e he was a dying man he saw in him no menace to the cause.
Besides, was not Ferrol practically dependent upon their hospitality?
If he had guessed that his friend knew accurately of his movements
since the night he had seen Vanne Castine hand him his commission from
Papineau, he would have felt less secure: for, after all, love--or
prejudice--of country is a principle in the minds of most men deeper
than any other. When all other morals go, this latent tendency to stand
by the blood of his clan is the last moral in man that bears the
test without treason. If he had known that Ferrol had written to the
Commandant at Quebec, telling him of the imminence of the Rebellion, and
the secret recruiting and drilling going on in the parishes, his popular
comrade might have paid a high price for his disclosure.

That morning at sunrise, Christine, saying she was going upon a visit to
the next parish, started away upon her mission to the English province.
Ferrol had urged her to let him go, but she had refused. He had not yet
fully recovered from his adventure with the bear, she said. Then he
said they might go together; but she insisted that she must make the way
clear, and have everything ready. They might go and find the minister
away, and then--voila, what a chance for cancan! So she went alone.

From his window he watched her depart; and as she drove away in the
fresh morning he fell to thinking what it might seem like if he had to
look forward to ten, twenty, or forty years with just such a woman as
his wife. Now she was at her best (he did not deceive himself), but in
ten years or less the effects of her early life would show in many
ways. She had once loved Vanne Castine! and now vanity and cowardice,
or unscrupulousness, made her lie about it. He would have her at her
best--a young, vigorous radiant nature--for his short life, and
then, good-bye, my lover, good-bye! Selfish? Of course. But she would
rather--she had said it--have him for the time he had to live than
not at all. Position? What was his position? Cast off by his family,
forgotten by his old friends, in debt, penniless--let position be
hanged! Self-preservation was the first law. What was the difference
between this girl and himself? Morals? She was better than himself,
anyhow. She had genuine passions, and her sins would be in behalf of
those genuine passions. He had kicked over the moral traces many a time
from absolute selfishness. She had clean blood in her