It shone, nevertheless, by contrast, and was a little island
of warmth and comfort in the sea of the wilderness. Monsieur Jolivet,
who was deeply interested in the Bostonnais and the proud young
Iroquois, talked freely. Under his light and chattering manner lay great
powers of perception, and he saw that he had guests of quality, each in
his own way. The hunter even was not an ordinary hunter, but, as
Monsieur Jolivet judged, a man of uncommon intellectual power, and also
of education. He would discover as much about them as he could, for his
own personal gratification, because he might give valuable information
to the commandant at Montreal, who was his friend, and because later on
he might speak a useful word or two in the ear of Louis de Galisonniere,
whom he knew well and whose good opinion he valued.
Robert, who was in a cheerful mood and who wished to exercise his gift
of golden speech, met him half way, and enlarged upon the splendor and
power of Britain, the great kingdom that bestrode the Atlantic, seated
immovable in Europe, and yet spreading through her colonies in America,
increasing and growing mightier all the time.
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