“Nobody told me.  I saw Aunt Patty McNab do it once.  You see it is easy to do.  Now, Bridget, remember.  Have your house clean after this, or I will not come to see you”.

“Yes, shure, I’ll have them blessed brums as long’s there’s a tree grows”.

And true it was, that Adele’s threat not to visit her cabin proved such a salutary terror to poor Bridget, that there was a perceptible improvement in her domestic arrangements ever after.

As Adele grew older, the ascendency she had obtained in her obscure empire daily increased.  At twelve, she was sent to a convent at Halifax, where she remained three years.  At the end of that period, she returned to Miramichi, and resumed at once her regal sceptre.  The sway she held over the people was really one of love, grounded on a recognition of her superiority.  Circulating among them freely, she became thoroughly acquainted with their habits and modes of living, and she was ever ready to aid them, under their outward wants and their deeper heart troubles.  A community must have some one to look up to, whether conscious of the want or not.  Hero-worship is natural to the human soul, and the miscellaneous group of women and children scattered over the settlement, found in Adele a strong, joyous, self-relying spirit, able to help them out of their difficulties, who could cheer them when down-hearted, and spur them up when getting discouraged or inefficient.

But, added to this were the charms of her youthful beauty, which even the humblest felt, without perhaps knowing it, and an air of authority that swept away all opposition, and held, at times, even Aunt Patty McNab at arms’ length.  Yes, it must be confessed that the young lady was in the habit of queening it over the people; but they were perfectly willing to have it so, and both loved and were proud of their little despot.

In the mean time, the Dubois family were living a life within a life, to the locale of which the render must now be introduced.

It has been said that the outward aspect of their dwelling was respectable, and in that regard was not greatly at variance, except in size, with the surrounding habitations.  Within, however, there were apartments furnished and adorned in such a manner as to betoken the character and tastes of the inmates.

In the second story, directly over the spacious dining room already described, there was a long apartment with two windows reaching nearly to the floor.  It was carpeted with crimson and black Brussels, contained two sofas of French workmanship, made in a heavy, though rich style, covered with cloth also of crimson and black; with chairs fashioned and carved to match the couches, and finished in the same material.  A quaint-looking piano stood in one corner of the room.  In the centre was a Chinese lacquered table on which stood a lamp in bronze, the bowl of which was supported by various broadly-smiling, grotesque creatures, belonging to a genus known only in the domain of fable.