Marie’s eyes flashed indignantly at this cold blooded discounting of the generous, uncalculating bravery of her young preserver.

“I doubt, Monsieur, she said, whether if you had been on the bank where Monsieur Scott jumped in, you would have looked upon the going over of the fall as an exploit so free of danger as you describe it now.  As a matter of fact, there were many half-breeds there, many of whom, no doubt, were as brave as yourself, but I should have perished in the fans of the mill if I had to depend upon the succour of any one of them.”

“Mademoiselle,” he retorted with a fierce light in his eye, “I am not a half-breed.”

“O, pardonnez mois, I thought from your features and the straightness of your coal-black hair, that you were.”  Riel’s blood was nigh unto boiling in his veins, but he had craft enough to preserve a tolerably unruffled exterior.

“And in return for this great bravery, ma petite demoiselle has, I suppose, given her heart to her deliverer?”

“I think Monsieur is impertinent; and I shall ask my father to forbid him to continue to address me in such a manner.”

“A thousand pardons; I did not mean to pain, but only to chaff, your brave daughter.  I think that Monsieur Scott is most fortunate in having a friend, a beautiful friend, so loyal to him, and so jealous of his fair fame.  But to pass to other matters.  Have you had visits from any emissaries of the Canadian government during the autumn?”

“Yes, Monsieur Mair came here one day in company with Monsieur Scott.  They were both quail shooting.  They stayed only for a little, and I was quite favourably impressed with the agreeableness and politeness of M. Mair’s manners.”

“O, indeed!  Monsieur Mair was here and with Mr. Scott!  I am glad that you conceive an opinion so favourable of Monsieur Mair, but I regret that I am unable to share in the regard.  I think I had better open your eyes somewhat to the character of this agreeable gentleman.  Since coming to Red River, his chief occupation has been writing correspondence respecting our colony, and the civilization and morals of our people.  I have been preserving carefully some of the communications for future use, and if you will permit me I shall read an extract from a late contribution of his to a newspaper printed in Ontario.  You will, I think, be able to gather from it something of his opinion respecting the Metis women.  Indeed, I am surprised that Mademoiselle’s great friend and preserver,” he looked sneeringly at Marie, “should have for so close a companion a person who entertains these views about our people.”

“I do not know that Monsieur Scott is so close a companion of Monsieur Mair,” put in Marie.  “I think Monsieur is now, as he has been doing all along, assuming quite too much.”

“I sincerely trust that I am doing so, but I shall read the extract,” and he took from his pocket-book a newspaper slip.  Smoothing the creases out of the same, he read, with the most malignant glee, the following paragraph, dwelling with emphasis upon every disparaging epithet:—­