And all the meaning of her words struck Franklin fully as though a dart had sunk home in his bosom.
"We were seeking for my friend, her son," said Mary Ellen.

"I--Captain Franklin, I know of no reason why we should speak of such things at all, but it was my--I was to have been married to the man for whom we were seeking, and whom we found! That is what Louisburg means to me.
It means this frontier town, a new, rude life for us.

It means meeting you all here--as we are glad and proud to do, sir--but first of all it means--that!" Franklin bowed his head between his hands and half groaned over the pain which he had cost.

Then slowly and crushingly his own hurt came home to him.

Every fibre of his being, which had been exultingly crying out in triumph at the finding of this missing friend--every fibre so keenly strung--now snapped and sprang back at rag ends.