pt his eyes on the woman, and said:

"She must not forget to walk like a woman in the State of
Louisiana,"--as near as the pun can be translated. The company laughed.
Jean Thompson looked at his wife, whose applause he prized, and she
answered by an asseverative toss of the head, leaning back and
contriving, with some effort, to get her arms folded. Her laugh was
musical and low, but enough to make the folded arms shake gently up and
down.

"Pere Jerome is talking to her," said one. The priest was at that moment
endeavoring, in the interest of peace, to say a good word for the four
people who sat watching his approach. It was in the old strain:

"Blame them one part, Madame Delphine, and their fathers, mothers,
brothers, and fellow-citizens the other ninety-nine."

But to every thing she had the one amiable answer which Pere Jerome
ignored:

"I am going to arrange it to satisfy everybody, all together. _Tout a
fait_."

"They are coming here," said Madame Varrillat, half articulately.

"Well, of course," murmured another; and the four rose up, smiling
courteously, the doctor and attorney advancing and shaking hands with
the priest.

No--Pere Jerome thanked them--he could not sit down.

"This, I believe you know, Jean, is Madame Delphine"--

The quadroone courtesied.

"A friend of mine," he added, smiling kindly upon her, and turning, with
something imperative in his eye, to the group. "She says she has an
important private matter to communicate."

"To me?" asked Jean Thompson.

"To all of you; so I will--Good-evening." He responded nothing to the
expressions of regret, but turned to Madame Delphine. She murmured
something.

"Ah! yes, certainly." He addressed the company "She wishes me to speak
for her veracity; it is unimpeachable. Well, good-evening." He shook
hands and departed.

The four resumed their seats, and turned their eyes upon the standing
figure.

"Have you something to say to us?" asked Jean Thompson, frowning at her
law-defying bonnet.

"Oui," replied the woman, shrinking to one side, and laying hold of one
of the benches, "_mo oule di' tou' c'ose_"--I want to tell every thing.
"_Miche Vignevielle la plis bon homme di moune_"--the best man in the
world; "_mo pas capabe li fe tracas_"--I cannot give him trouble. "_Mo
pas capable, non; m'ole di' tous c'ose_." She attempted to fan herself,
her face turned away from the attorney, and her eyes rested on the
ground.

"Take a seat," said