n replies and remarks, both of
which were few and pithy, were occasionally rendered into English by his
friend. Judith rose greatly in the estimation of her companions, in the
half hour that followed. Prompt of resolution and firm of purpose, her
suggestions and expedients partook of her spirit and sagacity, both of
which were of a character to find favor with men of the frontier. The
events that had occurred since their meeting, as well as her isolated
and dependant situation, induced the girl to feel towards Deerslayer
like the friend of a year instead of an acquaintance of a day, and so
completely had she been won by his guileless truth of character and of
feeling, pure novelties in our sex, as respected her own experience,
that his peculiarities excited her curiosity, and created a confidence
that had never been awakened by any other man. Hitherto she had been
compelled to stand on the defensive in her intercourse with men, with
what success was best known to herself, but here had she been suddenly
thrown into the society and under the protection of a youth, who
evidently as little contemplated evil towards herself as if he had been
her brother. The freshness of his integrity, the poetry and truth of his
feelings, and even the quaintness of his forms of speech, all had their
influence, and aided in awakening an interest that she found as pure
as it was sudden and deep. Hurry's fine face and manly form had never
compensated for his boisterous and vulgar tone, and her intercourse with
the officers had prepared her to make comparisons under which even his
great natural advantages suffered. But this very intercourse with the
officers who occasionally came upon the lake to fish and hunt, had an
effect in producing her present sentiments towards the young stranger.
With them, while her vanity had been gratified, and her self-love
strongly awakened, she had many causes deeply to regret the
acquaintance--if not to mourn over it, in secret sorrow--for it was
impossible for one of her quick intellect not to perceive how hollow was
the association between superior and inferior, and that she was regarded
as the play thing of an idle hour, rather than as an equal and a friend,
by even the best intentioned and least designing of her scarlet-clad
admirers. Deerslayer, on the other hand, had a window in his breast
through which the light of his honesty was ever shining; and even his
indifference to charms that so rarely failed to pro