shore. As to the possessions of his wife's family--they were a few
inconsiderable heirlooms, some fine traditions, growing now a trifle
stale and moldy with age, and a brave, proud spirit in facing the world,
the result of the consciousness of having a fine old record to sustain;
her forefathers had been of that class of refugees from religious
persecution whose property was of such a character and whose emergency
was so imminent that they had fled from France with little else than the
garments in which they stood. They had not prospered since, nor
multiplied, and Odalie was nearly the last of the family. A certain
innate refinement in both, MacLeod's gravity and dignity of carriage and
the distinction of Odalie's manner, notwithstanding its simplicity,
marked their exceptional quality to a discerning judgment, despite their
precarious plight. The two officers had grave doubts as to the wisdom of
their adventuring so boldly in the quest of fortune in these savage
wildernesses, but both felt that it was well for the community that
harbored them, and each knew of isolated instances elsewhere when such
folly had been transmuted into a potent sapience by the bounty of
uncovenanted good luck. They had experienced a sort of pleasure in the
advent of the newcomers, for Sandy's intelligence and information were
far above the average, and they were more or less isolated in this
remote frontier post from those dainty charms of toilette and manner
which Odalie would have found means to practice were she cast away on a
desert island, all the more marked, perhaps, from their demure
simplicity and a sort of unstudied elegance.

It was only a serge gown she wore, of the darkest red
hue,--murrey-colored, she called it,--but all faint vestige of the
journey had vanished, and over the long, straight bodice of those days
was a cape or fichu of fine white cambric, embellished with a delicate
tambour, one of those graceful accomplishments which her "grand'maman"
had brought from France, and transmitted to a docile pupil as among the
arts which should adorn a woman. The deep red and the vivid white of
this costume comported well with her fine dark-brown hair, rising
straight from her forehead in a heavy lustrous undulation, and drawn
back to be gathered into a dense knot, her fair smooth complexion, the
contemplative yet suave expression of her large dark eyes, and their
heavy, almost diplomatic eyelashes,--for they implied so much that they