"You can stay right here where you are, with Madame Zenobie, as you had planned; but you'll give yourself to this better work. I'll give you a _carte blanche_. Only one mistake I charge you not to make; don't go and come from day to day on the assumption that only the poor are poor, and need counsel and attention." "I know that would be a mistake," said Mary. "But I mean more than that," continued the Doctor. "You must keep a hold on the rich and comfortable and happy. You want to be a medium between the two, identified with both as completely as possible. It's a hard task, Mary. It will take all your cunning." "And more, too," replied she, half-musing. "You know," said the Doctor, "I'm not to appear in the matter, of course; I'm not to be mentioned: that must be one of the conditions." Mary smiled at him through her welling eyes. "I'm not fit to do it," she said, folding the wet spots of her handkerchief under. "But still, I'd rather not refuse. If I might try it, I'd like to do so. If I could do it well, it would be a finer monument--to _him_"-- "Than brass or marble," said Dr. Sevier. "Yes, more to his liking." "Well," said Mary again, "if you think I can do it I'll try it." "Very well. There's one place you can go to, to begin with, to-morrow morning, if you choose. I'll give you the number. It's just across here in Casa Calvo street." "Narcisse's aunt?" asked Mary, with a soft gleam of amusement. "Yes. Have you been there already?" She had; but she only said:-- "There's one thing that I'm afraid will go against me, Doctor, almost everywhere." She lifted a timid look. The Doctor looked at her inquiringly, and in his private thought said that it was certainly not her face or voice. "Ah!" he said, as he suddenly recollected. "Yes; I had forgotten. You mean your being a Union woman." "Yes. It seems to me they'll be sure to find it out. Don't you think it will interfere?" The Doctor mused. "I forgot that," he repeated and mused again. "You can't blame us, Mary; we're at white heat"-- "Indeed I don't!" said Mary, with eager earnestness. He reflected yet again. "But--I don't know, either. It may be not as great a drawback as you think. Here's Madame Zenobie, for instance"-- Madame Zenobie was just coming up the front steps from the garden, pulling herself up upon the veranda wearily by the balustrade. She came forward, and, with graceful acknowledgment, accepted the physician's outstretched hand and courtesied. "Here's Madame Zenobie, I say; you seem to get along with her." Mary smiled again, looked up at the standing quadroon, and replied in a low voice:-- "Madame Zenobie is for the Union herself."