Part 62 (1/2)

There will be a big wagon filled with straw, and all the young people from here are going, Raoul says. It will be fun; will you go?”

”Yes, if it will please you.”

”It will,” and she turned to the boy. ”Run home, Raoul, and tell Lucie that we accept her invitation. Thou art not vexed with me for correcting thee?”

”_Nenni_” (no), said the child, displaying a dimple in his cheek.

Bidiane caught him and kissed him. ”In the spring we will have great fun, thou and I. We will go back to the woods, and with a sharp knife tear the bark from young spruces, and eat the juicy _bobillon_ inside.

Then we will also find candy. Canst thou dig up the fern roots and peel them until thou findest the tender morsel at the bottom?”

”_Oui_,” laughed the child, and Bidiane, after pus.h.i.+ng him towards Rose, for an embrace from her, conducted him to the gate.

”Is there any use in asking Rose to go with us this evening?” she said, coming back to Agapit, and speaking in an undertone.

”No, I think not.”

”Why is it that she avoids all junketing, and sits only with sick people?”

He murmured an uneasy, unintelligible response, and Bidiane again directed her attention to Rose. ”What are you staring at so intently, _ma chere_?”

”That beautiful stranger,” said Rose, nodding towards the Bay. ”It is a new sail.”

”Every woman on the Bay knows the s.h.i.+ps but me,” said Bidiane, discontentedly. ”I have got out of it from being so long away.”

”And why do the girls know the s.h.i.+ps?” asked Agapit.

Bidiane discreetly refused to answer him.

”Because they have lovers on board. Your lover stays on sh.o.r.e, little one.”

”And poor Rose looks over the sea,” said Bidiane, dreamily. ”I should think that you might trust me now with the story of her trouble, whatever it is, but you are so reserved, so fearful of making wild statements. You don't treat me as well even as you do a business person,--a client is it you call one?”

Agapit smiled happily. ”Marry me, then, and in becoming your advocate I will deal plainly with you as a client, and state fully to you all the facts of this case.”

”I daresay we shall have frightful quarrels when we are married,” said Bidiane, cheerfully.

”I daresay.”

”Just see how Rose stares at that s.h.i.+p.”

”She is a beauty,” said Agapit, critically, ”and foreign rigged.”

There was ”a free wind” blowing, and the beautiful stranger moved like a graceful bird before it. Rose--the favorite occupation in whose quiet life was to watch the white sails that pa.s.sed up and down the Bay--still kept her eyes fixed on it, and presently said, ”The stranger is pointing towards Sleeping Water.”

”I will get the marine gla.s.s,” said Bidiane, running to the house.

”She is putting out a boat,” said Rose, when she came back. ”She is coming in to the wharf.”