Carnac's Folly, Volume 3_

ne or two it was a shock. To the second class belonged Fabian Grier and his wife; to the th

West she read a telegram in a newspaper announcing his candidature, she guessed the suddenness of his decision. When she read it, she spread the paper on the table, smoothed it as though it were a beautiful piece of linen, then she stretched out her hands in happy benediction. Like most of her se

d seem to the rest of the world, yet it did not seem strange to her. No man she had ever seen had been so

n, well-polished boots, the long, full neck, and then the chin, Grecian, shapely and firm, the straight, sensitive nose, the wonderful eyes under the well-cut, broad forehead, with the

proving finger to the sound. She realized that the figure round which h

k at once, aun

........

I'm jig

hen Carnac's candidature ca

out in a new p

te sense, was the relation between the artist life and the political life. To him it was a gigantic break from a green pasture into a red

had paid a big price for his headship in the weighty responsibility, the strain of con

, or coaxed into the nest, or snared into the net; and two of the three things he had tried without avail. The third-the sn

flesh and physical show! It wouldn't weigh with her. She's too fine. It isn't the a

and if he succeeds she'll think he's great. Well, she'd be right. He'll beat Barouche. He's young and brave, ca

Carnac, he owed him a debt which he could never repay. Carnac had saved him from

own, he wrote Carnac

ARNAC

does know-would be pleased that you, who could not be a man of business in his world, are become a man of business in the bigger world of law- making. You may be right or wrong in that policy, but that don't weigh with me. You've taken on as big a job as ever your father did. What's the use of working if you don't try to do the big thing that means a lot to people outside yourself!

to the

TAR

used, reflecting . . . He wondered what Carnac would think the words meant, and he felt it was bold, and, maybe, dangerous play; but it was not more dang

of the city. There was trouble in the river reaches between his men and those of Belloc-Grier, and he was

into his street from a cross-road. He had not seen that figure for months-scarcely since Jo

said: "Back to the firing-line, Miss Shale! It'

erned?" she asked,

ith a smile not so composed as her own. "I

Mr. Grier's chan

' So I'm in it with all my might, and here's a letter-I haven't posted it yet-saying to Carnac Grier where I st

ill she came to the sentence about Carnac retu

she asked, pointing t

iness some day, and I'll give him h

ally. "It's bravely said, but how can he

ght out," he answered with

m with cash for the election," s

ne. Politics are expens

's w

ome which would compensate a little for

asperity i

here," he said, "you're a friend of the Griers, why don't you help keep things straight between

things easy for you!" she said briskly. "Do you forget I've known Fabian since

are generally in the wrong, and to keep them right would be good business-policy. When I've troubl

s sangfroid and will to rule the roost. "I think you're clever, and that you've got plenty of horse-sense, as they say in th

em now, and I'm glad I've met you, for you can help me. I want some new river-rules made. If

like me t

smile down at her, full o

ian that all I'm after is peace on

, "I don't think I'll take a hand in t

hiefly

ut help. You get everything you want,"

I want. The thing I want most in the world doesn't come to me." His voice grew emotional. She knew what he w

all as easy as clasping your finger

ck. You'll find out one day that my luck is only a bubble the prick of a pin'll destroy. I don't misunderstand it. I've been left

ripe! Does that mean, when you've made all you want, you'll give

econd place, I promised his father I'd run the business as he wished it run; and i

use an income no matter how big it was! You're talking enigmas, and I think we'd b

p me? You won't sa

me. I'd do the job myself. I'd keep faith with my reputation. But there's one nice thing about you: you're going to help C

came to her face sudde

peak to you again, and

h. He's a man of mark,

hole country one day. I

t

ss, Carnac Grier wouldn't have got it. If it ha

ive like a rich man an

y an idea came to him. "Now, if that business had been left to you, you'd be building a stone house somewhere; and you'd have

ke it my servant. I'd gi

I live as I do-p

. I need some one to show me how to spend the money coming from the business.

sharp in business," he said to himself, "but I certainly am a fool in matters of the heart. Yet what she said at last had something in it for me. Every woman has an idea where a man ought to make love to her, and this open roa

a forest into the great river, or touched a bell which set going a saw-mill with its many cross- cut saws, or filled a ship to take the pine, cedar, maple, ash or elm boards to Europe, or to the United States, was terrible to him. He loved the smell of the fresh-cut wood. The odour of the sawdust as he passed through a mill was sweete

an troubled his spirit. Suppose the will were decla

the firm of Belloc, however, h

ke a racehorse under the lash, restive, defiant, and reckless. When night and th