For the first time in his life Gering had a pang of jealousy and envy.

Only that afternoon he had spent a happy hour with Jessica in the governor's garden, and he had then made an advance upon the simple relations of their life in Boston.

She had met him without self-consciousness, persisting in her old ways, and showing only when she left him, and then for a breath, that she saw his new attitude.

Now the eyes of the two men met, and Gering's dark face flushed and his brow lowered.

Perhaps no one saw but Iberville, but he, seeing, felt a sudden desire to play upon the other's weakness.