A Death Warrant or a Marriage Contract

"Well?"

"I shall not return to France on the Henri IV," determinedly.

"But Du Cévennes and the others?"

"I shall avoid Monsieur du Cévennes; I shall laugh in D'Hérouville's
face; the vicomte will find me as cold and repelling as that iceberg
which we passed near Acadia."

"And Monsieur de Saumaise?" Anne persisted.

"Well, if he wishes it, he may play Strephon to my Phyllis, only the
idyl must go no further than verses. No, Anne; his is a brave, good
heart, and I shall not play with it. I am too honest."

"Well, at any rate, you will not become dull while I am on probation.
And you will also become affiliated with the Ursulines?"

Madame smiled with gentle irony. "Oh, yes, indeed! And I shall teach
Indian children to speak French as elegantly as Brantôme wrote it, and
knit nurses' caps for the good squaws. . . . Faith, Anne, dear, if I
did not love you, the Henri IV could not carry me back to France quick
enough." Madame leaned from the window and sniffed the forest perfumes.

"You will be here six months, then."

"That will give certain personages in France time to forget."

"You were very uncivil to Monsieur le Marquis on board."

"I adore that race, the Pérignys," wrathfully. "Twenty times I had the
impulse to tell him who I am."

"But you did not. And what can he be doing here?"

"Doubtless he intends to become a Jesuit father: or he is here for the
purpose of taking his son back to France. Like the good parent he is,
he does not wait for the prodigal's return. He comes after him."