orse away with the groom, as soon as he saw the
girl run across the grass to meet him. Taking her hand he bowed over it
and kissed it with pleasing ceremony, of which I approved. An Iroquois
chief in full council had not better manners than Le Ray de Chaumont.

Paul and I waited to see what was going to happen, for the two came
toward us, the girl talking rapidly to the man. I saw my father and
Skenedonk and the doctor also coming from the house, and they readily
spied me sitting tame as a rabbit near the baby.

You never can perceive yourself what figure you are making in the world:
for when you think you are the admired of all eyes you may be displaying
a fool; and when life seems prostrated in you it may be that you show as
a monument on the heights. But I could not be mistaken in De Chaumont's
opinion of me. He pointed his whip handle at me, exclaiming--

"What!--that scarecrow, madame?"

II

"But look at him," she urged.

"I recognize first," said De Chaumont as he sauntered, "an old robe of
my own."

"His mother was reduced to coarse serge, I have been told."

"You speak of an august lady, my dear Eagle. But this is Chief Williams'
boy. He has been at the hunting lodges every summer since I came into
the wilderness. There you see his father, the half-breed Mohawk."

"I saw the dauphin in London, count. I was a little child, but his
scarred ankles and wrists and forehead are not easily forgotten."

"The dauphin died in the Temple, Eagle."

"My father and Philippe never believed that."

"Your father and Philippe were very mad royalists."

"And you have gone over to Bonaparte. They said that boy had all the
traits of the Bourbons, even to the shaping of his ear."

"A Bourbon ear hears nothing but Bonaparte in these days," said De
Chaumont. "How do you know this is the same boy you saw in London?"

"Last night while he was lying unconscious, after Doctor Chantry had
bandaged his head and bled him, I went in to see if I might be of use.
He was like some one I had seen. But I did not know him until a moment
ago. He ran out of the house like a wild Indian. Then he saw us sitting
here, and came and fell down on his knees at sight of that missal. I saw
his scars. He claimed the book as his mother's--and you know, count, it
was his mother's!"

"My dear child, whenever an Indian wants a present he dreams that you
give it to him, or he claims it. Chief Williams' boy wanted your
valuable illuminated