ve known
you among a thousand."

"Louis Marsac!" The name seemed wrested from her. She could feel the
wrench in her mind.

"Then you have not forgotten me! Mam'selle, I cannot help it--" with a
deprecation in his voice that was an apology and begged for condonation.
"You were pretty before, but you have grown wonderfully beautiful. You
will allow an old friend to say it."

His eyes seemed to devour her, from her dusky head to the finger tips,
nay, even to the slim ankles, for skirts were worn short among the
ordinary women. Only the quality went in trailing gowns, and held them
up carefully in the unpaved ways.

"If you begin to compliment, I shall dismiss you from the list of my
acquaintances. It is foolish and ill-bred. And if you go around praising
every pretty girl in Le Detroit, you will have no time left for
business, Monsieur."

Her face set itself in resolute lines, her voice had a cold scornfulness
in it.

"Is this all the welcome you have for me? I have been in but an hour,
and busy enough with these dolts in unloading. Then I meant to hunt you
up instead of going to sup with Monsieur Meldrum, with whom I have much
business, but an old friend should have the first consideration."

"I am not sure, Monsieur, that I care for friends. I have found them
troublesome. And you would have had your effort for nothing. Pani and I
would not be at home."

"You are the same briery rose, Jeanne," with an amused laugh. "So sweet
a one does well to be set in thorns. Still, I shall claim an old
friend's privilege. And I have no end of stirring adventures for your
ear. I have come now from Quebec, where the ladies are most gracious and
charming."

"Then I shall not please you, Monsieur," curtly. "Come, Pani," linking
her arm in that of the woman, "let us get out of the crowd," and she
nodded a careless adieu.

They turned into a sort of lane that led below the palisades.

"Pani," excitedly, "let us go out on the river. There will be an early
moon, and we shall not mind so that we get in by nine. And we need not
stop to gossip with people, canoes are not so friendly as woodland
paths."

Her laugh was forced and a little bitter.

Pani had hardly recovered from her surprise. She nodded assent with a
feeling that she had been stricken dumb. It was not altogether Louis
Marsac's appearance, he had been expected last summer and had not come.
She had almost forgotten about him. It was Jeanne's mood that perplexed
her