"Good God!" the Major ejaculated, recoiling involuntarily before his sister's flaming glance.
"Well," she continued, with a strident laugh, "this girl has grown up, the child has become a woman, as lovely as it is possible to be. This man, this monster, this demon, has felt his tiger heart soften at the sight of the angel; he loves her to distraction, he wishes to make her his wife."
"Horror!" the Major exclaimed.
"Is that not truly hideous?" she continued, still with that nervous, spasmodic laugh which it pains one to hear: "he has pardoned his victim's daughter. Yes, he is generous, he forgets the atrocious torture he inflicted on the father, and now covets the daughter."
"Oh, that is frightful, Margaret; so much infamy and cynicism is impossible, even among Indians!"
"Do you believe, then, that I am deceiving you?"
"Far from me be such a thought, sister; the man is a monster."
"Yes, yes, so he is."
"You have seen your daughter; you have talked with her?"
"Yes; well, what then?"