He found Fannie as pretty and as glad to see him as always, and his little darling Coralie, now seven months old, more beautiful and attractive than ever; but he could not linger with them; his duties to his master obliged him, in less than an hour, to tear himself away again and hasten with madam's trunks and boxes to Red Hill.
The necessity of leaving his treasures so soon again after so long an absence depressed Valentine so much that Fannie hastened to console and cheer him. He was not, after all, more unfortunate in that respect, she said, than sailors and soldiers, nor was she more to be pitied than their wives.
And she sent him off, comforted with the promise that she would get leave from Leroux and come out the next morning with her baby to spend the day with Phædra at Red Hill.
Fannie kept her word, and, during her visit the next day won her way so well into the good graces of madam that that lady expressed a kind interest in her and her little child, made them some pretty presents, and promised to facilitate as much as possible the frequent visits of Valentine to his wife and child. And the lady remembered and performed her promise so well that unusual indulgence was extended to Valentine, who was by her intercession enabled to pass every night with his family.
Mr. Waring, in his attachment to his bride, seemed for the time quite won from the extravagance and dissipation of his late bachelor life. He remained at home and addressed himself with commendable zeal to the management of his plantation, to the improvement of his land, his stock, his machinery, and agricultural system in general, and also, after his own blundering fashion, to the amelioration, comfort and welfare of his people.
Valentine, no longer distressed for or by his master, divided his attention between the manifold light duties that occupied him all day at Red Hill, and the evenings spent in assisting Fannie in her business behind the counter of Leroux's shop, and for which he now received a regular payment, in consideration of the fact that he stood at the post and performed the duties of Monsieur Leroux, whose age obliged him to leave the shop at an early hour of the evening, just as the custom was beginning to grow brisk. Thus they were enabled to add many little comforts to their humble home, and also to lay up a trifle against the chance of darker days.
Every alternate Sabbath they attended meeting together at Magnolia Grove, and afterward dined with Phædra at Red Hill, and went home at night; and, on the intervening Sabbath, when there was no service at the Grove Mission, Phædra would come into town and go to church with the children at the Bethel (colored) Mission of M——, and afterward take dinner with them, before returning home in the evening.
Thus passed the halcyon days of spring, preceding the awful moral storm which ended in that "household wreck."