Driscoll looked at his Missourians returning from the chase. “Well,” he laughed, “you might try it on, and see how they take it.”
310Behind Jacqueline the door opened. She almost jumped. Of the hundreds likely to enter there, her startled fancy pictured only one. But the new comer was a stranger.
“Oh-ho, come a-visiting, eh?”
The voice was cordial, robust, Western.
“Missour-i!” she exclaimed involuntarily.
“Yes’m, Cooper county.”
She turned, won to friendliness, and beheld a man who, to use her mental ejaculation, was “of a leanness!”
“Monsieur––” and she paused.
“Boone, ma’am. Daniel, your most obedient servant. If I’d known–Sho’, we might of had things spruced up a bit. Are you the queen, maybe?”
The lady’s laugh rang as clear as a bell. Taken aback, Boone sought to correct his mistake. He saw that Berthe was seated in the hammock. She, then, must be the Empress.