"I have never before felt so much like sacrificing it." "I beg that you will not consider such an act now," I protested, aiding her to reclaim the truants, "for as I saw it before the darkness fell, your hair was surely worthy of preservation." "You laugh at me; I know I must have been a far from pretty sight." "Do you wish me to say with frankness what I thought of your appearance under such disadvantages ?" She glanced at me almost archly, in the flash of lightning that rent the sky.
"I am really afraid to answer yes,--yet perhaps I am brave enough to venture it." "I have never been at court, Mademoiselle, and so you may not consider my judgment in such matters of much moment; but I thought you rarely beautiful." For a moment she did not attempt to speak, but I could distinctly feel the heaving of her bosom as I held her hard against the assault of the wind, and bent low hoping to catch an answer.
"You are sincere and honest," she said at last, slowly, and I felt that the faint trace of mockery had utterly vanished from her soft voice.
"'T is manifest in your face and words.

You speak not lightly, nor with mere empty compliment, as would some gilded courtiers I have known; and for that reason I do value your opinion." "You are not angry at my presumption ?" "Angry ?--I ?" and she stopped and faced me, holding back her hair as she did so.

"I am a woman, Monsieur; and all women, even those of us hidden here in the wilderness, like best those who admire them.

I do not know that I am as beautiful as you say, yet other men have often said the same without being pressed for their opinion.

No, I am not angry,--I am even glad to know you think so." "And you surely do know ?" I insisted, with a courage strange to me.
"Yes," she answered, but her eyes fell before my eagerness; "you are not one who has yet learned to lie, even to women.