y
being a few moments in arrears is not a matter sufficiently serious to
be called a breakage of faith. I do assure you, Toinette, you were
never once absent from my thought."

"Indeed?" she exclaimed incredulously, and with an echo of suppressed
laughter in her voice. "Then truly you are far more to be commiserated
on this occasion than I, for in truth, Monsieur de Croix, I have not
missed you over-much. I have enjoyed most excellent company."

"The mysterious spirits of the starry night?" he questioned, looking
out into the darkness, "or the dim figures of your own imagination?"

"Very far from either," she retorted, with a laugh; "a most substantial
reality, as you are bound to confess. Master Wayland, is it not time
for you fitly to greet Captain de Croix? He may deem you lax in
cordiality."

I can perceive now how dearly the laughing witch loved to play us one
against the other, hiding whatever depth of feeling she may have had
beneath the surface of careless innocence, and keeping us both in an
uncertainty as aggravating as it was sweet. I could not read the
expression upon De Croix's face in the gloom, yet I saw him start
visibly at her almost mocking words, and there was a trace of
ill-suppressed irritation in his voice.

"Saint Guise! 'T was for that, then, he left us so mysteriously," he
exclaimed, unconsciously uttering his first thought aloud. "But how
knew he you were to be here?"

Before she could answer, I spoke, anxious to relieve her of
embarrassment; for 't was ever my nature to yield much without
complaint.

"As it chances, Captain de Croix, she did not know," I said, standing
back from the palisades where he could see me more clearly. "I left
the table below with no thought of meeting Mademoiselle, and came out
on this platform for a different purpose. As you know, I am visiting
Dearborn upon a special mission."

"Ah, true," and I could feel the trace of relief in his voice as he
instantly recalled my story. "You also sought a girl in this
wilderness,--may I ask, have you yet found trace of her?"

I heard Mademoiselle move quickly.

"A girl?" she asked in surprise. "Here, at Dearborn?"

"She was at Dearborn until very lately, but they tell me now I must
seek for her at the Kinzie house. It was for the purpose of marking
its position from the Fort that I came up here."

For a moment no one of our voices broke the strained silence. I was
troubled by this knowledge of a pre