He was not
to see her, perhaps, to-day.
But suddenly, as he rounded a corner among the cabins, he came full
upon her, and his flippant tongue clove to the roof of his mouth
without speech.
She came toward him with a bread-pan in her hands and her eyes were
cast down. The heart in him ran to water at sight of her, and he
stopped.
Once more thought of his unworthiness abased him.
Then she felt his presence and raised her eyes, and the young trapper
looked deep into them with that helplessness which draws the look of a
child. Deep he looked and long, and the woman looked back, and in that
moment there sprang into life the first thrill of that thing which was
to lead to the great crisis which she had predicted that day by the
stockade.
With it Marc Dupre found his tongue.
"Ma'amselle!" he cried sharply, "what is it? Mon Dieu! What is it?" For
the dark eyes, with their light-behind-black-marble splendour, were
quenched and dazed and all knowledge seemed stricken from them. The
look of them cut to his very soul, quick and sensitive from the working
of the great change, made ready as a wind-harp by the silent days of
dreams, the nights of visions.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125