ch patience that you will learn to pity me at first. My devotion
will be so great that even a heart of marble could not resist.
Mam'selle, the sun and the rain will wear away the stoutest rocks in
time, and in the split crevices there grows some tiny flower. That is
the way it is with the most resolute woman's heart. And you are not much
more than a child. Then--you have no lover."

Jeanne stood spellbound. Was it possible that she should ever come to
love this man? Yet in her childhood she had been very fond of him. She
was a great puzzle to herself at this moment. All the old charms and
fascinations that had been part of the lore of her childhood, weird
stories that Touchas had told, but which were forbidden by the Church,
rushed over her. She was full of terror at herself as well as of Louis
Marsac.

He read the changes in her countenance, but he did not understand her
shrinking from an abhorred suitor, nor the many fine and delicate lines
of restraint that had come to hedge her about, to impress a peculiar
responsibility of her own soul that would be degraded by the bondage.
She had seen some of it in other girls mated to coarse natures.

"My beautiful bird shall have everything. We will go up to the head of
the great lake where my father has a lodge that is second only to that
of the White Chief. I am his only son. He wishes for my marriage.
Jeanne, he will give thee such a welcome as no woman ever had. The
costliest furs shall be thine, jewels from abroad, servants to come at
the bidding of thy finger--"

"I do not want them!" she interrupted, vehemently. "I have told you I do
not want to be the wife of any man. Give me the freedom you have stolen
from me. Send me back to Detroit. Oh, there must be women ready to marry
you. Let me go."

Her voice had a piercing sweetness. Even anger could not have made it
harsh. She dropped on her knees; she raised her beautiful eyes in
passionate entreaty.

There was much of the savage Indian in him. He would enjoy her
subjugation. It would begin gently, then he would tighten the cord until
she had paid back to the uttermost, even to the blow she had given him.
But he was too astute to begin here.

"Thou shalt go back in state as my wife. Ere long my father will be as
big a magnate as the White Chief. Detroit will be proud to honor us
both, when we shall be chiefs of the great copper country. Rise, Star of
the Morning. Then, whatever thou shalt ask as my wife shall be gra