n, and she showed plainly that she was
deeply grateful to me for not bringing up the subject that was next my
heart. And indeed I had no intention of doing so. I realized that the
girl could not be mine, and that what had occurred between us, when we
believed ourselves to be on the edge of the grave--was the more reason
why I should remain true to faith and honor. But my love for her was
stronger and deeper-rooted than ever, and I still adhered to my
resolution to take myself out of temptation's way at the first
opportunity--to begin a new life in the wilderness or the towns of
Lower Canada. I would have evaded the journey with her to Fort Royal had
it been possible to do so.

Captain Rudstone made no further mention of the girl, and during the
time he remained at the fort we were on the best of terms, though I
observed that he took no pains to seek my company, and that he often
looked at me with the puzzled and uneasy expression which I had noted
from the first. On the morning of the fourth day he left for a fort some
miles to the eastward, and on the night before an incident happened
which I must not forget to mention.

We were sitting in the factor's room after supper--the captain and
I--and he was reading an English paper that had come up with the last
mail. Suddenly he uttered a sharp cry of surprise, and brought his
tilted chair to the floor with a crash. When I inquired what was the
matter he looked at me suspiciously, and made some inaudible reply. He
tossed the paper on the table, gulped down a stiff brandy, and left the
room.

As he did not return, I ventured to pick the paper up and examine it. It
was a copy of the London Times, dated a year back. I scanned the page he
had been reading, but could find nothing to account for his agitation.
Where his hand had rumpled it was a brief paragraph stating that the
Earl of Heathermere, of Heathermere Hall, in Surrey, was dead; that his
two unmarried sons had died during the previous year--one by an accident
while hunting; and that the title was now extinct, and the estate in
Chancery. I read it with momentary interest, and then it passed from my
mind. The notice of deaths was close by, and I concluded that it
contained the name of one of the captain's English friends. I remembered
that he had resided in London for some time.

Early the next morning Captain Rudstone departed, expressing the hope
that he would see me within a month or six weeks. Two days later--on t