ht,
the ship was safe. At last, as they emerged from the woods into a high
pasture-ground, behind the cottage where Barbe lived with her aunt and
uncle, the Englishman threw off the gallant for a moment and became the
wide-awake officer. He paused, took his bearings carefully, and
scrutinized the trail behind him with searching eyes.

"I have not seen this road before, Mademoiselle," he marked, "and it
interests me. It is not down on our map of the Annapolis district.
Whither does it lead, may I ask?"

Barbe's heart grew faint within her; but she answered lightly, with a
look that somehow conveyed to him the impression that he should not be
interested in roads when she was by.

"They haul wood over it, my uncle and his neighbors, in the winter,"
she answered, "and black mud in summer from the swamp back there."

The Englishman appeared satisfied; but she felt that his curiosity was
aroused, and with all her arts she strove to divert his thoughts
exclusively to herself. She succeeded in this to a degree that
presently began to stir her apprehensiveness, and at her doorway she
made her grateful farewells a trifle hurried. But the Englishman would
listen to nothing more discouraging than au revoir. At last he said:

"I shall be shooting over these woods again to-morrow"--Barbe clutched
hard upon the latch and held her breath--"and shall give myself the
pleasure of calling to ask after--but no!" he corrected himself. "You
are making me forget, Mademoiselle. I have a council-meeting to fill
my day with drudgery to-morrow." (Barbe breathed again at this
respite.) "I must deny myself till the day after. I may call then,
may I not?"

There was a moment's pause, and in that moment the girl's swift brain
made its decision.

"Certainly, Monsieur le Commandant," she said, sweeping his face with a
brilliant glance that made his nerves tingle sweetly; "I shall be much
honored. My aunt and I will be much honored!" And with a curtsy half
mocking, half formal, and a disastrous curving of her scarlet lips, she
slipped into the house.

"By--Jove!" muttered the Englishman, as he strode away in a daze.

From the window, behind the bean vines, Barbe watched him go. The
instant he was out of sight she darted from the door, sped swiftly over
the rough pasture-lot, and disappeared among the twilights of the
trail, where the afternoon shadows were already darkening to purple.
She ran with the endurance of health and prac