Produced by Chuck Greif and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) MADAME DELPHINE BY GEORGE W. CABLE _Author of "Old Creole Days," "The Grandissimes," etc._ NEW YORK COPYRIGHT BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743 AND 745 BROADWAY 1881 PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE & CO., NOS. 10 TO 20 ASTOR PLACE, NEW YORK. * * * * * CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE AN OLD HOUSE 1 CHAPTER II. MADAME DELPHINE 7 CHAPTER III. CAPITAINE LEMAITRE 12 CHAPTER IV. THREE FRIENDS 18 CHAPTER V. THE CAP FITS 28 CHAPTER VI. A CRY OF DISTRESS 40 CHAPTER VII. MICHE VIGNEVIELLE 50 CHAPTER VIII. SHE 59 CHAPTER IX. OLIVE 68 CHAPTER X. BIRDS 74 CHAPTER XI. FACE TO FACE 82 CHAPTER XII. THE MOTHER BIRD 90 CHAPTER XIII. TRIBULATION 99 CHAPTER XIV. BY AN OATH 106 CHAPTER XV. KYRIE ELEISON 120 * * * * * MADAME DELPHINE. CHAPTER I. AN OLD HOUSE. A few steps from the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans, brings you to and across Canal street, the central avenue of the city, and to that corner where the flower-women sit at the inner and outer edges of the arcaded sidewalk, and make the air sweet with their fragrant merchandise. The crowd--and if it is near the time of the carnival it will be great--will follow Canal street.