I watched her close her cabin door and turned back to my place by the rail, black despair in my heart, but just one little ray of hope brightening it—her courageous au revoir. Over the plank came Yorke and Clotilde, and strolled slowly up the deck together, Yorke thrumming his banjo and singing a creole love-song he had learned in St. Louis:
"Tous les printemps
Tan' de nouvelles,
Tous les amants
Changent de maîtresses.
Qu'ils changent qui voudront,
Pour moi, je garde la mienne."
Insensibly my heart lightened. "Pour moi, je garde la mienne," I said aloud, and added in a whisper:
"Yes—though I must first win her, and win I will!"
CHAPTER XV
"AU REVOIR"
"While memory watches o'er the sad review
Of joys that faded like the morning dew."
It was a busy morning that followed—no time for idle thoughts or vain regrets. If we were to dine with Mrs. O'Fallon at Mulberry Hill, all hands must work hard.