whom they only have emotion.
You think that he--Carnac Grier--would marry any woman on that basis?
Come, ma'm'selle, the truth! He didn't know he was being married, and
when you told him it was a real marriage he left you at once. You and
yours tricked him--the man you'd never have known if he hadn't
saved your life. You thought that with your beauty--yes, you are
beautiful--you'd conquer him, and that he'd give in, and become a real
husband in a real home. Come now, isn't that it?"

The other did not reply. Her face was alive with memories. The lower
things were flying from it, a spirit of womanhood was living in
her--feebly, but truly, living. She was now conscious of the insanity of
her pursuit of Carnac. For a few moments she stood silent, and then she
said with agitation:

"If I give this up"--she took from her breast the blue document--"he'd
be safe in his election, and he'd marry you: is it not so, ma'm'selle?"

"He'd be safe for his election, but he has never asked me to marry him,
and there are others besides him."--She was thinking of Tarboe. "Tell
me," she added suddenly, "to whom have you told this thing in Montreal?
Did you mean to challenge him yourself?"

"I told it only to M'sieu' Barouche, and he said he would use it at the
right moment--and the right moment has come," she added. "He asked me
for a copy of it last night, and I said I'd give it to him to-day.
It's because of him I've been here quiet all these weeks as Ma'm'selle
Larue."

"He is worse than you, mademoiselle, for he has known Carnac's family,
and he has no excuse. If a man can't win his fight fairly, he oughtn't
to be in public life."

After a few dark moments, with a sudden burst of feeling, Luzanne said:
"Well, Carnac won't be out of public life through me!"

She took the blue certificate from her breast and was about to tear it
up, when Junia stopped her.

"Don't do that," Junia said, "don't tear it up yet, give it to me. I'll
tear it up at the right moment. Give it to me, my dear."

She held out her hand, and the blue certificate was presently in her
fingers. She felt a sudden weakness in her knees, for it seemed she
held the career of Carnac Grier, and it moved her as she had never been
moved.

With the yielding of the certificate, Luzanne seemed suddenly to
lose self-control. She sank on the bed beside the wall with a cry of
distress.

"Mon Dieu--oh, Mon Dieu!" Then she sprang to her feet. "Give it back,
give it back t