here in the New World, can compare with Paris?"

Robert stared at him in astonishment. Both manner and tone were now
certainly aggressive, and as far as he could see aggressive about
nothing. Why should anyone raise an issue between Quebec and Paris, and
above all at such a time, there at Bigot's ball? He refused to be drawn
into a controversy, and shrugging his shoulders a little, he turned away
without an answer. He heard Boucher's voice raised again, but de
Courcelles laughingly waved him down.

"Come! come, my Pierre," he said. "You're too ready to suspect that
someone is casting aspersions upon that beloved Paris of ours. Perhaps
you and I shall have the pleasure of showing the great city to Mr.
Lennox some day."

He hooked his hand in Robert's arm and drew him away.

"Don't mind Boucher," he said. "He has a certain brusqueness of manner
at times, although he is a good soul. He can't bear for anyone to
suggest that another city, even one of our own, could possibly rival
Paris in any particular. It's his pet devotion, and we won't disturb him
in it. There's your friend, Tayoga, standing by the wall with his arms
folded across his chest. What a splendid savage!"

"He's not a savage. Tayoga was educated in our schools and he has both
the white man's learning and the red man's. He has the virtues, too, of
both races, and few, very few of their vices."

"You're an enthusiast about your friend."

"And so would you be if you knew him as well as I do. That little speech
he made showed his courage and the greatness of his soul."

"Spoken at such a time, its appeal was strong. I don't want to boast of
my race, Mr. Lennox, but the French always respond to a gallant act."

"I know it, and I know, too, that if we English, and Americans or
Bostonnais, as you call us, do go to war with you we could not possibly
have a more enterprising or dangerous foe."

Colonel de Courcelles bowed to the compliment, and then with a nod
indicated Tandakora, also standing against the wall, huge, sullen and
looking like a splash of red flame, wrapped in his long scarlet blanket.

"He, at least, is a savage," he said.

"That I readily admit," said Robert.

"And as you know by the charges that he made against you to me, he
wishes you and your comrades no good."

"I know by those charges and by events that have occurred since.
Tandakora is a savage through and through, and as such my comrades and I
must guard against him."

"But the