clerk.
    Monsieur Le Quoi was perusing a packet of letters, with manifest delight,
while the wood-chopper, with one hand thrust in his bosom, and the other in the
folds of his jacket, holding an axe under his right arm, stood sympathizing in
the Frenchman's pleasure with good-natured interest. The freedom of manners that
prevailed in the new settlements, commonly levelled all difference in rank, and
with it, frequently, all considerations of education and intelligence. At the
time the ladies entered the store they were unseen by the owner, who was saying
to Kirby -
    »Ah! ha! Monsieur Beel, dis lettair mak-a me de most happi of mans. Ah! ma
chère France! I vill see you aga'n.«
    »I rejoice, Monsieur, at any thing that contributes to your happiness,« said
Elizabeth, »but hope we are not going to lose you entirely.«
    The complaisant shopkeeper changed the language to French, and recounted
rapidly to Elizabeth his hopes of being permitted to return to his own country.
Habit had, however, so far altered the manners of this pliable personage, that
he continued to serve the wood-chopper, who was in quest of some tobacco, while
he related to his more gentle visiter, the happy change that had taken place in
the dispositions of his own countrymen.
    The amount of it all was, that Mr. Le Quoi, who had fled from his own
country more through terror than because he was offensive to the ruling powers
in France, had succeeded at length in getting an assurance that his return to
the West Indies would be unnoticed; and the Frenchman, who had sunk into the
character of a country shopkeeper with so much grace, was about to emerge again
from his obscurity into his proper level in society.
    We need not repeat the civil things that passed between the parties on this
occasion, nor recount the endless repetitions of sorrow that the delighted
Frenchman expressed, at being compelled to quit the society of Miss Temple.
Elizabeth took an opportunity, during this expenditure of polite expressions, to
purchase the powder privately of the boy, who bore the generic appellation of
Jonathan. Before they parted, however, Mr. Le Quoi, who seemed to think that he
had not said enough, solicited the honour of a private interview with the
heiress, with a gravity in his air that announced the importance of the subject.
After conceding the favour, and appointing a more favourable time for the
meeting, Elizabeth succeeded in getting out of the store, into which the
countrymen now began to enter