第179章

"It's solemn truth, Mabel, and it's right you should know it.Now stand up, and choose 'atween us.I do believe Eau-douce loves you as well as I do myself; he has tried to persuade me that he loves you better, but that I will not allow, for I do not think it possible; but I will own the boy loves you, heart and soul, and he has a good right to be heard.The Sergeant left me your protector, and not your tyrant.I told him that I would be a father to you as well as a husband, and it seems to me no feeling father would deny his child this small privilege.Stand up, Mabel, therefore, and speak your thoughts as freely as if I were the Sergeant himself, seeking your good, and nothing else."Mabel dropped her hands, arose, and stood face to face with her two suitors, though the flush that was on her cheeks was feverish, the evidence of excitement rather than of shame.

"What would you have, Pathfinder?" she asked; "have I not already promised my poor father to do all you de-sire?"

"Then I desire this.Here I stand, a man of the forest and of little larning, though I fear with an ambition be-yond my desarts, and I'll do my endivors to do justice to both sides.In the first place, it is allowed that, so far as feelings in your behalf are consarned, we love you just the same; Jasper thinks his feelings _must_ be the strongest, but this I cannot say in honesty, for it doesn't seem to me that it _can_ be true, else I would frankly and freely confess it, I would.So in this particular, Mabel, we are here before you on equal tarms.As for myself, being the oldest, I'll first say what little can be produced in my favor, as well as ag'in it.As a hunter, I do think there is no man near the lines that can outdo me.If venison, or bear's meat, or even birds and fish, should ever be scarce in our cabin, it would be more likely to be owing to natur' and Provi-dence than to any fault of mine.In short, it does seem to me that the woman who depended on me would never be likely to want for food.But I'm fearful ignorant! It's true I speak several tongues, such as they be, while I'm very far from being expart at my own.Then, my years are greater than your own, Mabel; and the circumstance that I was so long the Sergeant's comrade can be no great merit in your eyes.I wish, too, I was more comely, I do; but we are all as natur' made us, and the last thing that a man ought to lament, except on very special occasions, is his looks.When all is remembered, age, looks, learning, and habits, Mabel, conscience tells me I ought to confess that I'm altogether unfit for you, if not downright unworthy;and I would give up the hope this minute, I would, if Ididn't feel something pulling at my heart-strings which seems hard to undo.""Pathfinder! noble, generous Pathfinder!" cried our heroine, seizing his hand and kissing it with a species of holy reverence; "you do yourself injustice -- you forget my poor father and your promise -- you do not know _me_!""Now, here's Jasper," continued the guide, without al-lowing the girl's caresses to win him from his purpose, "with _him_ the case is different.In the way of providing, as in that of loving, there's not much to choose 'atween us; for the lad is frugal, industrious, and careful.Then he is quite a scholar, knows the tongue of the Frenchers, reads many books, and some, I know, that you like to read yourself, can understand you at all times, which, perhaps, is more than I can say for myself.""What of all this?" interrupted Mabal impatiently;"why speak of it now -- why speak of it at all?""Then the lad has a manner of letting his thoughts be known, that I fear I can never equal.If there's anything on 'arth that would make my tongue bold and persuading, Mabel, I do think it's yourself; and yet in our late conver-sations Jasper has outdone me, even on this point, in a way to make me ashamed of myself.He has told me how simple you were, and how true-hearted, and kind-hearted;and how you looked down upon vanities, for though you might be the wife of more than one officer, as he thinks, that you cling to feeling, and would rather be true to yourself and natur' than a colonel's lady.He fairly made my blood warm, he did, when he spoke of your having beauty without seeming ever to have looked upon it, and the manner in which you moved about like a young fa'n, so nat'ral and graceful like, without knowing it; and the truth and justice of your idees, and the warmth and gener-osity of your heart -- "

"Jasper!" interrupted Mabel, giving way to feelings that had gathered an ungovernable force by being so long pent, and falling into the young man's willing arms, weep-ing like a child, and almost as helpless."Jasper! Jasper!

why have you kept this from me?"

The answer of Eau-douce was not very intelligible, nor was the murmured dialogue that followed remarkable for coherency.But the language of affection is easily under-stood.The hour that succeeded passed like a very few minutes of ordinary life, so far as a computation of time was concerned; and when Mabel recollected herself, and bethought her of the existence of others, her uncle was pac-ing the cutter's deck in great impatience, and wondering why Jasper should be losing so much of a favorable wind.

Her first thought was of him, who was so likely to feel the recent betrayal of her real emotions.

"Oh, Jasper," she exclaimed, like one suddenly self-convicted, "the Pathfinder!"

Eau-douce fairly trembled, not with unmanly apprehen-sion, but with the painful conviction of the pang he had given his friend; and he looked in all directions in the expectation of seeing his person.But Pathfinder had withdrawn, with a tact and a delicacy that might have done credit to the sensibility and breeding of a courtier.

For several minutes the two lovers sat, silently waiting his return, uncertain what propriety required of them under circumstances so marked and so peculiar.At length they beheld their friend advancing slowly towards them, with a thoughtful and even pensive air.