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Both were slumbering heavily, Eloise near the western edge of the little grass plot, wrapped within a great shawl so as to leave not even her head visible, while De Noyan rested within easy reach of my outstretched arm, breathing so heavily I felt it safer to arouse him, before that strange boat should come abreast.
Gazing thus, every thought of our surroundings, our dangers, and fatigue passed from memory. Bending to the oar, my soul was far away upon a voyage of its own. Some unusual movement served to attract attention from this day-dreaming, my eyes falling suddenly upon De Noyan. His face, turned partially away from the rising sun, was gray with anxiety, and I noted he shivered in his wet clothes.
To my mind it would be better were you to wax indignant over the wrongs of your wife rather than over a just picturing of this harlot." Before I could move to draw aside, he was upon his feet, and I felt the stinging blow of his hand across my lips. "Sacre!" he cried, transported by sudden rage, "Charles de Noyan takes such affront from no man.
I led the little company, bearing rifle in hand, keeping vigilant outlook for game; De Noyan followed, where he might easily afford aid to his wife if she required the strength of his arm along the rough path; while the old Puritan, grumbling ever to himself, lumbered along well in the rear, although we were careful to keep within speaking distance of each other.
My heart was so heavily laden by the plight of Eloise, I retained no other desire than a longing to return at once to the hut and hold consultation with De Noyan. That same silent spectre accompanied me along the brief journey, leaving me unguarded at the entrance. I entered hastily only to find the room vacant, my comrade gone.
Undoubtedly this same sense of dreariness led De Noyan to sing, caused me such painful restlessness under that same singing, and left Eloise saddened in her lonely thoughts. Every occurrence impressed me that night as unusual. Perchance this was because both heart and head were sadly out of tune.
"I should be overjoyed to minister unto them with the sharp edge of a steel blade," interposed De Noyan decidedly, and I noticed him for the first time, lying beyond his wife. "What do you expect, Master Benteen, these villains will do to us?" "I read no sign of mercy in any face yet seen," I answered cautiously.
So it is impossible to deny that, from the first moment when she called Charles de Noyan husband, I felt toward him a degree of animosity deeper than I had before supposed it possible for me to entertain relative to any human being.
As to the moral side of the affair, it would be sheer waste of words to broach it, as De Noyan could form no clearer conception of such an issue than a babe unborn. He swung as the wind blew, and in all his pampered life had probably never dreamed of denying himself a liberty. Saint Andrew! it was a knotty problem for such a head as mine to solve.
A single word from her red lips would, in spite of all superstition, cause them to rend us limb from limb, so I bade De Noyan follow me, feeling relief when once beyond her sight in the cool depths of the sheltering hut.
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