c costume; she seemed not
gently feminine, as compared with the girls of Virginia and Maryland.
He resented her muscular development and her independent disposition.
She was far from coarseness, however, and, indeed, a trace of subtle
refinement, although not conventional, imbued her whole character.

But why was he thinking so critically about her? Had his selfishness
received an incurable shock from the button of her foil? A healthy
young man of the right sort is apt to be jealous of his physical
prowess--touch him there and he will turn the world over to right
himself in, his own admiration and yours. But to be beaten on his
highest ground of virility by a dimple-faced maiden just leaving her
teens could not offer Beverley any open way to recoupment of damages.

He tried to shake her out of his mind, as a bit of pretty and
troublesome rubbish, what time he pursued his not very exacting
military duties. But the more he shook the tighter she clung, and the
oftener he went to see her.

Helm was a good officer in many respects, and his patriotism was of the
best; but he liked jolly company, a glass of something strong and a
large share of ease. Detroit lay many miles northeastward across the
wilderness, and the English, he thought, would scarcely come so far to
attack his little post, especially now that most of the Indians in the
intervening country had declared in favor of the Americans. Recently,
too, the weather had been favoring him by changing from wet to dry, so
that the upper Wabash and its tributaries were falling low and would
soon be very difficult to navigate with large batteaux.

Very little was done to repair the stockade and dilapidated remnant of
a blockhouse. There were no sufficient barracks, a mere shed in one
angle serving for quarters, and the old cannon could not have been used
to any effect in case of attack. As for the garrison, it was a nominal
quantity, made up mostly of men who preferred hunting and fishing to
the merest pretense of military duty.

Gaspard Roussillon assumed to know everything about Indian affairs and
the condition of the English at Detroit. His optimistic eloquence
lulled Helm to a very pleasant sense of security. Beverley was not so
easy to satisfy; but his suggestions regarding military discipline and
a vigorous prosecution of repairs to the blockhouse and stockade were
treated with dilatory geniality by his superior officer. The soft
wonder of a perfect Indian summer g