or say. "Gone,
gone."

Jean took the offending novel back home with him, hidden under his
jerkin; but Beverley's note lay upon Alice's heart, a sweet comfort and
a crushing weight, when an hour later Hamilton sent for her and she was
taken before him. Her face was stained with tears and she looked
pitifully distressed and disheveled; yet despite all this her beauty
asserted itself with subtle force.

Hamilton felt ashamed looking at her, but put on sternness and spoke
without apparent sympathy:

"Miss Roussillon, you came near committing a great crime. As it is, you
have done badly enough; but I wish not to be unreasonably severe. I
hope you are sorry for your act, and feel like doing better hereafter."

She was trembling, but her eyes looked steadily straight into his. They
were eyes of baby innocence, yet they irradiated a strong womanly
spirit just touched with the old perverse, mischievous light which she
could neither banish nor control. When she did not make reply, Hamilton
continued:

"You may go home now, and I shall expect to have no more trouble on
your account." He made a gesture indicative of dismissal; then, as she
turned from him, he added, somewhat raising his voice:

"And further, Miss Roussillon, that flag you took from here must
positively be returned. See that it is done."

She lifted her head high and walked away, not deigning to give him a
word.

"Humph! what do you think now of your fine young lady?" he demanded,
turning to Helm with a sneering curl of his mouth. "She gives thanks
copiously for a kindness, don't you think?"

"Poor girl, she was scared nearly out of her life," said Helm. "She got
away from you, like a wounded bird from a snare. I never saw a face
more pitiful than hers."

"Much pity she needs, and greatly like a wounded bird she acts, I must
say; but good riddance if she'll keep her place hereafter. I despise
myself when I have to be hard with a woman, especially a pretty one.
That girl's a saucy and fascinating minx, and as dangerous as twenty
men. I'll keep a watch on her movements from this on, and if she gets
into mischief again I'll transport her to Detroit, or give her away to
the Indians, She must stop her high-handed foolishness."

Helm saw that Hamilton was talking mere wind, VOX ET PRAETEREA NIHIL,
and he furthermore felt that his babbling signified no harm to Alice;
but Hamilton surprised him presently by saying:

"I have just learned that Lieutenant Bever