CHAPTER IX.
Left in that dreadful hour alone;
Perchance, her reason stoops, or reels;
Perchance, a courage not her own,
Braces her mind to desperate tone."
Scott.
While the chase was occurring on the lake, Miss Temple and her companion pursued their walk with the activity of youth. Male attendants, on such excursions, were thought to be altogether unnecessary, for none were ever known, there, to offer an insult to a female who respected the dignity of her own sex. After the embarrassment, that had been created by their parting discourse with Edwards, had dissipated itself, the girls maintained a conversation that was as innocent and cheerful as themselves.
The path they had taken led them but a short distance above the hut of Leather-stocking, and there was a point in the road which commanded a birds-eye view of the sequestered spot.
From a feeling, that might have been natural, but must have been powerful, neither of the maidens, in their frequent and confidential dialogues, had ever trusted herself to utter one syllable concerning the equivocal situation in which the young man, who was now so intimately associated with them, had been found. If Judge Temple had deemed it prudent
