His examination of the males was short, and apparently
satisfactory. But his gaze was fastened long and admiringly, as in
their former interview, on the surpassing and unwonted beauty of a
being so fair and so unknown as Inez. Though his glance wandered, for
moments, from her countenance to the more intelligible and yet
extraordinary charms of Ellen, it did not fail to return promptly to
the study of a creature who, in the view of his unpractised eye and
untutored imagination, was formed with all that perfection, with which
the youthful poet is apt to endow the glowing images of his brain.
Nothing so fair, so ideal, so every way worthy to reward the courage
and self-devotion of a warrior, had ever before been encountered on
the prairies, and the young brave appeared to be deeply and
intuitively sensible to the influence of so rare a model of the
loveliness of the sex. Perceiving, however, that his gaze gave
uneasiness to the subject of his admiration, he withdrew his eyes, and
laying his hand impressively on his chest, he, modestly, answered--
"My father shall be welcome.
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