Jeanne chose a room at the end of the upstairs hall and entering it closed the door securely. Tired as she was from her long ride she could not sleep but lay thinking deeply about her aunt’s strange behavior. She had become so accustomed to the lady’s vagaries that she knew that some new idea had suggested itself to her and she felt that it related to herself.
At last her eyes grew heavy, and soon she fell into the deep untroubled sleep of youth.
CHAPTER XVIII
IN THE ENEMY’S CAMP
It was late when Jeanne awoke, and springing up she dressed hastily and went downstairs. There was no one in the living-room. The fire had died down and a few glowing coals gleamed red in the ashes. Full of a vague alarm and fearing she knew not what, Jeanne ran into the kitchen but there was no one there. Quickly she ran from one room to another but all were empty. The apartments appeared larger and more desolate than ever in their emptiness. Again and again the now frightened girl ran through the rooms and out upon the galleries, but the echo of her own voice was all the answer that came to her cries. At last the truth dawned upon her. She had been abandoned by her uncle and aunt.
This then was the meaning of Madame’s laughter. She, Jeanne, a Union girl, had been left to get along as best she could on a lonely, deserted plantation in the very midst of rebeldom; to live or die as the case might be.
With a cry the girl flung herself upon the floor and let the flood of her anguish sweep over her. A great fear was upon her. The fear of the unknown. Never before had she been so utterly, so entirely alone. It was long before she could control herself, and when at last she sat up, and tried to think calmly, she seemed to have grown older.
“I must be brave,” she thought. “Perhaps it is better so after all. I am no worse off than I was with them. May be I can make my way back to New Orleans and General Butler will send me home. But where am I? I don’t know whether it is Alabama or Mississippi, but whichever it is, I must try to get back to Louisiana. Oh, my money!”
Hastily she searched for it and, to her great joy, found the bills safely hidden in the lining of her dress. Long ago her aunt had complained of the thieving of the blacks, and cautioned Jeanne to hide securely whatever she had of value.
“Aunt Clarisse must have forgotten it,” she exulted, “or she would have taken it from me. ‘One can always get along if one has money,’ father said. This will help me to get home. I wonder if my flag is safe!”