rich man.

So the notary laid the matter before Pani and his ward, when the funeral
was over, though he would rather have pleaded for his nephew. It was a
most excellent proffer.

But he was not long in learning that Jeanne Angelot had not only dislike
but a sort of fear and hatred for the young man; and that nothing was
farther from her thoughts. Yet he wondered a little that the fortune and
adoration did not tempt her.

"Well, well, my child, we shall not be sorry to have you left in old
Detroit. Some of our pretty girls have been in haste to get away to
Quebec or to the more eastern cities. Boston, they say, is a fine place.
And at New York they have gay doings. But we like our own town and have
all the pleasure that is good for one. So I am glad to have thee stay."

"If I loved him it would be different. But I think this kind of love has
been left out of me," and she colored daintily. "All other loves and
gratitude have been put in, and oh, M'sieu, such an adoration for the
beautiful world God has made. Sometimes I go down on my knees in the
forest, everything speaks to me so,--the birds and the wind among the
trees, the mosses with dainty blooms like a pin's head, the velvet
lichens with rings of gray and brown and pink. And the little lizards
that run about will come to my hand, and the deer never spring away,
while the squirrels chatter and laugh and I talk back to them. Then I
have grown so fond of books. Some of them have strange melodies in them
that I sing to myself. Oh, no, I do not want to be a wife and have a
house to keep, neither do I want to go away."

"Thou art a strange child."

M. Loisel leaned over and kissed her on the crown of her head where the
parting shone white as the moon at its full. Lips and rosy mouths were
left for lovers in those days.

"And you will make him understand?"

"I will do my best. No one can force a damsel into marriage nowadays."

Opposition heightened Louis Marsac's desires. Then he generally had his
way with women. He did not need to work hard to win their hearts. Even
here in spite of Indian blood, maids smiled on the handsome, jaunty
fellow who went arrayed in the latest fashion, and carried it off with
the air of a prince. There was another sort of secret dimly guessed at
that would be of immense advantage to him, but he had the wariness of
the mother's side as well as the astuteness of the father.

A fortnight went by with no advantage. Pani never left her