urned to my room to think. Voban had told me that his
news came from Bigot's valet, who is his close friend. This I knew, and
I knew the valet too, for I had seen something of him when my brother
lay wounded at the palace. Under the best circumstances General Montcalm
could not arrive within two hours. Meanwhile, these miserable men might
go on their dreadful expedition. Something must be done to gain time.
I racked my brain for minutes, till the blood pounded at my temples.
Presently a plan came to me.

"There is in Quebec one Madame Jamond, a great Parisian dancer, who,
for reasons which none knows save perhaps Monsieur Doltaire, has been
banished from France. Since she came to Canada, some nine months ago,
she has lived most quietly and religiously, though many trials have been
made to bring her talents into service; and the Intendant has made many
efforts have her dance in the palace for his guests. But she would not.

"Madame Lotbiniere had come to know Jamond, and she arranged, after
much persuasion, for lessons in dancing to be given to Lucy, myself, and
Georgette. To me the dancing was a keen delight, a passion. As I danced
I saw and felt a thousand things, I can not tell you how. Now my feet
appeared light as air, like thistledown, my body to float. I was as a
lost soul flying home, flocks of birds singing me to come with them into
a pleasant land.

"Then all that changed, and I was passing through a bitter land, with
harsh shadows and tall cold mountains. From clefts and hollows figures
flew out and caught at me with filmy hands. These melancholy things
pursued me as I flew, till my wings drooped, and I felt that I must drop
into the dull marsh far beneath, round which travelled a lonely mist.

"But this too passed, and I came through a land all fire, so that, as I
flew swiftly, my wings were scorched, and I was blinded often, and often
missed my way, and must change my course of flight. It was all scarlet,
all that land--scarlet sky and scarlet sun, and scarlet flowers, and the
rivers running red, and men and women in long red robes, with eyes of
flame, and voices that kept crying, 'The world is mad, and all life is a
fever!'"

She paused for a moment, seeming to come out of a dream, and then she
laughed a little. "Will you not go on?" I asked gently.

"Sometimes, too," she continued, "I fancied I was before a king and his
court, dancing for my life or for another's. Oh, how I scanned the faces
of my ju