ng womanhood. The vital
warmth of a great idea had given an expression to her face which had
long been absent from it.

He fell back from her. Then suddenly passion seized him. The gaunt
beauty of her roused a spirit of contest in him. The evil thing in him,
which her love for her son had almost conquered, came back upon him. He
remembered Luzanne, and now with a spirit alive with anger he said to
her:

"No--no--no, he cannot win." He stretched out a hand. "I have that which
will keep for me the place in Parliament that has been mine; which will
send him back to the isolation whence he came. Do you think I don't know
how to win an election? Why from east to west, from north to south in
this Province of Quebec my name, my fame, have been all-conquering.
Suppose he did defeat me, do you think that would end my political life?
It would end nothing. I should still go on."

A scornful smile came to her lips. "So you think your party would find
a seat for you who had been defeated by a young man who never knew what
political life meant till he came to this campaign? You think they would
find you a seat? I know you are coming to the end of your game, and when
he defeats you, it will finish everything for you. You will disappear
from public life, and your day will be done. Men will point at you as
you pass along the street, and say: 'There goes Barode Barouche. He was
a great man in his day. He was defeated by a boy with a painter's brush
in his hand.' He will take from you your livelihood. You will go, and
he will stay; he will conquer and grow strong. Go from me, Barode
Barouche," she cried, thrusting out her hands against him, "go from me.
I love my son with all my soul. His father has no place in my heart."

There had been upon him the wild passion of revenge. It had mastered
him before she spoke, and while she spoke, but, as she finished, the
understanding spirit of him conquered. Instead of telling her of Luzanne
Larue, and of what he would do if he found things going against him,
instead of that he resolved to say naught. He saw he could not conquer
her. For a minute after she had ceased speaking, he watched her in
silence, and in his eyes was a remorse which would never leave them. She
was master.

Slowly, and with a sense of defeat, he said to her: "Well, we shall
never meet again like this. The fight goes on. I will defeat Carnac. No,
do not shake your head. He shall not put me from my place. For you and
me ther