Alfred de Courtenay stopped in his tracks, the smile fixed on his face,
and drank in the pretty scene like one starved.
So long he looked that McElroy turned toward him and only then did he
shift his glance, remembering himself, while a blush suffused his
rather delicate features.
"Pardon!" he murmured; "truly do I forget myself, M'sieu; but not for
a twelvemonth have I seen aught to match this moment. I pray you, of
what station of life is the glorious young Madonna before you;--wife or
widow or maid? By Saint Agnes, never have I beheld such beauty!"
"Maid," replied McElroy; "by name Maren Le Moyne, one of a party of
venturers who came but a short while back from Rainy River, and who
have cast in their lot with us for the matter of a year."
The woman and the child passed on their way, disappearing again behind
the next cabin, unconscious of observation, still lost in their play of
the tossing ship at sea, and the two men entered the great trading-room
of Fort de Seviere, where Edmonton Ridgar, chief trader and accountant,
came forward to meet the stranger.
The young factor went in search of Jack de Lancy and word of the meal
he had ordered, and for some reason there was within him a vague
vexation which had to do with the look he had seen in the merry eyes of
Alfred de Courtenay,
He found the great kettles boiling over the fires and a ten-gallon pot
of coffee Venting the evening air.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49