All the women began to speak, but Annabel de Chaumont could talk faster
than the four others combined, so they knew our plight before we learned
that they were the Grignon and Tank families, who were going into the
west to find settlement and had made the house their camp for one night.
The Dutch maid, dark and round-eyed, and the flaxen little Grignon, had
respect for their elders and held their tongues while Madame Tank and
Madame Grignon spoke, but Annabel de Chaumont was like a grove of
sparrows. The world seemed swarming with young maids. The travelers were
mere children, while the count's daughter was startling as an angel. Her
clothing fitted her body like an exquisite sheath. I do not know what it
was, but it made her look as slim as a dragon fly. Her white and rose
pink face had a high arched nose, and was proud and saucy. She wore her
hair beaten out like mist, with rich curly shreds hanging in front of
her ears to her shoulders. She shook her head to set her hat straight,
and turned her eyes in rapid smiling sweeps. I knew as well then as I
ever did afterwards that she was bound to befool every man that came
near her.

There were only two benches in the cabin, but it was floored and better
made than our hunting lodges. The temporary inmates and their guests
sat down in a long row before the fire. I was glad to make a pillow of a
saddle near the wall, and watch their backs, as an outsider.
Mademoiselle de Chaumont absorbed all eyes and all attention. She told
about a ball, to which she had ridden with her governess and servants a
three days' journey, and from which all the dancers were riding back a
three days' journey to join in another ball at her father's house. With
the hospitality which made Le Ray de Chaumont's manor the palace of the
wilderness as it existed then, she invited the hosts who sheltered her
for the night, to come to the ball and stay all summer. And they