Mademoiselle was there! She sat upon a wooden bench beside the door of the lodge. Her look was turned toward the west and she did not see us as we paused upon the threshold of the palisade. Her hair was cast loose about her shoulders; the breeze played wantonly with its meshes, and the slanting sun burnished it with a golden glow like an aureole. She was dressed, like Maheera, in deerskin; and so pale a gem did she seem in this rough setting that her very slenderness and fairness startled me into the dread that she was translated, and no more a creature of this earth. I feared to move and break the spell that held me. But an Indian woman who sat opposite, weaving, glanced up at this moment and espied us; and then my mistress turned her head.
“Mademoiselle!” I cried, coming forward, “Mademoiselle,—it is I!”
She started to her feet; but casting a fleeting glance upon me, turned half around and fell senseless upon the ground.
Maheera was on her knees beside her in a moment, and together we carried her within the lodge and laid her upon a bed of skins and hemlock-boughs. It was not until then that I saw how wasted she was. I cursed myself for the boor that I was to burst upon her so. What if, after all she had suffered, she was to fade away like a flower under my very eyes. It were better that she had been struck down among the first at Fort Caroline. What if I had killed her? The misery of that moment! I fell upon my knees, raised my voice and prayed to God, who had watched so long over her, that she might be spared.
The moments passed anxiously. Maheera forced eau-de-vie between her lips and at last, with an intaking of breath that racked her from head to foot, she opened her eyes and looked to where I knelt beside her, my anguish all unconcealed.
“Ah yes,” she sighed, “I remember now! It was silly of me. I have never done so before. But I am so weak,—so weak——”
Brave little heart! Undaunted and strong even in her weakness!
“Nay, sweetheart. It was I who startled you. Blame it to me. God knows, rather would I cut my hand from my body——”
She laid her soft fingers upon my wrist.
“Hush!” she said gently, “I know. I have learned. I know how you love me,—dear.”