Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/57

 the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for the time, closing his musical efforts.

"Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as is convenient. You will, then, pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments for a time, by requesting this gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity."

"You will diminish them, indeed," returned the arch maiden, "for never did I hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language than that to which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry into the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you broke the charm of my musings by that bass of yours, Duncan!"

"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, evidently piqued at her remark, "but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than could be any orchestra of Handel's music." He paused, and turned his head quickly towards a thicket, and then bent his eyes