The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-12 00:00:00

P.LL EIGHTS RESERVED.I
'f;•",

CHAPTER VIII.
CenoNA, the plantation of Madame Crozat, was situ-
ated on the Mississippi river, ten miles from Castle
Dismal. It was in a high state of cultivation, and
the trim neatness of the lawn, hedges, and parterre,
was in strong contrast with the neglected grounds
around the latter place.
It was evening, and two dark-haired boys were in
front of their cottage, playing ball, while a stern-
looking, middle-aged man sat on the small portico,
with a book upon his lap, wearing the garb of a
Priest., and with cold, ascetic face. This,was Father
Eustace, the tutor lately employed, and the lads were
the sons of M. Mendon. Their mother was a wealthy
heiress from St. Domingo, who had now been four
years dead; her estate was settled irrevocably upon
her children, and their father was not even permitted
to have a voice in its management.
A small patrimonial estate had been inherited by
M. Mendon, but bad management and wild speculations
had dissipated it long since; and M. Mendon was
ready for any scheme that promised to reinstate his
fortunes, before his sons attained such an age as must
render his dependence upon them a feeling of pain
and inferiority, which his temper did not fit him to
bear with patience. . _

M. Mendon was promenading to and fro upon the
lor.g gallery in front of the central building, with his
hands clasped behind his back, and his brow knit as
If in deep thought. His face was turned toward the
boys, when a shout of mirth came to his ears, and he
saw the tall, lithe figure of his eldest son in active
pursuit of his ball, which had bounded over the grape
trellis into the garden beyond. He bit his lip, and
muttered—
" How fast that lad grows! It seems to me but
yesterday that he was in his cradle, and now he
makes me feel almost old when I look at him. Heigho !
what would Adrienne say if she could see the step-son

-e-euid, give her ?"
He unconsciously raised his voice, and a lady, who,
unperceived, had stepped out of the French window
nearest to him, replied—
" What does it signify? You are still young enough,
and handsome enough, Adolphe, to win the fairest and
best dowered girl in this broad state."
The speaker was at least sixty years of age; tall
and stately, with a spare figure and an alertness of
motion not often found in women far more youthful
than herself.
She had married twice, and each husband had left
her the legacy of a step-child, though she had none of
her own. At the time she bestowed her hand on the
elder Mendon, his youngest son was a child of seven
years; Adolphe was an attractive and engaging lad,
and the step-dame soon became warmly attached to
him. This attachment had continued unabated
throughout her widowhood, although she was then
separated from him by his residence under the roof of
his brother. Madame Crozet had great respect for
money, and the strongest desire of her heart was to
see her favourite endowed with the fortune left by his
wealthy sister-in-law. She insisted that he possessed
the best right to it, for his deceased brother had
nearly doubled the value of the estate by his judicious
management.
Eugene Mendon died suddenly, and his wife, to
whom the property originally belonged, retained un-
disputed possession. No claim was set up by the
relatives of her deceased husband; but when
Madame Mendon married again, and perished soon
after under very mysterious circumstances, an at-
tempt was made to wrest from M. Lecour at least a
moiety of the estate. He brought forward a deed of
settlement, purporting to have been made by his late
wife, by which the whole of her large fortune was ir-
revocably secured to himself.
The decision of the courts was in favour of M.
Lecour, and until recent events suggested anew path-
way to the fulfilment of their wishes, both mother
and son had resigned all hope of acquiring the lost in.'
heritanee.
Madame Crozat was first attracted toward Adrienne
by her beauty and loveliness. They were two days
coming from New Orleans together, and the graceful
attentions of the young stranger won sensibly upon
her regard. When she learned whither she was going,
and the relationship in which she stood toward the
Inste noir of their family, she lost no time in communi-
cating with her step-son.
M. Mendon had also remarked the. beauty of the
fair traveller, and had marvelled in his own mind
how a creature so young, and evidently so well
brought up, should venture to violate the conventional
proprieties which hedge in a young girl in France, so
far as to pursue her present independent course. He
had already been attracted by the remarkable re-
semblance she bore to hi q sister-in-law, and the dis-
covery of her connection with M. Lecour, awakened
in him the liveliest curiosity to learn her antecedents,
and, if possible, to discover her object in making this
long journey to reside with a man who, in his own
neignbourhood, Was considered as verging towards
madness, if not actually insane.
The confidence of an inexperienced girl of nineteen
was not difficult to win, and the friendless traveller
soon confided to Madame Crozat the fact that she
had evaded the authority of the guardians to whom
she had been entrusted, and was in fact a runaway
novice, hoping to find freedom and happiness beneath
the roof of her unknown relative.
The decision of the old lady was at once expressed
that on no account was she to be permitted to takeup
her residence beneath the banned roof of M. Lecour.
She insisted that her own house should become the
temporary home of Mademoiselle Durand, till some
more satisfactory arrangement could be made for her.
But, as we have seen, Adrienne persisted in the plan
she had orignally marked out for herself; and, despotic
as the old lady was, she was compelled to yield to the
firm purpose of the young girl.
At the sound of her voice M. Mendon turned
quickly, and said, with a slight expression of bitter-
ness, " Ah, Madame Mere, your decision is too partial.
The only girl I care just now to win has made me feel
that I am no longer young—that she prefers another
to me."
" Ah! this runaway has a lover. then. Give me all
the particulars of yesterday's interview, Adolphe; I
have been so engaged writing things since I came
home, that I have had no time to listen to you."
"No wonder, Madame Mere,* he replied, with a
half laugh, "for Francoise declares that you have in-
spected the whole plantation in the last twenty-four
hours, detected every abuse, and righted every wrong.
I am sure I sometimes envy you your talent for
business!'
"It was the way my father trained me," she quietly
responded. "If I had remained in New Orleans two
weeks longer, the whole place would have been to
remodel. Such waste! Such disorder! I declare it
'was shameful. But let that pass and tell me about
this young girl. Is there a possibility that we shall
yet win her consent to come to us?"
"None, that I can see, and if she is in love with
some other man, it is of no advantage to us to bring
her hither."
"That is all nonsense; it is but the childish pre-
ference of an inexperienced young girl for the first
man that spoke of love to her. I thought you under-
stood women better than to believe in such puerile
prepossessions. You can soon put this boy lover out
of her head, if you choose to turn it with the flattery
you so well know how to administer."
Mendon shrugged his shoulders, though a faint
emote crept to his lips.
" You really have a higher opinion of my powers in
that line madame than I think they deserve. lam afraid
Mademoiselle Adrienne's indifference to me is insur-
mountable. Besides, unless we are spre of our game,
it will be a waste of time to induce her to change her
mind. I like this young girl better than any one I
have seen since my poor Sylvie'a death—nay, I believe
I could passionately love her; but I cannot marry
her unless I am well assured that she must eventually
become heir to the peoperty now held by M. Lecour.
'You well know, madame, that I must obtain fortune
with the woman on whom I bestow my hand."
Madame Crozet sagaciously nodded.
"Very well, that is as clear to me as to you; but on
either of the chances already discussed, this girl is the
best match in the colony. If she is really the grand-
child of the old Frenchman, hewill naturally leave the
estate to her at his death, and that, you
.know, cannot
be very distant, for he is old, and a victim to the
strange drug he habitually uses."
"It is by no means certain that he would so nobly
endow her, for it was with great reluctance heeroeceiuveedr,
her this morning. I thought once we should
and she would accompany me hither, but suddenlyn
cltpe
old savage changed his tone, and the poor deluded
child eagerly grasped at any chance to remain m that
house which he has cursed with his crimes."
"Poor girl! I wish for her own sake as well as
yours, that she had consented to come with us. You
may depend on it, Adolphe, M. Lecour remareea
that wonderful resemblance to his deceased wife which
first attracted us towards this young stranger. That
old story cannot be entirely unknown to him, and
he could draw his own inferences as easily_ as we
could." _
"We know nothing with certainty, madame. There
were only vague rumours which were never con-
firmed, and if Louise had been the mother of a living
child, she would never have settled her fortune on
this terrible old man in such a manner as to leave it
entirely at his disposal. The resemblance is startling,
but I am constrained to believe it accidental, and only
as M. Lecour's granddaughter can this young lady
claim the noble inheritance I once hoped to call my
own."
"And which yet shall be yours if justice is done to
all parties concerned," emphatically responded his
step-mother. "That the deed was a forgery I am as
well convinced now as I was when it was first brought
forward. The tribunal was bribed which gave the
decision in Lecour's favour, but we will let that pass
for the present. I attach more importance to the
claims of this young girl than you seem inclined to
do, for I am aware of circumstances which singularly
prove her true position to be that of heiress to the

estate."
"Indeed! I thought your information on that head
was principally derived from myself." •
"You have torgotton Leonie, the quadroon, who
accompanied Mademoiselle Montreuil to France, anii
remained there after her return to Louisiana. By a
eineular chance. this woman became t 121) sick nuree of
,
7 1 zuelc4v, „ow*.