"I fear you are not glad to see me," he said, with a smile. "You cannot have had good reports of me--no?" "Yes, I am glad," she answered gently. "You know, monsieur, mine is a constant debt. You do not come to me, I take it, as the conqueror of Englishmen." "I come to you," he answered, "as Pierre le Moyne of Iberville, who had once the honour to do you slight service. I have never tried to forget that, because by it I hoped I might be remembered--an accident of price to me." She bowed and at first did not speak; then Morris came to say that some one awaited the governor, and the two were left alone. "I have not forgotten," she began softly, breaking a silence. "You will think me bold, but I believe you will never forget," was his meaning reply. "Yes, you are bold," she replied, with the demure smile which had charmed him long ago. Suddenly she looked up at him anxiously, and, "Why did you go to Hudson's Bay?" she asked. "I would have gone ten times as far for the same cause," he answered, and he looked boldly, earnestly, into her eyes. She turned her head away. "You have all your old recklessness," she answered. Then her eyes softened, and, "All your old courage," she added. "I have all my old motive." "What is-your motive?" Does a woman ever know how much such speeches cost? Did Jessica quite know when she asked the question, what her own motive was; how much it had of delicate malice--unless there was behind it a simple sincerity? She was inviting sorrow. A man like Iberville was not to be counted lightly; for every word he sowed, he would reap a harvest of some kind. He came close to her, and looked as though he would read her through and through. "Can you ask that question?" he said most seriously. "If you ask it because from your soul you wish to know, good! But if you ask it as a woman who would read a man's heart, and then--" "Oh, hush!--hush!" she whispered. Her face became pale, and her eyes had a painful brightness. "You must not answer. I had no right to ask. Oh, monsieur!" she added, "I would have you always for my friend if I could, though you are the enemy of my country and of the man--I am to marry." "I am for my king," he replied; "and I am enemy of him who stands between you and me. For see: from the hour that I met you I knew that some day, even as now, I should tell you that--I love you--indeed, Jessica, with all my heart." "Oh, have pity!" she pleaded. "I cannot listen--I cannot." "You shall listen, for you have remembered me and have understood. Voila!" he added, hastily catching her silver buckle from his bosom. "This that you sent me, look where I have kept it--on my heart!" She drew back from him, her face in her hands. Then suddenly she put them out as though to prevent him coming near her, and said: