And Jessica Leveret? Wherever she had been during the past four years,
she had stood between these two men, regardful, wondering, waiting; and
at last, as we know, casting the die against the enemy of her country.
But was it cast after all?
Immediately after she made a certain solemn promise, recorded in the last
chapter, she went once again to New York to visit Governor Nicholls. She
had been there some months before, but it was only for a few weeks, and
then she had met Dollier de Casson and Perrot. That her mind was
influenced by memory of Iberville we may guess, but in what fashion
who can say? It is not in mortal man to resolve the fancies of a woman,
or interpret the shadowy inclinations, the timid revulsions, which move
them--they cannot tell why, any more than we. They would indeed be
thankful to be solved unto themselves. The great moment for a man with a
woman is when, by some clear guess or some special providence, he shows
her in a flash her own mind. Her respect, her serious wonder, are all
then making for his glory. Wise and happy if by a further touch of
genius he seizes the situation: henceforth he is her master. George
Gering and Jessica had been children together, and he understood her,
perhaps, as, did no one else, save her father; though he never made good
use of his knowledge, nor did he touch that side of her which was purely
feminine--her sweet inconsistency; therefore, he was not her master.
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