Indeed, at that time the society of New Orleans had other things to think about than the fate of the Des Islets.  As for la grande demoiselle, she had prepared for her own oblivion in the hearts of her female friends.  And the gentlemen,—­her preux chevaliers,—­they were burning with other passions than those which had driven them to her knees, encountering a little more serious response than “bahs” and shrugs.  And, after all, a woman seems the quickest thing forgotten when once the important affairs of life come to men for consideration.

It might have been ten years according to some calculations, or ten eternities,—­the heart and the almanac never agree about time,—­but one morning old Champigny (they used to call him Champignon) was walking along his levee front, calculating how soon the water would come over, and drown him out, as the Louisianians say.  It was before a seven-o’clock breakfast, cold, wet, rainy, and discouraging.  The road was knee-deep in mud, and so broken up with hauling, that it was like walking upon waves to get over it.  A shower poured down.  Old Champigny was hurrying in when he saw a figure approaching.  He had to stop to look at it, for it was worth while.  The head was hidden by a green barege veil, which the showers had plentifully besprinkled with dew; a tall, thin figure.  Figure!  No; not even could it be called a figure:  straight up and down, like a finger or a post; high-shouldered, and a step—­a step like a plow-man’s.  No umbrella; no—­nothing more, in fact.  It does not sound so peculiar as when first related—­something must be forgotten.  The feet—­oh, yes, the feet—­they were like waffle-irons, or frying-pans, or anything of that shape.

Old Champigny did not care for women—­he never had; they simply did not exist for him in the order of nature.  He had been married once, it is true, about a half century before; but that was not reckoned against the existence of his prejudice, because he was celibataire to his finger-tips, as any one could see a mile away.  But that woman intrigue’d him.

He had no servant to inquire from.  He performed all of his own domestic work in the wretched little cabin that replaced his old home.  For Champigny also belonged to the great majority of the nouveaux pauvres.  He went out into the rice-field, where were one or two hands that worked on shares with him, and he asked them.  They knew immediately; there is nothing connected with the parish that a field-hand does not know at once.  She was the teacher of the colored public school some three or four miles away.  “Ah,” thought Champigny, “some Northern lady on a mission.”  He watched to see her return in the evening, which she did, of course; in a blinding rain.  Imagine the green barege veil then; for it remained always down over her face.

[Illustration:  CHAMPIGNY.]