In my foolish pride, I had refused to ask, even, where Ellen lived. I must see her, and I must see her without Nathaniel’s knowledge; for what I had to say to her could not be said in his hearing. It was only Joseph Phipps that I could trust to take me to her and make sure that I saw her; and at once I realized how I could turn Joseph’s lack of pants to good account.

It was not long before Verrieul returned with Nathaniel; and when Verrieul hurried in to get his tin plate and spoon and horn cup from beneath the blanket in his bunk, I caught him and told him he must interpret for me to Joseph on a matter as delicate as it was important.

That was how the three of us came to find ourselves, after supper, at the base of the limestone mountain, looking down on the score of campfires that glowed along the edge of the lake, where the workmen had gone to catch and cook eels and hornpout, which bite better at night.

“Now,” I said to Verrieul, who translated my words to Joseph in French, and gave me back the answers, “now this that I say to you is said for your own good, and not to give offense. I hope you will understand.”

Joseph said that he understood.

“When a man walks with a lady in my country,” I said, “it is considered proper for him to cover up his legs. Therefore I shall be glad to make a gift to you of pants, so that there may be no appearance of impropriety when you walk with your sister.”

“He thanks you,” Verrieul interpreted, “and he will be pleased to accept the pants. He prefers red ones. He says to be sure to have the pants made with a seat in them, as he wishes to cut out the seat himself.”

“Cut out the seat!” I exclaimed. “If you cut the seat from a pair of pants, they’re no pants at all!”

“But they cover the legs,” Joseph explained. “That is the only reason my people wear pants: to cover the legs in the winter, or when traveling through rough country, full of thorns. In warm weather, or in open country, pants are unnecessary, uncomfortable, and foolish.”

“Foolish!” I exclaimed. “Look around you at all these men. They’re from Albany and Rhode Island: from all parts of the civilized world! All of them wear pants! Do you think they’d all wear pants if there were anything foolish about it? What do you think your sister would say if I went calling on her without pants?”

Verrieul was slow in interpreting Joseph Phipps’s answer to this question, and they spoke back and forth until I became impatient at the delay. “Well, what’s the matter? Can’t he answer a simple question?”