"If you are so anxious to see dat young lady, Felix," said another, "you don't need to walk so far. She is, at dis moment, wid her father an' her stepmudder, on dis trip." "_W'at_! w'at you say? Well, wait. I di'n' inten', me, to dress for de ladies' cabin to-night, _mais_ w'en I have my supper I will put on my Sunday t'ings--jus' to go an' sit down in de cabin w'ere--I--can--look--at _innocent_--_beauty_! It pleasure me, yas, to see some t'ing like dat. May_be_ I am not all good, _mais_ I am not all given over for bad so long I can enjoy a rose-vine all in pink, or a fair yo'ng girl more beautiful yet. "I tell you, my friends, I was sitting, week before las', at my 'ouse on Esplanade Street, on de back gallerie, w'ere de vines is t'ick, an' dey were, as you might say, honey-suckling de bees--an' de perfume from my night-bloomin' jasmine filled my nose. It was in de evening, an' de moon on de blue sky was like a map of de city, jus' a silver crescent, an' close by, one li'l' star, shining, as de children say, 'like a diamond in de sky,' an' I tell you--I tell you-- "Well, I tell you, _I wished I had been a good man all my life_!" His friends laughed gaily at this. "You don' say!" laughed one. "Well, you fooled us, any'ow! I was holding my breat'. I t'ought somet'ing was getting ready to happen!" "Well--an' ain't dat somet'ing?--w'en a hard ol' sinner like me can see in nature a t'ing sweet an' good an'--_an' resolute himself_!" "Sure, dat is a great happening; _mais_ for such a _be_ginning, so dramatic, we expected to see Hamlet--or maybe his father's ghost--or _somet'ing_!" "I am thinking more of this exceptional beauty"--it was the American who interrupted now--"I am more interested in her than in the confessions of old sinners like ourselves. I am rather practical, and beauty is only skin-deep--sometimes at least. I should like to take a peep at this rare product of our State. Louisiana's record up to date is hard to beat, in this respect." "Well," slowly remarked the man known throughout as Felix, "I am not telling! If I _knew_, I could not _tell_, and, of co'se, it is all guess-work, _mais_ you may believe me or not--" he lowered his voice, suggesting mystery. "I say you can _rif_fuse to believe me or not, I was--well, I was not long ago, one day, sitting at de table down at Leon's,--eating an oyster wid a friend of mine, and, looking out of de window, I happened to see, sitting in a tree, _one li'l' bird_--jus' one small li'l' bird, no bigger dan yo' t'umb. "I was not t'inking about de bird, mind you. We were jus' talking about anyt'ing in partic'lar--I mean to say not'ing in general. _W'at_ is de matter wid me to-day? I cannot talk straight--my tongue is all twis'. I say we were speaking of partic'lar t'ings in general, an' he remarked to me, '_Who you t'ink will be de Queen of de Carnival dis coming Mardi Gras?_'