ght. Poussette's unnaturally long
face matched with Pauline's hauteur and Crabbe's careless air of
mastery; he, the sullen cad, the drunken loafer, having become the
arbiter of manners, the final court of appeal. One day Ringfield had
been lashed to even unusual distress and mortification by the offensive
manner of the guide, who in the course of conversation at the table had
allowed his natural dislike of Dissent and Dissenters to show; "damned
Methodists," and all that sort of talk. The very terms annoyed
Ringfield; they savoured of the Old Country, not of Canada, where
denominational hatred and bigotry should be less pronounced, and as he
left the room Poussette joined him in the hall.

"Bigosh, Mr. Ringfield, sir--but I don't know how you stand that talk
so long--no, sir, I don't know at all!" He patted the other on the
back.

"Well, Poussette, I must do the best to stand it that I know how. You
and I agree about a good many things. Tell me--do you believe
that--that Mr.--that he is really a reformed man, really changed in his
habits? And is he going to marry Miss Clairville? You are around with
him a good deal; you are likely to know."

"The day is feex," returned Poussette without enthusiasm. "The day is
feex, and I am bes' man."

"What do you think about it, though? Don't you think he'll break out
again?"

Ringfield's anxious bitter inflections could not escape Poussette.
"Ah-ha! Mr. Ringfield, sir--you remember that I wanted Miss Clairville
for myself? Bigosh--but I have got over that, fine! Sir, I tell you
this, me, a common man--you can get over anything if you make up the
mind. Fonny things happens--and now I snap the finger at Mlle.
Pauline. Why? Because I feex up things with Mees Cordova even better."

"Mme. Poussette----" began Ringfield.

"Mme. Poussette is come no more here on me at all, I tell you. No more
on St. Ignace at all."

"But you cannot _marry_ Miss Cordova, Poussette!"

"I know very well that, Mr. Ringfield, sir. No. For that, sir, I will
wait. My wife must die some day! Mees Cordova will wait too; she will
_menager_ here for me, and I will threat her proper--oh! you shall see
how I will threat that one!" Poussette seductively nodded his head.
"I will threat her proper, sir, like a lady. Mme. Poussette--she may
stay with Henry Clairville all the rest of her life! I would not take
her back now, for she leave me to go nurse him, and not threat me
right. No si