"That will do,--it's over now, old boy," said Mr. Raleigh, with his
usual smile.

"Now, massa, you a'n't gwine"----

"No, Capua, I'm going to do nothing but look at the papers."

"But massa's"----

"You need not be troubled,--I said, I was not."

"But, massa,--s'pose I deserve a thrashing?"

"There's no danger of your getting it, you blameless Ethiop!"

Upon which pacific assurance, Capua departed.

The two gentlemen now proceeded to the examination of these fragments.
Of the letters nothing whatever was to be made. From one of them dropped
a little yellow folded paper that fell apart in its creases. Put
together, it formed a sufficiently legible document, and they read the
undoubted marriage-certificate of Susanne Le Blanc and Reuben Raleigh.

"I am sorry," said Mr. Laudersdale, after a moment. "I am sorry, instead
of a fortune, to give them a bar-sinister."

"Your daughter is ignorant?--your wife?"

"Entirely. Will you allow me to invite them in here? They should see
this paper."