."

"Why then did he let the French take your lands?"

The man rose up on his elbow.

"Because we were cowards!" he cried fiercely. "Because the priests made
us weak with their religion, made women of us, called us to their
mumbling prayers instead of fighting our enemies! They and the English
gave us their fire water to drink and stole away our senses! And now
they are both going to be driven out by these pigs of Americans. It
serves them right."

"And what will _you_ do, Monsieur Marsac?" asked Pani with innocent
irony.

"Oh, I do not care for their grounds nor their fights. I shall go up
north again for furs, and now the way is open for a wider trade and a
man can make more money. I take thrift from my French father, you see.
But some day my people will rise again, and this time it will not be a
Pontiac war. We have some great chiefs left. We will not be crowded out
of everything. You will see."

Then he sprang up lithe and graceful. He was of medium size but so well
proportioned that he might have been modeled from the old Greeks. His
hair was black and straight but had a certain softness, and his skin was
like fine bronze, while his features were clearly cut. Now and then some
man of good birth had married an Indian woman by the rites of the
Church, and this Hugh de Marsac had done. But of all their children only
one remained, and now the elder De Marsac had a lucrative post at
Michilimackinac, while his son went to and fro on business. Outside of
the post in the country sections the mixed marriages were quite common,
and the French made very good husbands.

"Mam'selle Jeanne," he said with a low bow, "I admire your courage and
taste. What one can see to adore in those stuffy old fathers puzzles me!
As for praying in a cell, the whole wide heavens and earth that God has
made lifts up one's soul to finer thoughts than mumbling over beads or
worshiping a Christ on the cross. And you will be much too handsome, my
brier rose, to shut yourself up in any Recollet house. There will be
lovers suing for your pretty hand and your rosy lips."

Jeanne hid her face on Pani's shoulder. The admiring look did not suit
her just now though in a certain fashion this young fellow had been her
playmate and devoted attendant.

"Let us go back home," she exclaimed suddenly.

"Why hurry, Mam'selle? Let us go down to King's wharf and see the boats
come in."

Her eyes lighted eagerly. She gave a hop on one foot and held out he