Mademoiselle Laurentia, wearied as she was with the conventional
adulation, in reality amounting to so little, of the world in which she
moved.

"Now, mademoiselle," said Elsie, "I am ready. It is so good of you to
sing for me."

"My child, you know I love to give you pleasure," she replied, stroking
the girl's fair hair caressingly. "Listen! I will sing for you a song I
have not sung for years--ah! so many, many years."

She began softly, slowly, a Canadian boat-song, heard often on the
raftsman's barge or habitant's canoe, on the Ottawa or great St.
Lawrence--a national song, with its quaint monotonous melody and simple
pathetic words.

And the voice which rendered so effectively the technical difficulties of
Wagner and Gounod sang this simple air with a pathos and feeling all its
own:

"A la claire fontaine
M'en allant promener,
J'ai trouvé l'eau si belle
Que je me suis baigné.
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Jamais je ne t'oublierai.
Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Jamais je ne t'oublierai."

"Why, McAllister, whatever is the matter with you? Have you seen a ghost?