“Heaven bless you, ’Tite Poulette!”

Her face sank lower.

“God has made you very beautiful, Tite Poulette!”

She stirred not.  He reached, and gently took her little hand, and as he drew her one step nearer, a tear fell from her long lashes.  From the next room, Zalli, with a face of agonized suspense, gazed upon the pair, undiscovered.  The young man lifted the hand to lay it upon his lips, when, with a mild, firm force, it was drawn away, yet still rested in his own upon the bedside, like some weak thing snared, that could only not get free.

“Thou wilt not have my love, ’Tite Poulette?”

No answer.

“Thou wilt not, beautiful?”

“Cannot!” was all that she could utter, and upon their clasped hands the tears ran down.

“Thou wrong’st me, ’Tite Poulette.  Thou dost not trust me; thou fearest the kiss may loosen the hands.  But I tell thee nay.  I have struggled hard, even to this hour, against Love, but I yield me now; I yield; I am his unconditioned prisoner forever.  God forbid that I ask aught but that you will be my wife.”

Still the maiden moved not, looked not up, only rained down tears.

“Shall it not be, ’Tite Poulette?” He tried in vain to draw her.

“’Tite Poulette?” So tenderly he called!  And then she spoke.

“It is against the law.”

“It is not!” cried Zalli, seizing her round the waist and dragging her forward.  “Take her! she is thine.  I have robbed God long enough.  Here are the sworn papers—­here!  Take her; she is as white as snow—­so!  Take her, kiss her; Mary be praised!  I never had a child—­she is the Spaniard’s daughter!”

’SIEUR GEORGE.

In the heart of New Orleans stands a large four-story brick building, that has so stood for about three-quarters of a century.  Its rooms are rented to a class of persons occupying them simply for lack of activity to find better and cheaper quarters elsewhere.  With its gray stucco peeling off in broad patches, it has a solemn look of gentility in rags, and stands, or, as it were, hangs, about the corner of two ancient streets, like a faded fop who pretends to be looking for employment.

Under its main archway is a dingy apothecary-shop.  On one street is the bazaar of a modiste en robes et chapeaux and other humble shops; on the other, the immense batten doors with gratings over the lintels, barred and bolted with masses of cobwebbed iron, like the door of a donjon, are overhung by a creaking sign (left by the sheriff), on which is faintly discernible the mention of wines and liquors.  A peep through one of the shops reveals a square court within, hung with many lines of wet clothes, its sides hugged by rotten staircases that seem vainly trying to clamber out of the rubbish.

The neighborhood is one long since given up to fifth-rate shops, whose masters and mistresses display such enticing mottoes as “Au gagne petit!” Innumerable children swarm about, and, by some charm of the place, are not run over, but obstruct the sidewalks playing their clamorous games.