to harbour such a wretch in your court-yard? It was said up in Quebec,
your excellency, that such men have eaten at your table."

During this speech the governor seemed choleric, but a change passed
over him, and he fell to admiring the lad's boldness. "Upon my soul,
monsieur," he said, "you are council, judge, and jury all in one; but I
think I need not weigh the thing with you, for his excellency, from whom
you come, has set forth this same charge,"--he tapped the paper,--"and we
will not spoil good-fellowship by threshing it now." He laughed a little
ironically. "And I promise you," he added, "that your Radisson shall
neither drink wine nor eat bread with you at my table. And now, come,
let us talk awhile together; for, lest any accident befall the packet you
shall bear, I wish you to carry in your memory, with great distinctness,
the terms of my writing to your governor. I would that it were not to be
written, for I hate the quill, and I've seen the time I would rather
point my sword red than my quill black."

By this the shadows were falling. In the west the sun was slipping down
behind the hills, leaving the strong day with a rosy and radiant glamour,
that faded away in eloquent tones to the grey, tinsel softness of the
zenith. Out in the yard a sumach bush was aflame. Rich tiger-lilies
thrust in at the sill, and lazy flies and king bees boomed in and out of
the window. Something out of the sunset, out of the glorious freshness
and primal majesty of the new land, diffused through the room where those
four people stood, and made them silent. Presently the governor drew his
chair to the table, and motioned Councillor Drayton and Iberville to be
seated.

The girl touched his arm. "And where am I to sit?" she asked demurely.
Colonel Nicholls pursed his lips and seemed to frown severely on her.