"But I won you fairly, Mam'selle. And I had great trembling of heart, for the Huron chief was obdurate. I succeeded at length. He has had a wife, he does not need another. He might be your father. And you have repaid him for all care by giving him back his life, by saving him from torture you know little about. For if the party joining them had discovered the robbery of their storehouse, there would have been little mercy. Oh, Mam'selle, how can so sweet a being be so cold and unyielding?"
"I have told you the secret of it. I do not love you. I do not want you for a husband. But I will keep my promise. Give me time to get well. It may not look so terrible to me then."
How lovely she was in her pleading, even if it did deny. He could have snatched her to his heart and stifled her with kisses, yet he did not dare to touch so much as her little finger. What strange power held her aloof? But if she was once his wife——
"A month," he pleaded.
"Longer than that. Three months. Three whole moons. Then you may come again and I will answer you."
His face paled with anger, his eyes were points of flame, his blood was hot within him.
"I will not wait."
"Then you may have my dead body."
"But you break your promise."
"I ask you to wait," she said, in a steady tone. "That is all."