Affecting, however, not to notice the impression
she had made, the girl seated herself with the stateliness of a
queen, desiring that the chest might be looked into, further.
"I don't know a better way to treat with the Mingos, gal," cried
Deerslayer, "than to send you ashore as you be, and to tell 'em
that a queen has arrived among 'em! They'll give up old Hutter,
and Hurry, and Hetty, too, at such a spectacle!"
"I thought your tongue too honest to flatter, Deerslayer," returned
the girl, gratified at this admiration more than she would have
cared to own. "One of the chief reasons of my respect for you,
was your love for truth."
"And 'tis truth, and solemn truth, Judith, and nothing else. Never
did eyes of mine gaze on as glorious a lookin' creatur' as you be
yourself, at this very moment! I've seen beauties in my time, too,
both white and red; and them that was renowned and talk'd of, far
and near; but never have I beheld one that could hold any comparison
with what you are at this blessed instant, Judith; never."
The glance of delight which the girl bestowed on the frank-speaking
hunter in no degree lessened the effect of her charms, and as the
humid eyes blended with it a look of sensibility, perhaps Judith
never appeared more truly lovely, than at what the young man had
called that "blessed instant.
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