“But this maiden?”
He spoke with forced indifference.
“She would go under my protection to Cobequid.”
“That shall never be!” exclaimed Le Loutre violently. “Is not one of the most rebellious of my flock her near kinsman, and shall that dangerous and seditious youth have access to her? If thou dost desire so great a wrong, M. le Curé——”
But before M. Girard could reply Margot was on her knees.
“M. l’Abbé,” she cried, “only tell me that Gabriel—mon cousin—is alive and well, and I will ask nothing further.”
Le Loutre looked down upon the girl in silence, a contemptuous pity in every line of his strongly marked features.
“If he is alive? that I cannot tell thee, maiden. One last chance have I given the would-be renegade lest he become ere his time an outcast. How he hath borne himself, I as yet know not.”
But M. Girard laid his hand kindly on the bowed dark head.
“My daughter, it is the wish of M. l’Abbé that thou shouldst seek the French shore. Louis Herbes, thy neighbor, crosses even now with his wife; it would be well for thee to go with these kind friends.”