! Oh! tell me
that it has brought me safety, and also a friend--that it has brought me
you!"

With every pulse a-tingle, every vein afire, what could the young
gallant do? What but yield, but promise, but swear, but rage?

"Hush!" said Mary Connynge, her own eyes gleaming. "Wait! The time will
come. So soon as we reach the settlements, I leave him, and forever!
Then--" Their hands met swiftly. "He has abandoned me," murmured Mary
Connynge. "He has not spoken to me for weeks, other than words of 'Yes,'
or 'No,' 'Do this,' or 'Do that!' Wait! Wait! How soon shall we be at
Montreal?"

"Less than a month. 'Twill seem an age, I swear!"

"Madam," interrupted Law, "pardon, but Monsieur Joncaire bids us be
ready. Come, help me arrange the packs for our journey. Perhaps
Lieutenant de Ligny--for so I think they name you, sir--will pardon us,
and will consent to resume his conversation later."

"Assuredly," said De Ligny. "I shall wait, Monsieur."

"So, Madam," said Law to Mary Connynge, as they at last found themselves
alone in the lodge, arranging their few belongings for transport, "we
are at last to regain the settlements, and for a time, at least, must
forego our home in the farther West. In time--"

"Oh, in time! What mean you?"

"Why, we may return."

"Never! I have had my fill of savaging. That we are left alive is mighty
merciful. To go thither again--never!"

"And if I go?"

"As you like."

"Meaning, Madam--?"

"What you like."

Law seated himself on the corded pack, bringing the tips of his fingers
together.

"Then my late sweetheart has somewhat changed her fancy?"

"I have no fancy left. What I was once to you I shall not recall more
than I can avoid in my own mind. As to what you heard from that lying
man, Sir Arthur--"

"Listen! Stop! Neither must you insult the dead nor the absent. I have
never told you what I learned from Sir Arthur, though it was enough to
set me well distraught."

"I doubt not that he told you 'twas I who befooled Lady Catharine; that
'twas I who took the letter which you sent--"

"Stay! No. He told me not so much as that. But he and you together have
told me enough to show me that I was the basest wretch on earth, the
most gullible, the most unspeakably false and cruel. How could I have
doubted the faith of Lady Catharine--how, but for you? Oh, Mary
Connynge, Mary Connynge! Would God a man were so fashioned he might
better withstand the argument of soft flesh and shin