第176章

The instant his feelings had found vent, Eau-douce was both alarmed at, and ashamed of, their violence.He would have given all he possessed on earth could the last three minutes be recalled; but he was too frank by dispo-sition and too much accustomed to deal ingenuously by his friend to think a moment of attempting further con-cealment, or of any evasion of the explanation that he knew was about to be demanded.Even while he trembled in anticipation of what was about to follow, he never con-templated equivocation.

"Jasper," Pathfinder commenced, in a tone so solemn as to thrill on every nerve in his listener's body, "this _has_surprised me! You have kinder feelings towards Mabel than I had thought; and, unless my own mistaken vanity and consait have cruelly deceived me, I pity you, boy, from my soul I do! Yes, I think I know how to pity any one who has set his heart on a creature like Mabel, unless he sees a prospect of her regarding him as he regards her.This matter must be cleared up, Eau-douce, as the Delawares say, until there shall not be a cloud 'atween us.""What clearing up can it want, Pathfinder? I love Mabel Dunham, and Mabel Dunham does not love me;she prefers you for a husband; and the wisest thing I can do is to go off at once to the salt water, and try to forget you both.""Forget me, Jasper! that would be a punishment Idon't desarve.But how do you know that Mabel prefars _me_? how do you know it, lad? To me it seems impossible like!""Is she not to marry you, and would Mabel marry a man she does not love?""She has been hard urged by the Sergeant, she has;and a dutiful child may have found it difficult to with-stand the wishes of a dying parent.Have you ever told Mabel that you prefarred her, Jasper -- that you bore her these feelings?""Never, Pathfinder.I would not do you that wrong.""I believe you, lad, I do believe you; and I think you would now go off to the salt water, and let the scent die with you.But this must not be.Mabel shall hear all, and she shall have her own way, if my heart breaks in the trial, she shall.No words have ever passed 'atween you, then, Jasper?""Nothing of account, nothing direct.Still, I will own all my foolishness, Pathfinder; for I ought to own it to a generous friend like you, and there will be an end of it.

You know how young people understand each other, or think they understand each other, without always speak-ing out in plain speech, and get to know each other's thoughts, or to think they know them, by means of a hun-dred little ways."

"Not I, Jasper, not I," truly answered the guide; for, sooth to say, his advances had never been met with any of that sweet and precious encouragement which silently marks the course of sympathy united to passion."Not I, Jasper; I know nothing of all this.Mabel has always treated me fairly, and said what she has had to say in speech as plain as tongue could tell it.""You have had the pleasure of hearing her say that she loved you, Pathfinder?""Why, no, Jasper, not just that in words.She has told me that we never could, never ought to be married; that _she_ was not good enough for _me_, though she _did_ say that she honored me and respected me.But then the Sergeant said it was always so with the youthful and timid; that her mother did so and said so afore her; and that I ought to be satisfied if she would consent on any terms to marry me, and therefore I have concluded that all was right, Ihave."

In spite of all his friendship for the successful wooer, in spite of all his honest, sincere wished for his happiness, we should be unfaithful chroniclers did we not own that Jasper felt his heart bound with an uncontrollable feeling of delight at this admission.It was not that he saw or felt any hope connected with the circumstance; but it was grateful to the jealous covetousness of unlimited love thus to learn that no other ears had heard the sweet confessions that were denied its own.

"Tell me more of this manner of talking without the use of the tongue," continued Pathfinder, whose counte-nance was becoming grave, and who now questioned his companion like one who seemed to anticipate evil in the reply."I can and have conversed with Chingachgook, and with his son Uncas too, in that mode, afore the latter fell; but I didn't know that young girls practysed this art, and, least of all, Mabel Dunham.""'Tis nothing, Pathfinder.I mean only a look, or a smile, or a glance of the eye, or the trembling of an arm or a hand when the young woman has had occasion to touch me; and because I have been weak enough to trem-ble even at Mabel's breath, or her brushing me with her clothes, my vain thoughts have misled me.I never spoke plainly to Mabel myself, and now there is no use for it, since there is clearly no hope.""Jasper," returned Pathfinder simply, but with a dig-nity that precluded further remarks at the moment, "we will talk of the Sergeant's funeral and of our own depar-ture from this island.After these things are disposed of, it will be time enough to say more of the Sergeant's daughter.This matter must be looked into, for the father left me the care of his child."Jasper was glad enough to change the subject, and the friends separated, each charged with the duty most pecu-liar to his own station and habits.

That afternoon all the dead were interred, the grave of Sergeant Dunham being dug in the centre of the glade, beneath the shade of a huge elm.Mabel wept bitterly at the ceremony, and she found relief in thus disburthening her sorrow.The night passed tranquilly, as did the whole of the following day, Jasper declaring that the gale was too severe to venture on the lake.This circumstance de-tained Captain Sanglier also, who did not quit the island until the morning of the third day after the death of Dun-ham, when the weather had moderated, and the wind had become fair.Then, indeed, he departed, after taking leave of the Pathfinder, in the manner of one who believed he was in company of a distinguished character for the last time.The two separated like those who respect one another, while each felt that the other was all enigma to himself.