tooping to cull some violets that had looked well against the
green of her hunting-suit.

"'Blind gods of chance--blind gods of chance'--you used to say that
over and over!"

"Ah, M. Radisson taught me that! God bless the blind gods of
chance--Hortense teaches me that; for"--giving her back her own
words--"you are here--you are here--you are here with me! God bless
the gods of chance!"

"Oh," she cried, "were you not asleep? Monsieur let me watch after you
had taken the sleeping drug."

"The stars fight for us in their courses," said I, handing up the
violets.

"Ramsay," she asked with a sudden look straight through my eyes, "what
did he make you promise when--when--he was dying?"

The question brought me up like a sail hauled short. And when I told
her, she uttered strange reproaches.

"Why--why did you promise that?" she asked. "It has always been his
mad dream. And when I told him I did not want to be restored, that I
wanted to be like Rebecca and Jack and you and the rest, he called me a
little fool and bade me understand that he had not poisoned me as he
was paid to do because it was to his advantage to keep me alive.
Courtiers would not assassinate a stray waif, he said; there was wealth
for the court's ward somewhere; and when I was restored, I was to
remember who had slaved for me. Indeed, indeed, I think that he would
have married me, but that he feared it would bar him from any property
as a king's ward----"

"Is that all you know?"

"That is all. Why--why--did you promise?"

"What else was there to do, Hortense? You can't stay in this
wilderness."

"Oh, yes," says Hortense wearily, and she let the violets fall.
"What--what else was there to do?"

She led the way back to the cave.

"You have not asked me how we came here," she began with visible effort.

"Tell me no more than you wish me to know!"

"Perhaps you remember a New Amsterdam gentleman and a page boy leaving
Boston on the Prince Rupert?"

"Perhaps," said I.

"Captain Gillam of the Prince Rupert signalled to his son outside the
harbour. Monsieur had been bargaining with Ben all winter. Ben took
us to the north with Le Borgne for interpreter----"

"Does Ben know you are here?"

"Not as Hortense! I was dressed as a page. Then Le Borgne told us of
this cave and monsieur plotted to lead the Indians against Ben, capture
the fort and ship, and sail away with all the furs for himself. Oh,
how I have hated him!" she ex