He was rather bored; he did not find Cacouna very amusing, and had not yet found even that last resource of idle men--a woman to flirt with.

He was in the very mood to be tempted by anything that promised the slightest distraction, and there was undeniably something irritating in the idea of there being in the neighbourhood one sole and unapproachable beauty, and of that one being given up by common consent to a boy, a mere Canadian boor! Of course he could not understand that no one else could have seen this matter in the light he did; that everybody, or nearly everybody, thought of Maurice and Lucia as near neighbours and old playfellows, and no more.

So he felt a very slight stir of indignation, which, in the dearth of other sensations, was not disagreeable.

But then probably the girl was quite over-praised; no beauty at all, in fact.

People in these outlandish places did not appreciate anything beyond prettiness.