ood, though a little surprised at this speech, and at the manner of
his friend, took the packet in silence and rode swiftly away, followed
by the Indian. When they were gone, Jasper dismounted, tied his horse
to a tree, and walked quickly into the woods in another direction.

Now this mysterious proceeding is not difficult to explain. Jasper had
caught sight of a female figure walking under the trees at a
considerable distance from the spot where he had pulled up. He knew
that there were none but Indian women at Fort Erie at that time, and
that, therefore, the only respectably dressed female at the place must
needs be his own Marie Laroche. Overjoyed at the opportunity thus
unexpectedly afforded him of meeting her alone, he hastened forward with
a beating heart.

Marie was seated on the stump of a fallen tree when the hunter came up.
She was a fair, beautiful woman of about five-and-twenty, with an air of
modesty about her which attracted love, yet repelled familiarity. Many
a good-looking and well-doing young fellow had attempted to gain the
heart of Marie during the last two years, but without success--for this
good reason, that her heart had been gained already.

She was somewhat startled when a man appeared thus suddenly before her.
Jasper stood in silence for a few moments, with his arms crossed upon
his breast, and gazed earnestly into her face.

As he did not speak, she said--

"You appear to be a stranger here. Have you arrived lately?"

Jasper was for a moment astonished that she did not at once recognise
him, and yet he had no reason to be surprised. Besides the alteration
that two years sometimes makes in a man, Jasper had made a considerable
alteration on himself. When Marie last saw him, he had been in the
habit of practising the foolish and unnatural custom of shaving; and he
had carried it to such an extreme that he shaved off everything--
whiskers, beard, and moustache. But within a year he had been induced
by a wise friend to change his opinion on this subject. That friend had
suggested, that as Providence had caused hair to grow on his cheeks,
lips, and chin, it was intended to be worn, and that he had no more
right to shave his face than a Chinaman had to shave his head. Jasper
had been so far convinced, that he had suffered his whiskers to grow.
These were now large and bushy, and had encroached so much on his chin
as to have become almost a beard.

Besides this, not having shaved a