He was touched by the child"s simple devotion.
"I am not going to die. Your Madawando told me I should live to be very old. There were some curious lines in my hand."
"I am so glad," she said simply.
"But you had better not tell the good priest that you are trying to bring M. Giffard back to life in this Indian fashion. They think it a sin."
"I do not like the priests, in their dirty gray gowns, and their heads looking as if they had been scalped. Only when they read in their book.
It sounds like those great people in the wars of Troy."
And this was a little Christian girl. Were not the priests also praying that the souls in purgatory might be lightened of their burden? and he smiled.
But somehow miladi pressed heavily upon his conscience. M. Giffard had come to _his_ a.s.sistance, to save his property, as well as to save human lives. He lost sight of the great brotherhood of mankind, of the heroism of a truly n.o.ble soul. Was there anything he could do to lighten her burthen?
At last she expressed a desire to see him. He had looked to find her wasted away with grief, changed so that it would be sorrow to look upon her. She was pale, but, it seemed, more really beautiful than he had ever known her. Her gown was white, and she had a thin black scarf thrown around her shoulders which enhanced her fairness. There could be no shopping for mourning in this benighted country.
"I thought I should go to him," she said in her soft, half-languid voice. "But the good Pere believes there is something for me to do and that I must be content to remain, and thankful to live. But all is so changed. Sometimes I make myself believe that Laurent has gone back to France to settle matters. He counted so on our return. And that he will come again for me."
"You would like to go to friends?"
"Alas, there are not many. Some have gone to England, some to Holland, not liking the new King"s policy. And some are dead. I should have no one to make a home for me. A woman"s loneliness is intense. She cannot turn to business, nor go out and find friends."
That was true enough. He pitied her profoundly.
"Is it true our Governor is bringing his new wife to Quebec?" she asked presently.
"So the trading vessels have said. They are already loading up with furs, and trade seems brisk. Of course it brings great confusion. I have taken charge of M. Giffard"s bales that came in last week. They had better be sent as usual. The Paris firm is eager for them. They are a fine lot. What is your pleasure?"
"Oh, relieve me of all care that you can. I am so helpless. Laurent did everything. Women were never meant for business, he thought. I am no wiser than a child."
She looked so helpless, so sweet, so dependent.
"I shall be glad to do what I can. Yes, it would be no place for a woman. She could not manage matters. And if you like to trust me----"
"I would trust you in all things. Laurent thought your judgment excellent. He cared so much for you. Oh, if you will take charge----"
She looked up with sweet, appealing eyes. Did he not owe her some protection and care? He was pondering silently.
"You have relieved me of such a burthen. I think I shall get well now.
I hardly knew whether I wanted most to live or die."
"Life is best, sweetest." It would be for her. He uttered the sentence involuntarily.
"You make it so." Her eyes were bewitchingly downcast and a faint color fluttered over her face, while her pretty hands worked nervously.
He paced the gallery afterward in the twilight, when the stars were slowly finding their way through the blue vault overhead, and the river plashed by with its monotone of music. She might desire to return to France; this life in the wilderness did not appeal to delicate women.
Yet she had taken it very cheerfully, he thought.
If she decided to stay--there was one way in which he could befriend her, perhaps make her happy again. Marriage was hardly considered the outcome of love in that period, many other considerations entered into it. There were betrothals where the future husband and wife saw each other for the first time. And they did very well. His ideas of married life were a sort of good-fellowship and admiration, if the woman was pretty; good cooking and a desire to please among the commoner ones. At four and twenty he had not given the matter much consideration. Madame Giffard was full thirty, but she looked like a girl in her lightness and grace. And he owed the memory of M. Giffard something. This step would make amends and allay a troublesome sort of conscience in the matter.
CHAPTER VIII
WHAT ROSE DID NOT LIKE
Eustache Boulle, the Governor"s brother-in-law, had been not a little surprised when his sister was helped off the vessel at Tadoussac. He greeted her warmly.
"But I never believed you would come to this wild country," he exclaimed, with a half-mischievous smile. "I am afraid the Sieur has let his hopes of the future run riot in his brain. He can see great things with that far gaze of his."
"But a good wife follows her husband. We have had a rather stormy and tiresome pa.s.sage, but praised be the saints, we have at last reached our haven."
"I hope you will see some promise in it. We on the business side do not look for pleasure alone."
"It is wild, but marvellously fine. The islands with their frowning rocks and glowing verdure, the points, and headlands, the great gulf and the river are really majestic. And you--you are a man. Two years have made a wondrous change. I wish our mother could see you. She has frightful dreams of your being captured by Indians."
He laughed at that.
"Are the Indians very fierce here?" she asked timidly.
"Some tribes are, the Hurons. And others are very easily managed if you can keep fire-water away from them."
"Fire"--wonderingly.
"Rum or brandy. You will see strange sights. But you must not get frightened. Now tell me about our parents."
The Sieur was quite angry when he heard some boats had been up the river, and bartered firearms and ammunition for peltries. It was their desire to keep the white man"s weapons away from the savages.
Pontgrave had left a bark for the Governor, and Eustache joined them as they went journeying on to Quebec. It was new and strange to the young wife, whose lines so far had been cast in civilized places. The wide, ever-changing river, the rough, unbroken country with here and there a clearing, where parties of hunters had encamped and left their rude stone fireplaces, the endless woods with high hills back of them, and several groups of Indians with a wigwam for shelter, that interested her very much. Braves were spread out on the carpet of dried leaves, playing some kind of game with short knives and smoking leisurely. Squaws gossiping and gesticulating with as much interest as their fairer sisters, their attire new and strange, and papooses tumbling about. They pa.s.sed great tangles of wild grapes that scented the air, here and there an island shimmering with the bloom of blueberries.
Then the great cliff of Quebec came in sight. Latterly it had taken on an aspect of decay that caused the Governor to frown. The courtyard was littered with rubbish from a building that had actually fallen down, and a new one was being erected. And though some of the houses were quite comfortable within, the exterior was very unattractive, from the different materials, like patches put on to add warmth in winter.
The cannon rang out a salute, and the lilies of France floated in the brilliant sunshine. Officers and men had formed a sort of cordon, and from the gallery several ladies looked down and waved handkerchiefs. The Heberts, with their son and daughter, a few other women, a little above the peasant rank, had joined them and Madame Giffard, who still essayed a role of delicacy.
The Sieur took formal possession again in the name of the new Governor General, the Duke of Montmorency. Then they repaired to the little chapel, where the priest held a service of thanksgiving for their safe arrival.
The Recollets had chosen a site on the St. Charles river, some distance from the post, and had begun the erection of a church and convent, for headquarters. Madame Champlain was pleased to hear this and held quite a lengthy talk with Pere Jamay, who was glad to find the new wife took a fervent interest in religion, for even among the French women he had not awakened the influence he had hoped for, in his enthusiasm.
Eustache began a tour of observation. Perched on a rock with a great hemlock tree back of her, he saw a small human being that he was quite sure was not an Indian girl. She was talking to something, and raised her small forefinger to emphasize her words. What incantation was she using?
As he came nearer he saw it was a flock of pigeons. She had been feeding them berries and grains of rye. They arched their glossy necks and cooed in answer. He watched in amaze, drawing nearer. What sprite of the forest was this?
Did she feel the influence that invaded her solitude? She glanced up with wide startled eyes at the intruder, and looked at first as if she would fly.
"Do not be afraid, I will not harm you," said a clear, rea.s.suring voice.
"Are you charming the wild things of the forest? Your incantation was in French--do they understand the language?"