The Story of Louis Riel: the Rebel Chief eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 224 pages of information about The Story of Louis Riel.

The Story of Louis Riel: the Rebel Chief eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 224 pages of information about The Story of Louis Riel.

“And now, about that flower which I gave you this morning.  What did you do with it?”

“Ah, Monsieur, where were your eyes?  I have worn it in my hair all day.  It is there now; it was there when you came to our cottage this evening.”

“Ah, I see.  I am concerned with your head,—­not with your heart.  Is that it, ma petite bright eye?  You know our white girls wear the flowers we give them under their throats, or upon their bosom.  This they do as a sign that the donor occupies a place in their heart.”  He did not perceive in the dusky moonlight, that he was covering her with confusion.  Upon no point was this little maiden so sensitive, as when it was revealed to her that a particular habit or act of hers differed from that of the civilized white girl.  Her dear little heart was almost bursting with shame, and this thought was running through her mind.

“Oh! what a savage I must seem in his eyes.”  Her own unspoken words seemed to burn through her whole body.  “But how could I know where to wear my rose?  I have read in English books that gentle ladies wear them there.”  And these lines of Tennyson came running through her head.

  “She went by dale, and she went by down,
   With a single rose in her hair.”

And they gave her some relief, for she thought, after all, that he might be only joking When the blood had gone back from her forehead, she turned towards her lover, who had been looking at her since speaking with somewhat of a tender expression in his mischievous eyes.

“Do white girls never wear roses in their hair?  I thought they did.  Can it be wrong for me to wear mine in the same place?”

“Ah, my little barbarian, you do not understand me.  If an old bachelor, whose head shone like the moon there in the sky, were to give to some blithe young belle a rose or a lily, she would, most likely, twist it in her hair; but if some other hand had presented the flower, one whose eye was brighter, whose step was quicker, whose laugh was cheerier, whose years were fewer; in short, ma chere Marie, if some one for whom she cared just a little bit more than for any other man that walked over the face of creation, had presented it to her, she would not put it in her hair.  No, my little unsophisticated one, she would feel about with her unerring fingers, for the spot nearest her heart, and there she would fasten the gift.  Now, ma Marie, suppose you had possessed all this information this morning when I gave you the flower, where would you have pinned it?”

“Nobody has ever done so much for me as has Monsieur.  He leaped into the flood, risking his life to save mine.  I would be an ungrateful girl, then, if I did not think more of him than of any other man; therefore, I would have pinned your flower on the spot nearest my heart,” Then, deftly, and before he could determine what her supple arms and nimble little brown fingers were about, she had disengaged the lily from her hair, and pinned it upon her bosom.  “There now, Monsieur, is it in the right place?” and she looked at him with a glance exhibiting the most curious commingling of innocence and coquetry.

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The Story of Louis Riel: the Rebel Chief from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.