"Law?" he went on bitterly; "I wish you'd tell me what _is_ the law. Good God, we white men in this country are anxious enough in our hearts to settle all these things. We want to be law-abiding, but how can we, unless we begin everything all over again? Law? You tell me, what _is_ the law!" CHAPTER XV CERTAIN MOTIVES Miss Lady and her stout-hearted friend, Clarisse Delchasse, found abundance at hand to engage their activities. Miss Lady ran from one part to another of the great house which once she had known so familiarly. Everywhere was an unlovely disorder and confusion, which spoke of shiftlessness and lack of care. The touch of woman's hand had long been wanting. Colonel Blount, in the hands of his indifferent servants, had indeed seen all things go to ruin about him. To Miss Lady, concerned with the swift changes in her own life, wondering what the future might presently have in store for her, all this seemed a sorry home-coming. She leaned her head against the door and wept in a sudden sense of loneliness; yet presently she lost in part this feeling in a greater access of pity which she felt for the helpless master of the Big House, who had been living thus abandoned and alone. With this there came the woman-like wish to restore the place to some semblance of a home. Even as she dried her eyes, to her entered presently madame, with her sleeves rolled to the elbow and her face aglow in the noble ardor of housekeeping. "_Voila_!" she cried. "I have foun' it! I have dig it h'out. Here is the soss-_pan_ of copper. It was throw' away. It was disspise'. _Mais oui_, but now I shall cook! This house it is ruin'. Such a place I never have seen since I begin. You and I, Mademoiselle, it is for us to make this a place fit for the to-live--but you, what is it? Ah, Mademoiselle, why you weep? Come, Come to me!" And Miss Lady was indeed fain to lay her head upon the broad shoulders, to feel the comforting embrace of madame's fat arms. "H'idgit!" cried madame, suddenly, starting back. "H'idgit congenital! H'ass most tremenjouse! Fool _par excellence!"_ Miss Lady gazed to her in wonder. "Auntie," she cried, "who?" "Who should it be but the M'sieu Eddrang?" replied madame. "For a time it is like the book. Now it is not like the book. Ah, if I Clarisse Delchasse, were a man, and I take the lady away from one man, I'd h'run away with her myself, me, and I'd keep on the h'run. But M'sieu Eddrang, how is it that he does? Bah! He does not speak t'ree, four word to you the whole time on the boat. You, who have been the idol of the young _gentilhommes_ of New Orleans--you, who have been worship'! Now, it is not one man, and it is not another, although _ma 'tite fille,_ she is alone, here in this desert _execrable._ Bah! It is for you to disspise that M'sieu Eddrang. He is not _grand homme._ Come. I take you back to New Orleans."