, deep breath; suddenly, the
gayest, sweetest little laugh followed, but it was slowly that the
color returned to lip and cheek.

"Is he not wedded?" I asked carelessly--the damned villain--at his
Mohawk Valley tricks again!--and again she laughed, which was, no
doubt, my wordless answer.

"Does he dance well, this melancholy Ranger?" I asked, smiling to see
her laugh.

"Divinely, sir. I think no gentleman in New York can move a minuet with
Walter Butler's grace. Oh, you New Yorkers! You think we are
nothing--fit, perhaps, for a May-pole frolic with the rustic gentry! Do
not deny it, Mr. Renault. Have we not heard you on the subject? Do not
your officers from Philadelphia and New York come mincing and tiptoeing
through Halifax and Quebec, all smiling and staring about, quizzing
glasses raised? And--'Very pretty! monstrous charming! spike me, but
the ladies powder here!' And, 'Is this green grass? Damme, where's the
snow--and the polar bears, you know?'"

I laughed as she paused, breathlessly scornful, flushed with charming
indignation.

"And is not Canada all snow?" I asked, to tease her.

"Snow! It is sweet and green and buried in flowers!" she cried.

"In winter, madam?"

"Oh! You mean to plague me, which is impertinent, because I do not know
you well enough--I have not known you above half an hour. I shall tell
Lady Coleville."

"So shall I--how you abuse us all here in New York----"

"I did not. You are teasing me again, Mr. Renault."

Defiant, smiling, her resentment was, after all, only partly real.

"We are becoming friends much too quickly to suit me," she said
deliberately.

"But not half quickly enough to suit me," I said.

"Do you fancy that I take that silly speech as compliment, Mr.
Renault?"

"Ah, no, madam! On such brief acquaintance I dare not presume to offer
you the compliments that burn for utterance!"

"But you _do_ presume to plague me--on such brief acquaintance!" she
observed.

"I am punished," I said contritely.

"No, you are not! You are not punished at all, because I don't know how
to, and--I am not sure I wish to punish you, Mr. Renault."

"Madam?"

"If you look at me so meekly I shall laugh. Besides, it is
hypocritical. There is nothing meek about you!" I bowed more meekly
than ever.

"Mr. Renault?"

"Madam?"

She picked up her plumed fan impatiently and snapped it open.

"If you don't stop being meek and answering 'Madam' I shall presently
go distracted. Ca