"Sorry for it. Beware of Miss Brown. This is the day of Mars, not Venus. Good by."

When Onslow had gone, Ratcliff sat five minutes as if meditating on some plan. Then, drawing forth a pocket-book, he took out an envelope, - wrote on it, — reflected, - and wrote again. When he had finished, he ordered the carriage to be brought to the door. As he was passing through the hall, Madame Volney, from the stairs, asked where he was going.

"To the St. Charles, on political business."

"Don't be out late, dear," said Madame. "Let me see how you look. Your neck-tie is out of place. Let me fix it. There! And your vest needs buttoning. So!" And as her delicate hands passed around his person, they slid unperceived into a side-pocket of his coat, and drew forth what he had just deposited there.

"Bother! That will do, Josephine," grumbled Ratcliff. She released him with a kiss. He descended the marble steps of the house, entered a carriage, and drove off.

Madame passed into the dining-room, the brilliant gas-lights of which had not yet been lowered, and, opening the pocketbook, drew out several photographic cards, all containing one and the same likeness of a young and beautiful girl. As the quadroon scanned that fresh vernal countenance, that adorably innocent, but earnest and intelligent expression, those thick, wavy tresses, and that exquisitely moulded bust, her own handsome face grew grim and ugly by the transmuting power of anger and jealousy. "So, this is the game he's pursuing, is it?" she muttered. "This is what makes him restive! Not politics, as he pretends, but this smoothed-faced decoy! as you've kept it, Ratcliff, I've fathomed you at last!"

Deep

Searching further among his papers, she found an envelope, on which certain memoranda were pencilled, and among them these: "First see Tremaine. Arrange for seizure without scandal or noise. Early in morning call on Gentry, have her prepared. Take Esha with us to help."

Hardly had Madame time to read this, when a carriage stopped before the door. Laying the pocket-book with its contents, as if undisturbed, on the table, she ran half-way up-stairs. Ratcliff re-entered, and, after looking about the hall, passed into

the dining-room. "Ah! here it is!" she heard him say to the attendant; "I could have sworn I put it in my pocket." He then left the house, and the carriage again drove off, - drove to the St. Charles, where Ratcliff had a long private interview with the pliable Tremaine.

While it was going on, Laura and Clara sat in the drawingroom, waiting for company. Laura having disapproved of the costume in which Clara had first appeared, the latter now wore a plain robe of black silk; and around her too beautiful neck Laura had put a collar, large enough to be called a cape, fastening it in front with an old-fashioned cameo pin. But how provoking! This dress would insist on being more becoming even than the other!

Vance was the earliest of the visitors. On being introduced to Clara, he bowed as if they had never met before. Then, seating himself by Laura, he devoted himself assiduously to her entertainment. Clara turned over the leaves of a musicbook, and took no part in the conversation. Yes! It was plain that Vance was deeply interested in the superficial, but showy Laura. Well, what better could be expected of a man?

Once more was Laura summoned to the bed-side of her mother. "How vexatious!" Regretfully she left the drawingroom. As soon as she had gone, Vance rose, and, taking a seat by Clara, offered her his hand. She returned its cordial pressure. 'My dear young friend," he said, "tell me everything. What can I do for you?"

O, that she might fling herself on that strong arm and tender heart! That she might disclose to him her whole situation! Impulses, eager and tumultuous, urged her to do this. Then there was a struggle as if to keep down the ready confession. Pride battled with the feminine instinct that claimed a protector. What! This man, on whom she had no more claim than on the veriest stranger, should she put upon him the burden of her confidence? This man who in one minute had whispered more flattering things in the ear of Laura than he had said to Clara during the whole of their acquaintance, should she ask favors from him? O, if he would, by look or word, but betray that he felt an interest in her beyond that of mere friendship! But then came the frightful thought, "I am a slave!" And

Clara shuddered to think that no honorable attachment between her and a gentleman could exist.

"What of that? Surely I may claim from him the help which any true man ought to lend to a woman threatened with outrage. Stop there! Does not the chivalry of the plantation reverse the notions of the old knight-errants, and give heed to no damsel in distress, unless she can show free papers? Nay, will not the representative of the blood of all the cavaliers look calmly on, and smoke his cigar, while a woman is bound naked to a tree and scourged?"

And then her mind ran rapidly over certain stories which a slave-girl, once temporarily hired by Mrs. Gentry, had told of the punishments of female slaves: how, for claiming too long a respite from work after childbirth, they had been “fastened up by their wrists to a beam, or to a branch of a tree, their feet barely touching the ground," and in that position horribly Scourged with a leather thong; perhaps, the father, brother, or husband of the victim being compelled to officiate as the scourger!

*

"But surely this man, whose very glance seems shelter and protection, this true and generous gentleman, must belong to a very different order of chivalry from that of the Davises, the Lees, and the Toombses. Yes! I'll stake my life he's another kind of cavalier from those foul, obscene, and dastardly woman-whipping miscreants and scoundrels. Yes! I'll comply with that gracious entreaty of his, 'Tell me everything!' I'll confess all."

Her heart throbbed.

one name, Ratcliff,

She was on the point of uttering that a sound that would have inspired Vance with the power and wisdom of an archangel to rescue her,when there were voices at the door, and Laura entered, followed by Onslow. They brought with them a noise of talking and laughing. Soon Kenrick joined the party.

The golden opportunity seemed to have slipped by!

To Kenrick's gaze Clara never appeared so transcendent. But there was an unwonted paleness on her cheeks; and what meant that thoughtful and serious air? For a sensitive moral barometer commend us to a lover's heart!

*Testimony of Mrs. Fanny Kemble to facts within her knowledge.

Of course there was music; and Clara sang.

"What do you think of her voice?" asked Laura of Vance. "It justifies all your praises," was the reply; and then, seeing that Clara was not in the mood for display, he took her place at the piano, and rattled away just as Laura requested. Onslow tried to engage Clara in conversation; but a cloud, as if from some impending ill, was palpably over her.

Kenrick sat by in silence, deaf to the brilliant music. Clara's presence, with its subtle magnetism, had steeped his own thoughts in the prevailing hue of hers. Suddenly he turned to her, and whispered: "You want help. What is it? Grant me the privilege of a brother. What can I do for you?"

The glance Clara turned upon him was so full of thanks, so radiant with gratitude, that hope sprang in his heart. But before she could put her reply in words, Laura had come up, and taken her away to the piano for a concluding song. Clara gave them Longfellow's "Rainy Day" to Dempster's music. The little gilt clock over the mantel tinkled eleven.

Vance rose to go, and said to Laura, "May I call on Miss Brown to-morrow with some new music?

"I'll answer for her, yes,” replied Laura. home any time after twelve."

"We shall be at

The gentlemen all took leave. Onslow made his exit the last. A rose that had been fastened in Clara's waist dropped on the floor. "May I have it?" he asked, picking it up.

"Why not? I wish it were fresher. Good night!" And she put out her hand. Onslow eagerly pressed it; but Clara, lifting his, said, "May this hand never strike except for justice and human freedom!"

"Amen to that!" replied Onslow, before he well took in the entire meaning of what she had said.

He hastened to rejoin his friends, following them through the corridor. He seemed to tread on air. "I was the only one she offered to shake hands with!" he exultingly soliloquized.

The three parted, after an interchange of good nights. Both Onslow and Kenrick betook themselves to their rooms, each with no desire for other companionship than his own rosecolored dreams.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE

A FEMININE VAN AMBURGH.

"She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,

Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules." - Pope.

HE morning after the dinner, Madame Volney rose at sunrise, and was stealing on tiptoe into her dressingroom, when Ratcliff, always a late riser, grumbled, “What's the matter?"

"There's to be an early church-service," she replied. "Bah! You're always going to church!"

The quadroon made no reply, but gently retired, dressed, and glided out of the house into the open air. On through the yet deserted streets she swiftly passed. A white fog brooded over the city. Heavy-winged sea-birds were slowly making their way overhead to the marshes of Lake Ponchartrain, or still farther out to the beaches of the Gulf. The sound of drums and fifes in the distance occasionally broke the matutinal stillness. The walls of the streets were covered with placards of meetings of volunteer companies, of the Wigman Rifles, the MacMahon Guards, the Beauregard Lancers, the Black Flag Invincibles.

After half an hour's walk, the quadroon paused before a house, on the door of which was a brass plate presenting the words, "Mrs. Gentry's Seminary for Young Ladies." While she looked and hesitated, a black girl came up from some steps leading into the basement, and with a mop and pail of water proceeded to wash the sidewalk.

"Is Esha in?" asked the quadroon.

66

'Yes, missis, Esha am in. Jes you go down dem steps inter de kitchen, an' dar you'll fine Esha, sure." And taking the direction pointed out, Madame found herself in the presence of a large, powerfully built mulatto woman, who was engaged in preparations for breakfast.