refined, of more than ordinary attractiveness Thockmorton tells me,
brought up amid every comfort, and led to believe herself the honored
daughter of the house, awakening in an instant to the fact that she is
a slave, with negro blood in her veins--a mere chattel, owned body and
soul by a gambler, won in a card game, and to be sold to the highest
bidder. Haines, I tell you Kirby knew all this."

"Kirby knew? Why do you say that?"

"He boasted of it. I thought little about what he said at the time,
but I believe now one of his main objects was to gain possession of
this girl. That would account for his insistence upon that peculiar
clause in the bill of sale--he either suspected, or had discovered
through some source, that Rene Beaucaire had never been set free. For
some reason he desired possession of both Beaucaire girls; they meant
more to him than either the money or the property. This card game gave
him one; the other--"

"Eloise, you mean? Did the fellow threaten her?"

"Here is what he said sneeringly, you can judge yourself what he meant,
'She's worth fifty thousand dollars by her mother's will, and I intend
to win her if I can, fair means or foul.'"

Haines did not speak for some moments, his eyes on my face. Then he
paced back and forth across the floor, finally stopping before the fire.

"This is as near hell as anything I ever knew," he said, "and so far as
I can see there is no legal way out of it. We are utterly helpless to
assist."