The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-14
THE DAUGHTER OF DON
 ANDREA.
xcopyright, 1905, By Daily Story Pub
 Coll
BY GARRARD HARRIS.

Xcopyright, 1905. By Daily Story Pub.
 Co.)
 ~Ah. thet nous'? Feet es call la mail son de Ia femme blanc Oh, no. eet e not inhabit, no fo' many, many 4yeah,--yas.'
 This Acadian. perhaps a descendant of Evangeline and Gabriel. the voya- geurs, deftly rolled cigarette or brown paper and perique tobacco and eyed his questioner with indolent curl osity.
 s-rhet Hous' of the w'ite Woman ---yas Eet es veT', yer ole. Eet was buir long time Ego, wen Spain, she h'own all thees Ian. Me been in thet nous? Le bon Dieui No. tell yo' eet es accura', wal yo' call 'hant liv in thet hous' She ave not been seen, ---oh. feefty yeah.-sev'ny fl yeah. but she Twin yet. Hants don die, lax folks.
 .swhoever look at her go crazy. She w'ite. all hover. hair. eve'y thing wiz nozzin' on her face but skeen, en great biz hole fo' mouth. heah oncle One zine Guidry.-he mos hundred yeah Ule,--heem, say wen ne was III feiler he hear one or man wat soc her, en thet ole man he go crazy fo' he die, he think bout her so Folks skeered go 'roun thet hous' now. | IHet was call 'Bonaventure': was h'own by the Avilar fam'ly.-they was span lish, an buip heern long time go. Well, T mus go to tn pos offs. Au revoir.'
 Back a few hundred yards from the placid Bayou Teche us 1t flows to the IbGexican Gulf. half hidden in a clump of tangled woodland, as though Izhrinixing from the casual gaze sat the house of mystery, snveIoped in the lpcignant grandeur of bygone days.
 Matted boughs of giant live-oaks. kray with funereal festoons oN-Spanish naoss kept about the place perpetu- hl gloom; underneath was wilderness of lesser trees, a tangle of cane and br1er and vine. About the six great bnick columns in front. rank growing ipotson ivy has flung its embrace of 6nhaalthy green,--riots over the door, &tep and peers into the gaping front ,wfndows. The heavy door careens un- fnteadiiy across the main entrance, sup fported by one rusty hinge. Remnants fof shutters Hap drearily from case tments which long since have been ig- bnorant of panes. Virginia creeper' kxeilow jessamine and bamboo vines haif hide the walls of quaint Moorish brick.
 |. Inside, desoIation bas lSid It's drear hand everywhere. Shreds of rotting kcarpet yet cling, half covered with dead leaves to shaky, careening floors "A great canopied bed has collapsed in to a mass of gray mold and decayins wood: bits of discolored tapestry lie lntrevn along the baseboards where bkhey fell from slimy walls; chairs have sunk to the floor of their own weight and rottenness. Bats and owls make the place their home. The wierd cry of the hip-poor-will and the noarse scroak of the butcher-bird, as they holo nnoanny revei by night in the tangled trees are all that break the deadly stiffness.
 Not even the scuttle and squeak oi some long forgotten, pariah rat dls' 1urbs the death like calm. The silence Of utter desoiation: the weight or lone Illness of dead years rests upon It hk' a sombre pail. The very air IS mustS as that pent up with crumbling oonei dn some moss covered tomb or genera tions past and gone.
 Tears and threatened insurrectioI reigned in the house of Don Andres Castro of the Parish of St. James. He the master of two hundred slaves on' of the largest planters of indigo II New Spain, was being defied by ni only daughter. Carmeiita was ben upon marrying a ne'er do well iron New Orleans, roisterer' gamoler and worst of all. a Frenchman.
 Noble of bLrth he undoubtedly was ana handsome, too. Much experience had taught him how to win woman SO, when Carmelita, heiress 10 the rlci pnssessions of Don Andrea nasheo across the pisionIof the enchanted D Lanzac, his first approach to real low mingled with the cupidity of the rum Cd spendthrift, and he resolved t make her his own. Every vile knowi Eo him was used In his assault upol her young heart Little wonder 1t Il, sGhat she, unused to tae way oA men surrendered completely.
 Don Andrea, however had otne ss,lans for her. Senor Jose Avilal Srom his broad domain up on the Ieeh had been coming to see Carmellta Eose was somewhat older than De Lan kwar, hut all the same. handsome and ar 6ent and rich. He could match slav for slave with Don Andrea, acre 10 Lee doubloon for doubloon. Wh' ECarmelfta could not care for him wa "a mystery to her father. She clpng | be Lanzac with all the fury or Vouh