As he glanced over the note, I had opportunity to observe him more closely. I had often heard of him from Gaston in the old days, for they had been friends from boyhood, and had done much campaigning together in Germany and elsewhere. He looked worn, like a man who had grown old before his time, but I could trace the likeness to the warm-hearted, hot-headed young officer whom I had so often pictured, in his large eyes, which had lost nothing of their youthful fire, and in his smile, which had the charm that does not disappear with years. "Madame de St. Just," he said, when he had finished reading, "I can spare you the necessity of even asking my help, and must not lay you under any obligation greater than this little voyage from your boat to mine, to which you would not have been subject had I known of your relation to my friend le pere Jean. He tells me your intention was to have gone to Louisbourg. If that be still your desire, madame, I can at least spare you the journey to Quebec, and can promise you an easy passage to Louisbourg as soon as the snow makes good travelling, for, in Canada, summer is no time for a long journey across country. But let us be seated and talk this matter over quietly," and he waved his hand towards the stern of the yacht, where some of the officers hastened to arrange their cloaks into comfortable seats. My heart was in the strangest commotion as I saw the drift of circumstance that was sweeping me onward, without effort on my part, towards the end I most desired; I had not spoken, and here was the arbiter of my fate putting into words all that I dared not ask. I resolved not even to think, but to leave the issue in his hands. "Had you ever met le pere Jean before, madame?" he resumed. "No, monsieur. How could I? But I cannot help feeling I have met you. I was wont to hear your name very often when a young girl?" "Indeed? And to whom did I owe that favour?" "To your friend, the Vicomte de Trincardel." He stared at me as if in great amazement, and when he spake his tone was that of a man deeply puzzled. "You know the Vicomte de Trincardel?". "Assuredly, monsieur--that is, I did know him. He was a frequent visitor at my guardian's both in Paris and London," and then I stupidly fell to blushing like a school-girl. "Strange, very strange," he muttered, in an absent manner. "No, monsieur, not strange," I answered, for I could not bear he should misunderstand; "my family name is Nairn, and my guardian was the late Lady Jane Drummond." "Oh, pardon me, madame; it was only the odd chance of my meeting with you that I marvelled at. But it is a narrow world, after all, for a few years ago, when in Italy, I heard of your brother from the Cardinal York: he spake of him in terms of the warmest affection." "Helas! monsieur, my brother is dead to me. He has deserted the cause to which I and mine have been faithful; he now holds a commission in the English army."