Bayou Folk

eceived from her father. He decided at once that she must see everything: day processions and night parades, balls and tableaux, operas and plays. He would arrange for it a

lanade Street. She and the Duplans were staying there with old Mme. Carantelle, Mrs. Duplan's

,-young people and old people, all talking French, and some talking loude

she was calling him Grégoire, and wanting to know how the crops were up on Red River. She met every one from t

a pleasing one in itself. But he wondered why Placide was with her, and sat so persistently beside her, and danced so repeatedly with her when Mrs. Duplan played upon the

a mood which inclined him to read a few pages from a stoic philosopher whom he sometimes affected. But the words of wisdom that had often before helped him over disagreeable place

the town, would willingly have made his knowledge a more intimate one; but Placide did not choose to learn the lessons that Hector was ready to teach. He asked nothing better than

in the dense crowd on the street gazing up at her, where she sat on the club-house balcony amid a bevy of gayly dressed women. It was

atever to think this. She had grown conscious and thoughtful of late about him and their relationship. She often communed with herself, and as a result tried to act toward him as

our, to consult about matters on the plantation, saying he had found it so difficult to obtain a

d to see him one afternoon-the day before leaving t

losed green shutters, and bringing a delicious perfume from the courtyard where old Chariot was watering the spreading palms and brilliant parterr

into the subject that had brought him there. He was willing enough that it should play some r?le, since it had been his pretext for coming; but he soon dismissed it, and with it much restraint that had held him till now. He simply lo

know many people. I've been coming so often with M

's-it's aggravating," he said, far more bitterly than the subj

d; and they both laughed, and got safely over a situat

intillant with feeling. If Offdean had taken Euphrasie's hands in his and leaned forward and kissed her lips, it would have seemed to both only the rational outcome of things that stirred them. But he did not do this. He knew now

ot entangled in explaining why he should have to go back to the plantation to see how

Any other man she knew would have done the same thing, but this simple act caused the blood to surge to her cheeks. She let the curtain drop, and sat there like one dreaming

in, full of bustle, with theatre tickets in his pocket for

nsteady voice, placing her hands on his shoulder

ow what, and she rested her hot cheek against his breast. This made hi

nced soul was torn and sore. She knelt down beside her bed, and sobbed a little and prayed a little. She felt t