ps parted as he sought expression.

"You--you will try, as his wife, to win confession?" he asked finally,
grasping vaguely the one thought occurring to him.

"No; there is a better way. I despise the man; I cannot bear that he
touch me. More than that, if I read him aright, once I yield and
confess myself his property, he will lose all interest in my
possession. He is a lady killer; 'tis his boast. The man has never
been in love with me; it was not love, but a desire to possess my
fortune, which led to his proposal of marriage. Now I shall make him
love me."

"You! _Mon Dieu!_ how?"

"By refusing him, tantalizing him, arousing a desire which I will
not gratify. Already his thought of me has changed. Last night in
Quebec he was surprised, and aroused to new interest in me as a
woman. He considered me before as a helpless girl, with no will, no
character--the sort with which he had had his way all through life.
He thought I would fall in his arms, and confess him master. The
words I spoke to La Barre shocked and startled him out of his self
complacency. Nor was that all--even before then he had begun to
suspicion my relations with Sieur de Artigny.

"It was at his suggestion, you say, that you sent that young man your
message of warning to keep away from me. Good! the poison is already
working, and I mean it shall. Two hours ago, when we landed here, the
two men were on verge of quarrel, and blows would have been struck but
that I intervened. He is finding me not so easy to control, and later
still the mighty Commissaire met with a rebuff which rankles."

I laughed at the remembrance, satisfied now as I placed the situation
in words, that my plans were working well. Chevet stood silent, his
mouth agape, struggling to follow my swift speech.

"Do you see now what I mean to do?" I asked gravely. "We shall be
alone in the wilderness for months to come. I will be the one woman;
perchance the only white woman into whose face he will look until we
return to Quebec. I am not vain, yet I am not altogether ill to look
upon, nor shall I permit the hardships of this journey to affect my
attractiveness. I shall fight him with his own weapons, and win. He
will beg, and threaten me, and I shall laugh. He will love me, and I
shall mock. There will be jealousy between him and De Artigny, and to
win my favor he will confess all that he knows. Tonight he sulks
somewhere yonder, already beginning to doubt his power to control
me."