eur's big house and the servants and the great
gardens had no charm for him. The horses--that was another thing; but
there would be plenty of horses in the lumber-camp; and, on the whole,
he felt himself rather superior to the old Seigneur, who now was
Lieutenant-Governor of the province in which lay Bindon Jail.

At the door of the Church of St. Francis he had stretched himself up
with good-natured pride, for he was by nature gregarious and friendly,
but with a temper quick and strong, and even savage when roused; though
Michelin the lumber-king did not know that when he engaged him as boss,
having seen him only at the one critical time, when his superior brain
and will saw its chance to command, and had no personal interest in the
strife. He had been a miracle of coolness then, and his six-foot-two of
pride and muscle was taking natural tribute at the door of the Church
of St. Francis, where he waited till nearly everyone had entered, and
Father Roche's voice could be heard in the Mass.

Then had happened the real event of his life: a blackeyed, rose-checked
girl went by with her mother, hurrying in to Mass. As she passed him
their eyes met, and his blood leapt in his veins. He had never seen
her before, and, in a sense, he had never seen any woman before. He
had danced with many a one, and kissed a few in the old days among the
flax-beaters, at the harvesting, in the gaieties of a wedding, and also
down in Massachusetts. That, however, was a different thing, which he
forgot an hour after; but this was the beginning of the world for him;
for he knew now, of a sudden, what life was, what home meant, why "old
folks" slaved for their children, and mothers wept when girls married or
sons went away from home to bigger things; why in there, in at Mass, so
many were praying for all the people, and thinking only of one. All in
a moment it came--and stayed; and he spoke to her, to Marcile, that very
night, and he spoke also to her father, Valloir the farrier, the next
morning by lamplight, before he started for the woods. He would not
be gainsaid, nor take no for an answer, nor accept, as a reason for
refusal, that she was only sixteen, and that he did not know her, for
she had been away with a childless aunt since she was three. That she
had fourteen brothers and sisters who had to be fed and cared for did
not seem to weigh with the farrier. That was an affair of le bon Dieu,
and enough would be provided for them all as heret