arrison.

"If Jacques and the women went in the direction you say,"
said Katie, "the chances are they have got to the Fort.
It matters not about the Police and Rory--they can look
after themselves. I doubt, however, if your father and
the sergeant have got through. You will stay in this
house while I go and see. I have many friends among our
people; the hearts of some of them not being entirely
with Riel, they will help me. I shall take Pierre. Pepin
and his mother you need not fear--they are not of the
rebels; they have lived too long at Medicine Hat with
the whites."

And then she went on briefly to explain how Pepin was a
man renowned for his great wisdom and his cunning, as
well as for the bodily strength which had once enabled
him to strangle a bear. Still, his one great weakness
was conceit of his personal appearance, and his belief
that every woman was making a dead set at him. He also
prided himself upon his manners, which were either absurdly
elaborate or rough to a startling degree, as the mood
seized him, and as Dorothy had seen for herself. His
mother, whom she would see in the next room, was rather
an amiable old soul, whose one providentially overpowering
delusion was that Pepin was all that he considered himself
to be. She regarded most young unengaged women with
suspicion, as she fancied they looked upon her son with
matrimonial designs. Katie knew that the old lady was
at heart a match-maker, but, with the exception of herself,
who, however, was engaged, she had found no one good or
beautiful enough to aspire to an alliance with the
Quesnelle family.

Dorothy felt vastly relieved at hearing all this. Then
Katie took her by the hand, and, telling her to be of
good courage, as she had nothing to fear led her into
the next room.

"A good daughter for you, mother," she said smilingly to
the dame who sat by the fire.

The old white-haired woman, who was refreshingly clean
and tidy, turned her dark eyes sharply upon the new
arrival. Whether it was that Dorothy was prepossessed in
her favour and showed it, and that the old lady took it
as a personal compliment, or that the physical beauty of
the girl appealed to her, is immaterial; but the fact
remained that she in her turn was favourably impressed.
She motioned to a seat beside herself.

"Sit hyar, honey," she said. "I will put the kettle on
the fire and give you to eat and drink."

But the girl smilingly thanked her, and said that she
had n