Robert moved his body forward a little, in order that it might be directly between Tayoga and the Frenchman, it being his first impulse to shelter St. Luc from the next person who was likely to recognize him.  But the Onondaga was not looking in that direction.  The young English officer, moved by his intense interest, had engaged him in conversation continually, surprised that Tayoga should know so much about the white race and history.

Robert looked so long at St. Luc, and with such a fixed and powerful gaze, that at last the chevalier turned and their eyes met.  Robert’s said: 

“Why are you here?  Your life is in danger every moment.  If caught you will be executed as a spy.”

“I’m not afraid,” replied the eyes of St. Luc.  “You alone have seen me as I am.”

“But others will see you.”

“I think not.”

“How do you know that I will not proclaim at once who you are?”

“You will not because you do not wish to see me hanged or shot.”

Then the eyes of St. Luc left Robert and wandered ever the audience, which was now deeply engrossed in talk, although the Livingstons and the De Lanceys kept zealously away from one another, and the families who were closely allied with them by blood, politics or business also, stayed near their chiefs.  Robert began to fancy that he might have been mistaken, it was not really St. Luc, he had allowed an imaginary resemblance to impose upon him, but reflection told him that it was no error.  He would have known the intense gaze of those burning blue eyes anywhere.  He was still careful to keep his own body between Tayoga and the Frenchman.

The curtain rose and once more Robert fell under the great writer’s spell.  Vivid action and poetic speech claimed him anew, and for the moment he forgot St. Luc.  When the second act was finished, and while the applause was still filling the hall, he cast a fearful glance toward the place where he had seen the chevalier.  Then, in truth, he rubbed his eyes.  No St. Luc was there.  The chair in which he had sat was not empty, but was occupied by a stolid, stout Dutchman, who seemed not to have moved for hours.

It had been a vision, a figment of the fancy, after all!  But it was merely an attempt of the will to persuade himself that it was so.  He could not doubt that he had seen St. Luc, who, probably listening to some counsel of providence, had left the hall.  Robert felt an immense relief, and now he was able to assume his best manner when Mr. Hardy began to present him and Tayoga to many of the notables.  He met the governor, Mr. Watts, and more De Lanceys, Wilsons and Crugers than he could remember, and he received invitations to great houses, and made engagements which he intended to keep, if it were humanly possible.  Willet and Hardy exchanged glances when they noticed how easily he adapted himself to the great world of his day.  He responded here as he had responded in Quebec, although Quebec and New York, each a center in its own way, were totally unlike.