... Three o'clock, hot and clear.... In the distance there is a heavy
sound of drums, always drawing nearer: _tam!--tam!--tamtamtam!_ The
Grande Rue is lined with expectant multitudes; and its tiny square,--the
Batterie d'Esnotz,--thronged with békés.--_Tam!--tam!--tamtamtam!_...
In our own street the people are beginning to gather at door-ways, and
peer out of windows,--prepared to descend to the main thoroughfare at
the first glimpse of the procession.
--"_Oti masque-à?_" Where are the maskers?
It is little Mimi's voice: she is speaking for two besides herself, both
quite as anxious as she to know where the maskers are,--Maurice, her
little fair-haired and blue-eyed brother, three years old; and
Gabrielle, her child-sister, aged four,--two years her junior.
Every day I have been observing the three, playing in the door-way of
the house across the street. Mimi, with her brilliant white skin, black
hair, and laughing black eyes, is the prettiest,--though all are
unusually pretty children. Were it not for the fact that their mother's
beautiful brown hair is usually covered with a violet foulard, you would
certainly believe them white as any children in the world. Now there are
children whom every one knows to be white, living not very far from
here, but in a much more silent street, and in a rich house full of
servants,--children who resemble these as one fleur-d'amour blossom
resembles another;--there is actually another Mimi (though she is not so
called at home) so like this Mimi that you could not possibly tell one
from the other,--except by their dress. And yet the most unhappy
experience of the Mimi who wears white satin slippers was certainly that
punishment given her for having been once caught playing in the street
with this Mimi, who wears no shoes at all. What mischance could have
brought them thus together?--and the worst of it was they had fallen in
love with each other at first sight!... It was not because the other
Mimi must not talk to nice little colored girls, or that this one may
not play with white children of her own age: it was because there are
cases.... It was not because the other children I speak of are prettier
or sweeter or more intelligent than these now playing before me;--or
because the finest microscopist in the world could or could not detect
any imaginable race difference between those delicate satin skins. It
was only because human nature has little changed since the day that
Hagar knew the hate of Sarah, and the thing was grievous in Abraham's
sight because of his son....
... The father of these children loved them very much: he had provided a
home for them,--a house in the Quarter of the Fort, with an allowance of
two hundred francs monthly; and he died in the belief their future was
secured. But relatives fought the will with large means and shrewd
lawyers, and won!... Yzore, the mother, found herself homeless and
penniless, with three children to care for. But she was brave;--she
abandoned the costume of the upper class forever, put on the douilette
and the foulard,--the attire that is a confession of race,--and went to
work. She is still comely, and so white that she seems only to be
masquerading in that violet head-dress and long loose robe....
--"_Vini ouè!--vini ouè!_" cry the children to one another,--"come and
see!" The drums are drawing near;--everybody is running to the Grande
Rue....