"
The girl became very youthful indeed, and a merry light danced in her
eyes and warmed her cheek. She came a step nearer. "It is not so?
You do not come from Count Frontenac--all alone, do you?"
"I'll tell you after I have told the governor," he answered, pleased and
amused.
"Oh, I shall hear when the governor hears," she answered, with a soft
quaintness, and then vanished into the governor's chamber. She had
scarce entered when the door opened again, and the servant, a Scotsman,
came out to say that his excellency would receive him. He went briskly
forward, but presently paused. A sudden sense of shyness possessed him.
It was not the first time he had been ushered into vice-regal presence,
but his was an odd position. He was in a strange land, charged with an
embassy which accident had thrust upon him. Then, too, the presence of
the girl had withdrawn him for an instant from the imminence of his duty.
His youth came out of him, and in the pause one could fairly see him turn
into man.
He had not the dark complexion of so many of his race, but was rather
Saxon in face, with rich curling brown hair. Even in that brave time one
might safely have bespoken for him a large career. And even while the
Scotsman in the doorway eyed him with distant deprecation, as he eyed all
Frenchmen, good and bad, ugly or handsome, he put off his hesitation and
entered the governor's chamber.
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