“You––you will try, as his wife, to win confession?” he asked finally, grasping vaguely the one thought occurring to him.
“No; there is a better way. I despise the man; I cannot bear that he touch me. More than that, if I read him aright, once I yield and confess myself his property, he will lose all interest in my possession. He is a lady killer; ’tis his boast. The man has never been in love with me; it was not love, but a desire to possess my fortune, which led to his proposal of marriage. Now I shall make him love me.”
“You! Mon Dieu! how?”
“By refusing him, tantalizing him, arousing a desire which I will not gratify. Already his thought of me has changed. Last night in Quebec he was surprised, and aroused to new interest in me as a woman. He considered me before as a helpless girl, with no will, no character––the sort with which he had had his way all through life. He thought I would fall in his arms, and confess him master. The words I spoke to La Barre shocked and startled him out of his self complacency. Nor was that all––even before then he had begun to suspicion my relations with Sieur de Artigny.
“It was at his suggestion, you say, that you sent that young man your message of warning to keep away from me. Good! the poison is already working, and 122 I mean it shall. Two hours ago, when we landed here, the two men were on verge of quarrel, and blows would have been struck but that I intervened. He is finding me not so easy to control, and later still the mighty Commissaire met with a rebuff which rankles.”
I laughed at the remembrance, satisfied now as I placed the situation in words, that my plans were working well. Chevet stood silent, his mouth agape, struggling to follow my swift speech.
“Do you see now what I mean to do?” I asked gravely. “We shall be alone in the wilderness for months to come. I will be the one woman; perchance the only white woman into whose face he will look until we return to Quebec. I am not vain, yet I am not altogether ill to look upon, nor shall I permit the hardships of this journey to affect my attractiveness. I shall fight him with his own weapons, and win. He will beg, and threaten me, and I shall laugh. He will love me, and I shall mock. There will be jealousy between him and De Artigny, and to win my favor he will confess all that he knows. Tonight he sulks somewhere yonder, already beginning to doubt his power to control me.”
“You have quarreled?”
“No––only that I asserted independence. He would have entered this tent as my husband, and I forbade his doing so. He stormed and threatened, but 123 dare not venture further. He knows me now as other than a weak girl, but my next lesson must be a more severe one. ’Tis partly to prepare that I sent for you; I ask the loan of a pistol––the smaller one, to be concealed in my dress.”
“You would kill the man?”