The
clearness of the moonlit night threw the beautiful landscape, with its
strongly accentuated features, into contrasts of light and shade to
which the pencil of Rembrandt alone could have done justice. Herr Kalm
was enthusiastic in his admiration,--moonlight over Drachenfels on the
Rhine, or the midnight sun peering over the Gulf of Bothnia, reminded
him of something similar, but of nothing so grand on the whole as the
matchless scene visible from Cape Diamond--worthy of its name.

Lady de Tilly received her visitors with the gracious courtesy habitual
to her. She especially appreciated the visit from the Bourgeois, who so
rarely honored the houses of his friends by his welcome presence. As
for His Excellency, she remarked, smiling, it was his official duty to
represent the politeness of France to the ladies of the Colony, while
Herr Kalm, representing the science of Europe, ought to be honored in
every house he chose to visit,--she certainly esteemed the honor of his
presence in her own.

Amelie made her appearance in the drawing-room, and while the visitors
stayed exerted herself to the utmost to please and interest them by
taking a ready and sympathetic part in their conversation. Her quick
and cultivated intellect enabled her to do so to the delight, and even
surprise, of the three grave, learned gentlemen. She lacked neither
information nor opinions of her own, while her speech, soft and womanly,
gave a delicacy to her free yet modest utterances that made her, in
their recollections of her in the future, a standard of comparison,--a
measure of female perfections.

Le Gardeur, learning who were in the house, came down after a while to
thank the Governor, the Bourgeois, and Herr Kalm for the honor of their
visit. He exerted himself by a desperate effort to be conversable,--not
very successfully, however; for had not Amelie watched him with deepest
sympathy and adroitly filled the breaks in his remarks, he would have
failed to pass himself creditably before the Governor. As it was, Le
Gardeur contented himself with following the flow of conversation which
welled up copiously from the lips of the rest of the company.

After a while came in Felix Baudoin in his full livery, reserved for
special occasions, and announced to his lady that tea was served. The
gentlemen were invited to partake of what was then a novelty in New
France. The Bourgeois, in the course of the new traffic with China that
had lately sprung up