"I beg your pardon--what did you ask?" This to a very young man who colored after he had spoken. "Did we ever recover--? Oh, no. Their bodies went with the waters they loved--and it was better so. Certainly, papa used every effort. I hope the current carried them to the sea. She would have liked to have it so, I am sure, dear, dear Mammy Hannah! "Oh, yes. The little monument on Brake Island is only 'in memory,' as its inscription says." * * * * * This was rather thoughtful talk for a girl scarcely eighteen, but Agnes had ever been thoughtful, and by common inheritance--from her mother and her father. As the scene shifted, and conversation passed to lighter things, and her laughter rippled again as a child's, its range was sometimes startling. It was as brilliant as a waterfall seen in the sun, and often while her fond father watched her, as now, he wondered if, perchance, her laughter might not be prophetic of a great career for which eyes less devoted than his perceived her eminently fitted. * * * * * It is beyond the province of this tale of the river to follow Agnes Le Duc through life. Some day, possibly, her story may be fully told; but perhaps a foreshadowing of her future, in one phase of it at least, may be discerned in an intimation let fall by one of the passengers who sat with his companions at a card-table in the fore cabin. At least, they had spent the day there, stopping not even for dinner, and now they were moving away. As they found seats out on the guards, he was saying: "'_Rich!_' Well, I would say so! He own all doze plantation around de town of Waterproof, and de strange part is _he paid twice for some of dem_! Of co'se he could not do such a so-foolish t'ing except he made dat _in_vention. W'en you _be_gin to collec' so much on every one of anyt'ing dat fill a want, _you get rich, sure_! "No matter if it jus' _one picayune_--w'en dey sell enough. Dey say you can make sugar so quick by dat _mach_ine he _in_vent--it is like conjuring--a sort of hoodoo!" "Yes," said his companion, an American, "so I understand; and there is no man I would rather see rich than Harold Le Duc. His marriage, so soon after the recovery of his child, surprised some of us, but no doubt it was a good thing." "A good t'ing! It was _magnificent_! If he is one of de finest men in Louisiana, she is equal to him. Dat remark dat he married only for a mudder for his child--dat's all in my heye! I am sure he was in love to her one year, maybe two, _be_fo' dat--_mais_, I am not sure he would have asked any woman to marry him. He had not de courage. For him love was past--and he was afraid of it. _Mais_ de chil' she wake him up again! Oh, it is a good t'ing, _sure_! An' de strange part, she t'ought she wou'n' never love again, jus' de same as him--until--" "Until what?" "Well, _until he spoke_! Until w'at you t'ink?" "Not'ing. I t'ought _maybe_ it was somet'ing unusual."