would select him for. We
may have to fight before we attain a place of safety. For that purpose
I would rank this fellow highly. Never yet have I met a red-headed man
averse to a quarrel. Faith! by that token, this one should be worth a
company if we ever come to blows."

"But he is a priest, you told me, a preacher of the Protestants."

"Ay! and the better for it. I have heard my father say the Puritan
breed makes the stoutest men-at-arms; that nothing has been found to
stiffen a battle-line equal to a good text. Give this fellow a pike,
pit him against a boatload of Spanish papists, and, I 'll warrant, he
'll crack more heads than any two of us. Besides, he controls a
perfect tornado of a voice, fit to frighten the crew of a frigate on a
dark night."

She was sitting, her back pressed against a small tree, her hands
clasped lightly about one knee, with dark eves gazing afar where the
broad river danced away into the golden sheen.

"Geoffrey Benteen," she asked soberly, never glancing toward me, "is it
true you do not desire my return to New Orleans?"

"It is true."

"Would you honestly tell me why?" and she turned her eyes, looking
searchingly into mine.

"I have mentioned sufficient reasons," I ventured, resolutely facing
her, determined to speak frankly and abide the result. "All I need add
is, to my judgment it will prove better for you to remain with your
husband."

She glanced aside at him where he lay, the quick blood flushing her
clear cheek.

"You do not like him?" the question fell faltering from her lips.

"That I am not prepared to declare. He is changeable, somewhat
overbearing in speech, not as sober of mind as I am accustomed to find
men, yet it is not true I dislike him. I merely believe that he will
do better, be truer to his manhood, with you near him, than with you
absent."

"He is French," she explained gently, "by nature of birth different
from your race. Besides, he has led a life filled with the dissipation
of the town."

"True! for that reason I forbear judging his words and actions by any
standard of my own people. Yet this I cannot be blind to, Madame; he
is of quick temper, hasty in action, easily influenced by others, and
might become careless at times, and under strong temptation, unless
some moral firmness hold him in check. You alone possess the power to
become his good angel."

She bowed her head, her gaze again far off upon the river, the
deepening surge