--"Mo oule ca! Donnin ca a moin."

He took all possible advantage of the situation, and replied at
once:--

-- "Oui! mo va donnin toi ca si to di moin to laut nom."

The splendid bribe evidently impressed her greatly; for tears
rose to the brown eyes as she answered:

-- "Mo pas capab di' ca;--mo pas capab di' laut nom ... Mo oule;
mo pas capab!"

Laroussel explained. The child's name was Lili,--perhaps a
contraction of Eulalie; and her pet Creole name Zouzoune. He
thought she must be the daughter of wealthy people; but she could
not, for some reason or other, tell her family name. Perhaps she
could not pronounce it well, and was afraid of being laughed at:
some of the old French names were very hard for Creole children
to pronounce, so long as the little ones were indulged in the
habit of talking the patois; and after a certain age their
mispronunciations would be made fun of in order to accustom them
to abandon the idiom of the slave-nurses, and to speak only
French. Perhaps, again, she was really unable to recall the
name: certain memories might have been blurred in the delicate
brain by the shock of that terrible night. She said her mother's
name was Adele, and her father's Julien; but these were very
common names in Louisiana,--and could afford scarcely any better
clew than the innocent statement that her mother used to address
her father as "dear" (Cheri),--or with the Creole diminutive