d which had
lain folded away ever since. She brought it forth now and arranged it
about her shoulders, but in spite of this covering the fair flesh
beneath peeped through its wide interstices most brazenly. She had
never paid marked attention to the fairness of her skin till now, and
all at once this difference between herself and her little brother and
sister struck her. She had been a mother to them ever since they came,
and had often laughed when she saw how brown their little bodies were,
rejoicing in blushing quietude at her own whiteness, but to-day she
neither laughed nor felt any joy, rather a dim wonder. She sat down,
dress and all, in the thick softness of a great brown bear-skin and
thought it over.

How odd it was, now that she considered it, that she needed no aid with
these alien garments, that she knew instinctively their every feature,
that there was no intricacy to cause her more than an instant's
trouble. This knowledge must be a piece with the intuitive wit that had
been the wonder of Father Barnum and had enabled her to absorb his
teachings as fast as he gave them forth.

She was interrupted in her reverie by the passing of a shadow across
her window and the stamp of a man's feet on the planks at the door. Of
course, it was Poleon, who had come back to see her; so she rose
hastily, gave one quick glance at the mirror above her washstand,
choosing the side that distorted her image the least, and, hearing him
still stamping, perfunctorily called:

"Come in! I'll be right out."

She kicked the train into place behind her, looped the shawl carelessly
about her in a way to veil her modesty effectively, and, with an
expectant smile at his extravagance of admiration, swept out into the
big room, very self-conscious and very pleasing to the eye. She crossed
proudly to the reading-table to give him a fair view of her splendor,
and was into the middle of the room before she looked up. Taken aback,
she uttered a little strangled cry and made a quick movement of
retreat, only to check herself and stand with her chin high in the air,
while wave after wave of color swept over her face.

"Great lovely dove!" ejaculated Burrell, fervently, staring at her.

"Oh, I--I thought you were Poleon. He--" In spite of herself she
glanced towards her room as if to flee; she writhed at the utter
absurdity of her appearance, and knew the Lieutenant must be laughing
at her. But flight would only make it worse, so she stood