"I should advise you not to try it, Gabrielle. He might become formidable. Are you not mischief endowed with a woman's form?"
"A mare's nest it is, truly; but since I have entered it willingly …"
"Well?"
"I shall not return to France on the Henri IV," determinedly.
"But Du Cévennes and the others?"
"I shall avoid Monsieur du Cévennes; I shall laugh in D'Hérouville's face; the vicomte will find me as cold and repelling as that iceberg which we passed near Acadia."
"And Monsieur de Saumaise?" Anne persisted.
"Well, if he wishes it, he may play Strephon to my Phyllis, only the idyl must go no further than verses. No, Anne; his is a brave, good heart, and I shall not play with it. I am too honest."
"Well, at any rate, you will not become dull while I am on probation. And you will also become affiliated with the Ursulines?"
Madame smiled with gentle irony. "Oh, yes, indeed! And I shall teach Indian children to speak French as elegantly as Brantôme wrote it, and knit nurses' caps for the good squaws. … Faith, Anne, dear, if I did not love you, the Henri IV could not carry me back to France quick enough." Madame leaned from the window and sniffed the forest perfumes.