Gilbert Beattie, driving home by way of the French outfit, after having seen his sister-in-law embark, found that another party of settlers had arrived. Many of the natives, attracted by news of these events, had also come in, and the settlement presented a scene of activity such as it had never known.
It gave the trader much food for thought. Clearly the old order was passing fast, and it behooved an enterprising merchant to adjust himself to the new. Beattie was no longer a young man, and he felt an honest anxiety for the future. Would he be able to maintain his supremacy?
When he reached his own store he found a handsome native girl waiting to see him. He had seen her before, but could not place her. He asked her name.
"O-ho!" he said, looking at her with a fresh curiosity. "You are she, eh?" Whatever they might be saying about this girl, he commended the calm, self-respecting air with which she bore his scrutiny. "Do you want to trade?" he asked. "One of the clerks will wait on you."
"Company got little house beside the road down there. Nobody livin' there."
"You'd better go home to your people, my girl," he said grimly.
"What would you think of doing?" he asked curiously. "How could you make your living?"
"Plenty people here now," she said. "More comin'. I goin' keep stoppin'-house for meals."
"You're too good-looking," he replied bluntly. "It wouldn't be respectable."
"I tak' care of myself," averred Bela. "Anybody say so."
"How about that story that's going the rounds now?"
"Very like; but it can't be done," he said firmly. "I can't have a scandal right in front of my wife's door."
"Good for trade," suggested Bela insinuatingly. "Mak' the new people come up here. Now they always hangin' round Stiffy and Mahooley's."
This argument was not without weight; nevertheless, Beattie continued to shake his head. "Can't do it unless you get a chaperon."
"Get a respectable woman to come live with you, and I'll say all right."
Bela nodded and marched out of the store without wasting any further words.
In an hour she was back, bringing Mary, Bateese Otter's widow. Mary, according to the standards of the settlement, was a paragon of virtue. Gilbert Beattie grinned.
"Here is Mary Otter," said Bela calmly. "She poor. She goin' live with me. I guess she is respectable. She live in the mission before, and scrub the floors. Père Lacombe tell her come live wit' me. Is that all right?"