The Lady of Fort St. John

in the easiest chair of the fortress. It was large and stiff, but filled with cushions. Lady Dorinda's chamber was the most comfortable one in Fort St. John. It w

ornaments and beauty-helpers of an elderly belle, and countless accumulations whic

edding was a diversion of her exile which Lady Dorinda had never hoped for. There had been some mating in the fort below among soldiers and peasant women, to which she did not lower her thoughts. The

d the widow of Claude La Tour. Neither forgot their first meeting behind cannon, and the tragedy of a divided house. Lady Dorinda lived in Acadia because she could not well live elsewhere. And she secr

years are the same betwixt us and the people who solve not for us this riddle of ourselves. Antonia thought little of Lady Dorinda's opinions, but her saying about the dignity of marriage rites had the force of unexpected truth. A

this occasion," added Lady Dorinda. "Did you n

patroon of Fort

troon suggested the barbarous but splendid vision of a western pasha. "Salutes should be fired an

your ladyship,

ould greatly impress a man with the charge he hath undertaken. There be not many bridegrooms like Sir Claude de la Tour, who fas

looked very superior. Her double chins and dull light eyes held great reserves of self-respect. A small box of aromatic seeds la

give the proper grace to thi

rie. "Edelwald has so much

of when I was at court," said Lady Dorinda. "Edel

spect and deference like a title. He was of the family of De Born. In an age when religion made political ties stronger than the ties of nature, the La Tours and De Borns had fought side by side through Huguenot wars. When a later generation of La Tours were struggling for foothold in the New World, it was not strange that a son of the De Borns, ful

ilderness. The joyous science had long fallen out of practice. But while the grim and bloody records of our early colonies were being made, here was an unrecorded poet in Acadia. La Tour held this gift of Edelwald's in light esteem. He was a man so full of action and of schem

ence by Lady Dorinda's fire, "if Mynheer Van Corlaer journeyed o

"for by that delay I should happily keep you until summer. Besides, the priest we have here with us himself admits that the town of

g to be wedded to Mynheer

Corlaer return he

He will carry

said Marie smiling, "thoug

from him by submitting to the other conditions of his journey. It amused Marie to note the varying phases of Antonia'

need," she mused on, in the line of rem

on on the aromatic seed, and leaving her chair to pay this gracious compliment to the Dutch widow. "It hath fad

ion, rating her as "my other lady," and plainly deploring her presence. Lady Dorinda had one large box bound with iron, hidden in a nook beyond her bed. She took the key from its usual secret place and busied herself opening the box. Marie and Antonia

had been proclaimed to her, but she recollected that in her second thought, when she had already laid aside the napkin and discovered Jonas Bronck's hand. Lady Dorinda snapped the lid down and clo

n a clay-colored face. Marie was used to these quiet lapses of her mother-in-law, for Lady Dorinda had not been a good sailor on their voyage; but Antonia was alarmed. They bathe

pening that box," said Marie. "It is n

ay be right," gas

treasures in the chest by a forced search. Nothing had been disturbed. The coals burned down red while Lady Dorinda tried to understand this happening. She dismissed all thought of the casket's belonging to An

strange girl in the fort, accused of coming from D'Aulnay. Lady Dorinda could feel no enmity towards D'Aulnay. Her mind swarmed with foolish thou