Even the missionary
was so much struck with the gentleness of this mysterious savage's
deportment in connection with Margery, as at first to impute it to a
growing desire to make a wife of that flower of the wilderness. But
closer observation induced greater justice to the Indian in this
respect Nothing like the uneasiness, impatience, or distrust of
passion could be discerned in his demeanor; and when Parson Amen
perceived that the bee-hunter's marked devotion to the beautiful
Blossom rather excited a benevolent and kind interest in the
feelings of Peter, so far at least as one could judge of the heart
by external appearances, than anything that bore the fierce and
uneasy impulses of jealousy, he was satisfied that his original
impression was a mistake.
As le Bourdon flourished his axe, and Margery plied her needles,
making a wholesome provision for the coming winter, the mysterious
Indian would stand, a quarter of an hour at a time, immovable as a
statue, his eyes riveted first on one, and then on the other. What
passed at such moments in that stern breast, it exceeds the
penetration of man to say: but that the emotions thus pent within
barriers that none could pass or destroy, were not always ferocious
and revengeful, a carefully observant spectator might possibly have
suspected, had such a person been there to note all the signs of
what was uppermost in the chiefs thoughts.
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