For it would not do to conceal anything vital to the case.

Her clear, wise eyes would see instantly through any evasion, not to say deception--even a harmless deception.

No; if she were to be of any aid in this deeply-perplexing business, I must tell her the story of Lois--not betraying anything that the girl might shrink from having others know, but stating her case and her condition as briefly and as honestly as I might.
And no sooner did I come to this conclusion than I spoke; and after the first word or two Mrs.Bleecker put off her sun-mask and turned, looking me directly in the eyes.
I said that the young lady's name was Lois de Contrecoeur--and if it were not that it was nothing, and human creatures require a name! But this I did not say to her, nor thought it necessary to mention any doubt as to the girl's parentage, only to say she was the child of captives taken by the Senecas after the Lake George rout.
I told of her dreary girlhood, saying merely that her foster parents were now dead and that the child had conceived the senseless project of penetrating to Catharines-town, where she believed her mother, at least, was still held captive.
The tall, handsome girl beside me listened without a word, her intent gaze never leaving me; and when I had done, and the last word in my brief for Lois had been uttered, she bent her head in thought, and so continued minute after minute while I sat there waiting.
At last she looked up at me again, suddenly, as though to surprise my secret reflections; and if she did so I do not know, for she smiled and held out her hand to me with so pretty a confidence that my lips trembled as I pressed them to her fingers.

And now something within her seemed to have been reassured, for her eyes and her lips became faintly humorous.
"And where is this most forlorn and errant damsel, Sir Euan ?" she inquired.

"For if I doubt her when I see her, no more than I doubt you when I look at you, something should be done in her behalf without delay....