第30章 Two Pioneers(4)

Only now have they blossomed.Heavens,how I have watched the buds!I have said to myself every morning for a fortnight:

'Will they open in time for the good father's Easter morning service?'Then Isaid:'They will open too soon.Buds,'Ihave cried to them,'do not dare to open yet,or you will be horribly passée by Easter.

Have the kindness,will you,to save your-selves for a great event.'And they did it;yes,father,you may not believe,but no later than this morning these sensible flowers opened up their leaves boldly,quite conscious that they were doing the right thing,and to-morrow,if you please,they will be here.And they will perfume the whole place;yes."She stopped suddenly,and relaxed her vivacious expression for one of pain.

"You are certainly ill,"cried the priest.

"Rest yourself."He tried to push her on to one of the seats;but a sort of convulsive rigidity came over her,very alarming to look at.

"You are worn out,"her companion said gravely."And you are chilled.""Yes,I'm cold,"confessed Ninon."But I had to come to tell you about the lilies.

But,do you see,I never could bring myself to put them in this room as it is now.It would be too absurd to place them among this dirt.We must clean the place.""The place will be cleaned.I will see to it.But as for you,go home and care for yourself."Ninon started toward the door with an uncertain step.Suddenly she came back.

"It is too funny,"she said,"that red calico there on the Virgin.Father,I have some laces which were my mother's,who was a good woman,and which have never been worn by me.They are all I have to remember France by and the days when Iwas --different.If I might be permitted --"she hesitated and looked timidly at the priest.

"'She hath done what she could,'"murmured Father de Smet,softly."Bring your laces,Ninon."He would have added:

"Thy sins be forgiven thee."But unfortunately,at this moment,Pierre came lounging down the street,through the mud,fresh from Fort Laramie.His rifle was slung across his back,and a full game-bag revealed the fact that he had amused him-self on his way.His curly and wind-bleached hair blew out in time-torn banners from the edge of his wide hat.His piercing,black eyes were those of a man who drinks deep,fights hard,and lives always in the open air.

Wild animals have such eyes,only there is this difference:the viciousness of an animal is natural;at least one-half of the viciousness of man is artificial and devised.

When Ninon saw the frost-reddened face of this gallant of the plains,she gave a little cry of delight,and the color rushed back into her face.The trapper saw her,and gave a rude shout of welcome.The next moment,he had swung her clear of the chapel steps;and then the two went down the street together,Pierre pausing only long enough to doff his hat to the priest.

"The Virgin will wear no fresh laces,"

said the priest,with some bitterness;but he was mistaken.An hour later,Ninon was back,not only with a box of laces,but also with a collection of cosmetics,with which she proceeded to make startling the scratched and faded face of the wooden Virgin,who wore,after the completion of Ninon's labors,a decidedly piquant and saucy expression.

The very manner in which the laces were draped had a suggestion of Ninon's still unforgotten art as a maker of millinery,and was really a very good presentment of Paris fashions four years past.Pierre,meantime,amused himself by filling up the chinks in the logs with fresh mud,--a commodity of which there was no lack,--and others of the neighbors,incited by these extraordinary efforts,washed the dirt from seats,floor,and windows,and brought furs with which to make presentable the floor about the pulpit.

Father de Smet worked harder than any of them.In his happy enthusiasm he chose to think this energy on the part of the others was prompted by piety,though well he knew it was only a refuge from the insuffer-able ennui that pervaded the place.Ninon suddenly came up to him with a white face.

"I am not well,"she said.Her teeth were chattering,and her eyes had a little blue glaze over them."I am going home.

In the morning I will send the lilies."

The priest caught her by the hand.

"Ninon,"he whispered,"it is on my soul not to let you go to-night.Something tells me that the hour of your salvation is come.

Women worse than you,Ninon,have come to lead holy lives.Pray,Ninon,pray to the Mother of Sorrows,who knows the suf-ferings and sins of the heart."He pointed to the befrilled and highly fashionable Virgin with her rouge-stained cheeks.

Ninon shrank from him,and the same convulsive rigidity he had noticed before,held her immovable.A moment later,she was on the street again,and the priest,watching her down the street,saw her enter her cabin with Pierre.

.......

It was past midnight when the priest was awakened from his sleep by a knock on the door.He wrapped his great buffalo-coat about him,and answered the summons.

Without in the damp darkness stood Pierre.

"Father,"he cried,"Ninon has sent for you.Since she left you,she has been very ill.I have done what I could;but now she hardly speaks,but I make out that she wants you."Ten minutes later,they were in Ninon's cabin.When Father de Smet looked at her he knew she was dying.He had seen the Indians like that many times during the winter.It was the plague,but driven in to prey upon the system by the exposure.The Parisienne's teeth were set,but she managed to smile upon her visitor as he threw off his coat and bent over her.

He poured some whiskey for her;but she could not get the liquid over her throat.

"Do not,"she said fiercely between those set white teeth,"do not forget the lilies."She sank back and fixed her glazing eyes on the antlers,and kept them there watching those dangling silken scarves,while the priest,in haste,spoke the words for the departing soul.

The next morning she lay dead among those half barbaric relics of her coquetry,and two white lilies with hearts of gold shed perfume from an altar in a wilderness.