A roundabout way it was, this by water all the way to Quebec by the outside route, but François had his reasons for selecting it. His prisoners had no means of escape, and Alaine would be the longer under the tutelage of Father Bisset. It was some time after they had entered upon the voyage that the young man approached Alaine. “Mademoiselle,” he began, “we are going to Quebec. You will not find it a bad place. Will you enter it as Madame François Dupont?” He stood regarding her with a grave courtesy.
“Monsieur,” returned Alaine, sweetly, “I am not indifferent to the compliment you pay me, but I cannot accept your name.”
“You prefer the convent? Then, mademoiselle, if in six months or a year hence I return with your father as my companion I may claim you from the good nuns, who will guard you well I feel assured.”
Alaine made no reply, and he went on. “I understand that you are willing to accept him whom your father shall desire to receive as his son-in-law. Am I not right?”
Alaine gave a hasty glance at Father Bisset. The question was a hard one to answer evasively. “Six months, a year is a long time,” she at length replied, after some hesitation. “How can one promise what one may do in that time?”
“Then we will leave it so, and I will rest content that you will bide by your father’s selection and do his bidding.”
“I think I can promise that.”
“That gives me hope sufficient, my fiancée. Soon we must part for a season. Father Bisset will parley with the good sisters better than I. He will conduct you to them, and then he will return to me. Is it no consolation to you, mademoiselle, that this same genial father goes with me to Guadaloupa to help me in my quest of releasing your father?”
“Whoever has the good fortune to be under the guardianship of Father Bisset is indeed fortunate,” replied Alaine. “If monsieur is to be honored by such company, he is indeed blest.”
François bowed, and then, with a laugh, said, “This time I am not able to say, ‘Whither thou goest,’ is it not so? I do not keep my word in this instance, but it is because I cannot.”