Mademoiselle Barbe, under a disguise of indifference which sometimes
reduced Jean to the not unprofitable condition wherein hard work is the
sole refuge from despair, hid a passionate interest in her lover's
undertaking. She, too, hated the new domination. She, too, chafed to
escape from Annapolis and take up life anew under her old Flag of the
Fleur-de-lis. Moreover, her restless and fiery spirit could accept no
contented tiller of green Acadian acres for a mate; and she was
resolved that Jean's courageous heart and stirring dreams should
translate themselves into action. She would have him not only the
daring dreamer but the daring doer--the successful smuggler, the shrewd
foiler of the English watch-dogs, the admired and consulted partisan
leader. That he had it in him to be all these things she felt utterly
convinced; but she proposed that the debilitating effects of too much
happiness should have no chance of postponing his success. Her keen
watchfulness detected every weak spot in Jean's enterprise, every
unguarded point in his secret; and her two-edged mockery, which seemed
as careless and inconsequent as the wind, at once accomplished the
effects she had in view. Her fickleness of mood, her bewildering
caprice, were the iridescent foam-bubbles veiling a deep and steady
current. She knew that she loved Jean's love for her, of which she
felt as certain as dawn does of the sunrise. She had a suspicion in
the deep of her heart that she might be in love with Jean himself; but
of this she was in no haste to be assured. She was loyal in every
fibre. And Jean's secret was safe with her.
Thus the wonder came to pass that Jean's secret, though known to three
people, yet remained so long a secret. Had the English Governor,
behind his sodded ramparts overlooking the tide, got wind of it, never
would Jean Michaud's little ship have sailed the open, save with an
English captain and an English crew. It would have been confiscated,
on the not unreasonable presumption that it was intended for the
forbidden trade.
Early in the afternoon, on a day of mid-October, Jean stepped down the
ladder which leaned against the starboard bow of his ship, and
contemplated with satisfaction the name, "Mon Rêve," which he had just
painted in strong, gold lettering. The exultation in his eyes became a
passion of love and worship, as he turned to the slim girl who lay
curled up luxuriously on a sweet-smelling pile of dried ferns and
marsh-grass, watching him.
"Since you won't let me name her directly after you, that is the
nearest I can come to it, Barbe," he said. "You can't find fault with
that. You are my dream--and all else besides."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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