and his pipe presently sent grateful volumes of smoke
through the cabin. He noticed, however, that when Quadaquina came
in, his mother made no inquiry into the cause which had detained him
beyond the hour of the evening meal, and this confirmed the suspicions
that were floating in his mind. They were indeed vague, and he fancied
that if for any reason he had been watched by Quadaquina, the lesson
he had just given would intimidate the boy, and satisfy him there
would be danger in dogging the steps of one so vigilant as himself,
and who had avowed his intention to punish the offender, if he were
caught again.

Quadaquina, when they were by themselves, related to his mother what
he had witnessed at the Falls, but made no allusion to the quarrel
betwixt Ohquamehud and himself, nor of the threats of the former.
He could give no account of the address to the Manito, the distance
having been too great to allow him to hear the words. His story caused
no alarm to Peena, inasmuch as acquainted with the superstitions of
the Indians, she ascribed the sacrifice to a desire to propitiate the
Manito, in order to secure a fortunate journey to the western tribe.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

But love itself could never pant
For all that beauty sighs to grant,
With half the fervor hate bestows
Upon the last embrace of foes,
When grappling in the fight, they fold
Those arms that ne'er shall lose their hold;
Friends meet to part; love laughs at faith:
True foes, once met, are joined till death!

BYRON'S _Giaour_.

Pownal, upon parting with Esther, sought his father. But the
expression of his apprehensions was so vague, he was so incapable of
giving his fears any definite shape, that he made no more impression
than the woman. The calm austerity of the Solitary's face almost
melted into a smile at the idea that any event could occur except in
the determined course of things. It was the pride of the human heart;
it was the presumption of the human intellect that dreamed of freedom
of choice or of action. If individual wills were permitted to cross
and jostle each other, the universe would be a scene of confusion.
Freedom was only in appearance. One grand, serene, supreme will
embraced the actual and the ideal in its circle, and all things were
moved by a law as certain and irresistible as that which impels worlds
in their orbits. The conviction was a part of Holden's self. He could
no more be convinced of its fallacy th