“Open wide to us, Antoine Freneau! See what I have brought you, if you can make light enough.”
“Gaspard Denys—is it you? Why, I thought you were in the wilds of Canada. And——”
He kicked aside the chain and peered over at the small figure beside Gaspard.
Gaspard had just stood the child down, and his arms tingled with the strain when the muscles were set loose.
“You have brought her!”
There was a sound in the voice far from welcome, almost anger.
“Yes; your messenger from New Orleans told the truth. The nurse or companion, whatever you may call her, had instructions, if no one claimed her, to place her in a convent.”
“And you—you interfered?” Freneau struck his clinched fist hard on a pile of skins.
Gaspard laughed.
“What I am to do with a child is more than I can tell,” Freneau said doggedly, almost threateningly.