"Yet more free than most free negroes. 'Twas he. He was janitor to offices in the hotel, and always making acquaintance with the slaves of the slave-mart. And when he found one who was quite of the right kind--and Ovide he's a wise judge of men, you know--he would show him to _grandpere_, and at the auction, if the bidding was low, _grandpere_ would buy him--or her." "What was one of 'quite the right kind'? One willing to buy his own freedom?" "Ah, also to do something more; you see?" "Yes, I see," Chester laughed; "to help others run away, wasn't it?" "Not precisely to run, but----" "To stow away, on those ships, h'm?" There was rapture in crossing that _h'm_ line of intimacy. "I see it all! Ha-ha, I see it all! Well! that brings us back to 'Maud,' doesn't it--h'm?" "Yes. They met, she and grandpere, at a ball, in the hotel. But"--Aline smiled--"that was not their first. Their first was two or three mornings before, when he, passing in Royal Street, and she--with Sidney--looking at old buildings in Conti Street----" "Mademoiselle! That happened to _them_?--_there_?" "Yes, to _them_, _there_." With level gaze narrator and listener regarded each other. Then they glanced at Cupid. His eyes were shining on them. "Who is our young friend, anyhow?" asked Chester. "Ah, I suppose you have guessed. He is the grandson of Sidney." XXI "And another time, on the morning just before the ball," said Aline, returning to the story, "they had seen each other again. That was at the slave-auction. That night, before the ball was over, she and _grandpere_ understood--knew, each, from the other, why the other was at that auction; and he had promised her to find Mingo. "Well, after weeks, Ovide helping, all at once there was Mingo, in the gang, by the block, waiting his turn to go on it. Picture that! Any time I want to shut my eyes I can see it, and I think you can do the same, h'm?" Blessed _h'm_; 'twas the flower--of the Chapdelaines--humming back to the bee. Said the bee, "We'll try it there together some day, h'm?" and Cupid mutely sparkled: "Oh, by all means! the three of us!" The flower ignored them both. "There was the auctioneer," she said; "there were the slaves, there the crowd of bidders; between them the block, above them the beautiful dome. Very soon Mingo was on the block, and the first bid was from Sidney. She was the only one in a hurry except Mingo. He was trying to see her, but she was hiding from him behind _grandpere_; yet not from the auctioneer. The auctioneer stopped. "'Who authorized you to bid here?' he asked her. "'Nobody, sir; I's free.' She held up her paper. "_Grandpere_ nodded to the auctioneer. "'Will Mr. Chapdelaine please read it out?' "He read it out, signature and all. "'Anybody know any one of that name?' the auctioneer asked, and _grand'mere_ said: "'That's my aunt. This free girl is my maid."