"
There was a pause.
"How--did you know--about me?"
"I was at Fort Providence. There came letters from the Hudson's Bay
Company, and from your wife, saying that you were making this journey,
and were six months behind--"
"My wife--Rose!"
"I have a letter for you from her. She is on her way to Canada. We are to
take you to her."
"To take me--to her." Lepage shook his head sadly, but he pressed to his
lips the letter that Hume had given him.
"To take you to her, Lepage."
"No, I shall never see her again."
"I tell you, you shall. You can live if you will. You owe that to her--to
me--to God."
"To her--to you--to God. I have been true to none. I have been punished.
I shall die here."
"You shall go to Fort Providence. Do that in payment of your debt to me,
Lepage. I demand that." In this transgressor there was a latent spark of
honour, a sense of justice that might have been developed to great
causes, if some strong nature, seeing his weaknesses, had not condoned
them, but had appealed to the natural chivalry of an impressionable,
vain, and weak character. He struggled to meet Hume's eyes, and doing so,
he gained confidence and said: "I will try to live.
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