"I am listening to you," the young man said, coolly.
"Of the two men now standing before you, one is your fellow countryman."
"Ah!" the Count muttered.
"That countryman is myself."
The young man bowed coldly.
"I suspected it," he said, "and it is a further reason to heighten my suspicions."
Natah Otann made a gesture.
"Let him speak," White Buffalo said, holding him back.
"What I have to say will not be long, sir: it is my opinion that the man who consents to exchange the blessings of European civilization for a precarious life on the prairie; who breaks all the ties of family and friendship which attached him to his country, in order to adopt an Indian life—in my opinion that man must have many disgraceful actions to reproach himself with, and his remorse forces him to offer society expiation for them."
The old man's brow contracted, and a livid pallor covered his face.