on the guards and promenaded on the hurricane deck, as if this
were some pleasant excursion. Women waved to the other boats flocking
after. Laughter was heard, and joking. Mrs. Colfax stirred in her berth
and began to talk.

"Virginia, where are we going?" Virginia did not move

"Jinny!"

She turned. In that hour she remembered that great good-natured man, her
mother's brother, and for his sake Colonel Carvel