that I have the approval of one who has always
appeared to me a model of honor."

"You have my unqualified approval, Lieutenant. Although you were the
indirect instrument of the crisis through which I am passing, I am
satisfied that you are clear of the imputation of traitor and spy to me
which I had charged upon you in my indignation and despair. We are on
the eve of important events. Within a few days war with all its
anxieties and horrors will be upon us. You have high duties to perform
both as a citizen and a soldier. Perform them with all the energy of
your nature. It is your sacred duty. I will watch your course with the
deepest interest. Your successes will be a source of personal pleasure
to me, and I sincerely trust that no harm will befall you."

Roderick was quite overcome by this cordial speech, which was to him
more than a reparation for all he had endured during the interview. He
rejoiced, too, at his own perspicacity in having so accurately divined
the real cause of M. Belmont's misunderstanding. It was lamentable,
indeed, that Arnold's letters which he had delivered to the
Lieutenant-Governor should have implicated M. Belmont--if they did
implicate him, a fact of which he had yet no proof, and which he still
refused to credit--but they had been the means of awakening the
authorities to a sense of the peril with which Quebec was threatened,
and that was some compensation for what he had suffered. But there was,
however, another compensation for which he longed, notwithstanding that
the hour was considerably advanced and he had to return to his quarters.
Approaching closer to M. Belmont, with a pleasantly malicious smile on
his lips, he said:

"I have to thank you, sir, for the kind words which you have spoken. I
regard them in the light of the reparation which I knew you would not
withhold so soon as you became acquainted with the facts, but you will
excuse me for saying that there is just one little thing wanting to make
the reparation complete."

M. Belmont looked up in some surprise, but when he saw the expression on
Roderick's face, he comprehended the allusion at once, and replied with
genuine French good-humor and vivacity:

"Oh, of course, there is a woman in the case. You want to be
rehabilitated in the eyes of Pauline as well. It is only just, and it
shall be done. I told her all my suspicions against you, and repeated
all my charges to her. And, by the way, that reminds me that I never
to