Iberville was amazed. So, Jessica and Gering were affianced. And the
buckle she had sent him he wore now in the folds of his lace! How could
he know what comes from a woman's wavering sympathies, what from her
inborn coquetry, and what from love itself? He was merely a man with
much to learn.

He accepted dinner and said: "As for Monsieur Gering, your excellency,
we are as easily enemies as he and Radisson are comrades-in-arms."

"Which is harshly put, monsieur. When a man is breaking prison he
chooses any tool. You put a slight upon an honest gentleman."

"I fear that neither Mr. Gering nor myself is too generous with each
other, your excellency," answered Iberville lightly.

This frankness was pleasing, and soon the governor took Iberville into
the drawing-room, where Jessica was. She was standing by the great
fireplace, and she did not move at first, but looked at Iberville in some
thing of her old simple way. Then she offered him her hand with a quiet
smile.

"I fear you are not glad to see me," he said, with a smile. "You cannot
have had good reports of me--no?"

"Yes, I am glad," she answered gently. "You know, monsieur, mine is a
constant debt. You do not come to me, I take it, as the conqueror of
Englishmen."

"I come to you," he answered, "as Pierre le Moyne of Iberville, who had
once the honour to do you slight service. I have never tried to forget