 nat'ral, I do believe, but vanity like that, would
surpass reason.«
    »Then you do not know of what a woman's heart is capable! Rude you are not,
Deerslayer, nor can one be called ignorant that has studied what is before his
eyes as closely as you have done. When the affections are concerned, all things
appear in their pleasantest colors, and trifles are overlooked, or are
forgotten. When the heart feels sunshine, nothing is gloomy, even dull looking
objects, seeming gay and bright, and so it would be between you and the woman
who should love you, even though your wife might happen, in some matters, to
possess what the world calls the advantage over you.«
    »Judith, you come of people altogether above mine, in the world, and onequal
matches, like onequal fri'ndships can't often tarminate kindly. I speak of this
matter altogether as a fanciful thing, since it's not very likely that you, at
least, would be apt to treat it as a matter that can ever come to pass.«
    Judith fastened her deep blue eyes on the open, frank countenance of her
companion, as if she would read his soul. Nothing there betrayed any covert
meaning, and she was obliged to admit to herself, that he regarded the
conversation as argumentative, rather than positive, and that he was still
without any active suspicion that her feelings were seriously involved in the
issue. At first, she felt offended; then she saw the injustice of making the
self-abasement and modesty of the hunter a charge against him, and this novel
difficulty gave a piquancy to the state of affairs that rather increased her
interest in the young man. At that critical instant, a change of plan flashed on
her mind, and with a readiness of invention that is peculiar to the quick-witted
and ingenious, she adopted a scheme by which she hoped effectually to bind him
to her person. This scheme partook equally of her fertility of invention, and of
the decision and boldness of her character. That the conversation might not
terminate too abruptly, however, or any suspicion of her design exist, she
answered the last remark of Deerslayer, as earnestly and as truly, as if her
original intention remained unaltered.
    »I, certainly, have no reason to boast of parentage, after what I have seen
this night,« said the girl, in a saddened voice. »I had a mother, it is true;
but of her name even, I am ignorant - and, as for my
