ie! Monsieur proposes a scandal."

"No, Monsieur proposes only a journey to Washington--with you, or close
after you."

"Of course I can not prevent your following," she said.

"Leave it so. But as to pledges--at least I want to keep my little
slipper. Is Madam's wardrobe with her? Could she humor a peevish friend
so much as that? Come, now, I will make fair exchange. I will trade you
again my blanket clasp for that one little shoe!"

I felt in the pocket of my coat, and held out in my hand the remnants of
the same little Indian ornament which had figured between us the first
night we had met. She grasped at it eagerly, turning it over in her
hand.

"But see," she said, "one of the clasps is gone."

"Yes, I parted with it. But come, do I have my little slipper?"

"Wait!" said she, and left me for a moment. Presently she returned,
laughing, with the little white satin foot covering in her hand.

"I warrant it is the only thing of the sort ever was seen in these
buildings," she went on. "Alas! I fear I must leave most of my
possessions here! I have already disposed of the furnishings of my
apartment to Mr. James Douglas at Fort Vancouver. I hear he is to
replace this good Doctor McLaughlin. Well, his half-breed wife will at
least have good setting up for her household. Tell me, now," she
concluded, "what became of the other shell from this clasp?"

"I gave it to an old man in Montreal," I answered. I went on to show her
the nature of the device, as it had been explained to me by old Doctor
von Rittenhofen.

"How curious!" she mused, as it became more plain to her. "Life, love,
eternity! The beginning and the end of all this turmoil about passing on
the torch of life. It is old, old, is it not? Tell me, who was the wise
man who described all this to you?"

"Not a stranger to this very country, I imagine," was my answer. "He
spent some years here in Oregon with the missionaries, engaged, as he
informed me, in classifying the butterflies of this new region. A German
scientist, I think, and seemingly a man of breeding."

"If I were left to guess," she broke out suddenly, "I would say it must
have been this same old man who told you about the plans of the Canadian
land expedition to this country."

"Continually, Madam, we find much in common. At least we both know that
the Canadian expedition started west. Tell me, when will it arrive on
the Columbia?"

"It will never arrive. It will never cross the Rockies. W