me!' Dem am de
bery words wat she done said, sah, when you went by our house a
half-hour ago."

"Is your mistress young or old?"

The black chuckled, his round face assuming a good-natured grin.

"Fo' de Lawd, Massa, but dat am jest de way wid all you white folks!"
he ejaculated. "If she was ol', an' wrinkled, an' fat, den dat settle
de whole ting. Jest don't want to know no mor'."

"Well," I interrupted impatiently, "keep your moralizing to yourself
until we become better acquainted, and answer my question--Is the woman
young?"

My tone was sufficiently stern to sober him, his black face
straightening out as if it had been ironed.

"Now, don't you go an' git cross, Massa Benteen, case a laugh don't
nebber do nobody no hurt," he cried, shrinking back as if expecting a
blow. "But dat's jest wat she am, sah, an' a heap sweeter dan de
vi'lets in de springtime, sah."

"And she actually told you my name?"

"Yas, sah, she did dat fer suah--'Massa Geoffrey Benteen, an Englisher
from up de ribber,' dem was her bery words; but somehow I done
disremember jest persactly de place."

For another moment I hesitated, scarcely daring to utter the one vital
question trembling on my lips.

"But who is the lady? What is her name?" As I put the simple query I
felt my voice tremble in spite of every effort to hold it firm.

"Madame de Noyan, sah; one ob de bery first famblies. Massa de Noyan
am one ob de Bienvilles, sah."

"De Noyan? De Noyan?" I repeated the unfamiliar name over slowly, with
a feeling of relief. "Most certainly I never before heard other."

"I dunno nothin' 'tall 'bout dat, Massa, but suah's you born dat am her
name and Massa's; an' you is de bery man she done sent me after, fer I
nebber onct took my eyes off you all dis time."

There remained no reasonable doubt as to the fellow's sincerity. His
face was a picture of disinterested earnestness as he fronted me; yet I
hesitated, eying him closely, half inclined to think him the
unsuspecting representative of some rogue. That was a time and place
where one of my birth needed to practise caution; racial rivalry ran so
high throughout all the sparsely settled province that any
misunderstanding between an English stranger and either Frenchman or
Spaniard was certain to involve serious results. We of Northern blood
were bitterly envied because of commercial supremacy. I had, during my
brief residence in New Orleans, witnessed jealous treachery on