fortune to overthrow. It was a hard alternative, surely, in that time of bitterness and agony, happily passed now, and almost forgotten,—and who shall say that of the two conditions he did not choose the least humiliating? An estate in Spain, which he inherited from his wife, made Mr. Feuardent seem still a rich man among those whose all had been invested in a property suddenly declared to be no longer Merchandise, but Man. Robert's father was only lately dead, and from him the young man had inherited a house in the older quarter of the city and an income large enough to allow him to be idle when he chose. He was known to be in some way interested in the sugar business; and though the interest was a languid one, it kept him linked with the affairs of the community in which he dwelt. The young Creole was a person of little education, but of high breeding. For such training as he had received he was indebted to a Jesuit college, in which he had learned and forgotten the things which one may learn in such an institution. He was an authority, however, on certain subjects to which he had given much time and thought; No one could guide you to such good fishing-ground on the edges of Pontchartrain, or in the bend of a quiet bayou, as he could. He was the best shot among the sportsmen of the place, and was indefatigable in hunt-
