SCENE. _The ground before Maitland's Tent_.
(_Maitland and the Indian Chief, Manida, enter_.)
_Mait_. This is well. (_He writes on a slip of paper, and gives it to
the Indian_.) Take that, they will give you the reward you ask for it.
Let me see your face no more, that is all.
_Manida_. Ha, _Monsieur_?
_Mait_. Let me see your face no more, I say. Do you understand me?
_Manida_. (_Smiling_.) Oui.
(_Maitland turns from him. The Indian goes off in the
opposite direction. He stops a moment, and steals a look
at Maitland,--throws his head back with a long silent laugh,
and then goes on toward the woods_.)
_Mait_. (_Musing_.) I like this. _This_ is womanly! Nay, perhaps there
is no caprice about it. I may have misinterpreted that letter in my
haste last night. Very likely. Well,--better this, than that Helen Grey
should come to evil through fault of mine,--better this, than the
anguish of the horrible misgivings that haunted me amid my journey.
And so pass these faery visions! Nay, not thus. It will take longer than
this to unlink this one day's hope from its thousand fastnesses. I
thought, ere this, to have met the spirit of those beaming eyes, to have
taken to my heart for ever this soft, pure being of another life. And
yet, even as I rode through those lonely hills this morning, with every
picture my hope painted, there came a strange misgiving;--like some
scene of laughing noonday loveliness, darkening in the shadow of a
summer's cloud.
Strange that Alaska should abandon my trust! I cannot understand it.
Why, I should never have trusted her with this rascal Indian. There was
something in his eye, hateful beyond all thought,--and once or twice I
caught a strange expression in it, like malignant triumph it seemed. It
may be--no, he must have seen her--that glove he showed me was hers, I
know. Good God!--what if----I think my old experience should have taught
me there was little danger of her risking much in my behalf. Well--even
this is better, than that Helen Grey should have come to evil through
fault of mine.
* * * * *