glasses, as though they drank, and the unpleasant
arrogance of his voice, although no words reached me clearly. I cared
little what he said, although I wondered at his purpose in being
there, and what object he might have in this long converse with my
uncle. Yet I was not sent for, and no doubt it was some conference
over furs, of no great interest. The two were in some scheme I knew to
gain advantage over Sieur de la Salle, and were much elated now that
La Barre held power; but that was nothing for a girl to understand, so
I worked on with busy fingers, my mind not forgetful of the young
Sieur de Artigny.

It was not that I already loved him, yet ever since girlhood the
memory of him had remained in my thought, and in those years since I
had met so few young men that the image left on my imagination had
never faded. Indeed, it had been kept alive by the very animosity
which my uncle cherished against Monsieur de la Salle. The real cause
of his bitterness, outside of trade rivalry, I never clearly
understood, but he was ever seeking every breath of gossip from that
distant camp of adventurers, and angrily commenting thereon. Again and
again I overheard him conspiring with others in a vain effort to
influence Frontenac to withdraw his support of that distant
expedition, and it was this mutual enmity which first brought Cassion
to our cabin.

With Frontenac's removal, and the appointment of La Barre as
Governor, the hopes of La Salle's enemies revived, and when
Cassion's smooth tongue won him a place as Commissaire, all concerned
became more bold and confident in their planning. I knew little of
it, yet sufficient to keep the remembrance of those adventures
fresh in my mind, and never did they recur to me without yielding me
vision of the ardent young face of De Artigny as he waved me adieu
from the canoe. Often in those years of silence did I dream of him
amid the far-off wilderness--the idle dreaming of a girl whose own
heart was yet a mystery--and many a night I sat at my window
gazing out upon the broad river shimmering in the moonlight,
wondering at those wilderness mysteries among which he lived.

Yet only once in all those years had I heard mention of his name.
'Twas but a rumor floating back to us of how La Salle had reached the
mouth of a great river flowing into the South Sea, and among the few
who accompanied him was De Artigny. I remember yet how strangely my
heart throbbed as I heard the brief tale retol