But this very intercourse with the officers who occasionally
came upon the lake to fish and hunt, had an effect in producing her
present sentiments towards the young stranger. With them, while
her vanity had been gratified, and her self-love strongly awakened,
she had many causes deeply to regret the acquaintance - if not to
mourn over it, in secret sorrow - for it was impossible for one of
her quick intellect not to perceive how hollow was the association
between superior and inferior, and that she was regarded as the
play thing of an idle hour, rather than as an equal and a friend,
by even the best intentioned and least designing of her scarlet-clad
admirers. Deerslayer, on the other hand, had a window in his breast
through which the light of his honesty was ever shining; and even
his indifference to charms that so rarely failed to produce a
sensation, piqued the pride of the girl, and gave him an interest
that another, seemingly more favored by nature, might have failed
to excite.
In this manner half an hour passed, during which time the Ark had
been slowly stealing over the water, the darkness thickening around
it; though it was easy to see that the gloom of the forest at the
southern end of the lake was getting to be distant, while the mountains
that lined the sides of the beautiful basin were overshadowing it,
nearly from side to side.
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