What could he say, how dared he do what he had done?
He could have thrown the white garment into the river in his sudden vexation. Factor of the post, he had made of himself a stammering youth, all for sake of the compelling beauty of a woman's eyes.
But at that moment, while Marie stood blankly on the sill holding to the doorside and the silence grew unbearable, there was a step within the cabin and Maren Le Moyne came from the inner room.
In one moment, so keen was the perception of her, she had seen the red blood in McElroy's face, the wonder on Marie's, and she, too, stood in the open door.
“Ah, M'sieu!” she said quickly, “do some of them, by chance, come from the west?”
The tone of her deep voice broke the spell, so subtly natural was it, and McElroy found his tongue.
“No, Ma'amselle,” he smiled, the ease coming back to his blue eyes, “but I have found something very beautiful among them which I wish you to have. It is more beautiful than a red flower.”
He held up to her the doeskin garment and his eyes were very anxious.
For a moment Maren stared as she had stared at De Courtenay and a curious expression of perplexity spread on her face.
Truly men were different here in this wilderness from those who lived at the Grand Portage, and for a moment she drew herself up and the straight brows began to frown. But as she had felt the whimsical charm of De Courtenay, so now she felt the eagerness, the taut anxiety of this man, and she noticed that there was no smile on his face as she hesitated.