He was in his dotage--a simple old fool--passive in the hands of a designing woman." "Did you see him ?" "No." "Strange that you should not!" Perkins replied, looking the man steadily in the face.

"Bearing the relation that you did to Mr.
Ballantine, it might be supposed that you would have been the first to see the man, and the most active to ascertain the truth or falsity of the story." "I do not permit any one to question me in regard to my conduct," Mr.Paralette said, in an offended tone, turning from the excited young man.
Perkins saw that he had gone too far, and endeavored to modify and apologize: but the merchant repulsed him, and refused to answer any more questions, or to hold any further conversation with him on the subject.
The next step taken by the young man was to seek out his friend, and learn from him all the particular rumors on the subject, and who would be most likely to put him in the way of tracing the individuals he was in search of.

But he found, when he got fairly started on the business for which he had come to New Orleans, that he met with but little encouragement.

Some shrugged their shoulders, some smiled in his face, and nearly every one treated the matter with a degree of indifference.

Many had heard that a person claiming to be Miss Ballantine had sent notes to a few of Mr.Ballantine's old friends about two years previous; but no one seemed to have the least doubt of her being an impostor.