“Don’t be too sure of that, my son. Won’t the thing that prevents your marrying Junia be a danger in this, if you go on?”
Sullen tragedy came into his face, his lips set. The sudden paleness of his cheek, however, was lost in a smile.
“Yes, I’ve thought of that; but if it has to come, better it should come now than later. If the truth must be told, I’ll tell it—yes, I’ll tell it!”
“Be bold, but not reckless, Carnac,” his mother urged.
Just then the whistling train approached. She longed to put a hand out and hold him back, and yet she ached to let him go. Yet as Carnac mounted the steps of the car, a cry went out from her heart: “My son, stay with me here—don’t go.” That was only in her heart, however; with her lips she said: “Good luck! God bless you, Carnac!” and then the train rolled away, leaving her alone in the bright, bountiful morning.
Before the day was done, Headquarters had accepted Carnac, in part, as the solution of their own difficult problem. The three applicants for the post each hated the other; but all, before the day was over, agreed to Carnac as an effective opponent of Barouche.
One thing seemed clear—Carnac’s policy had elements of seduction appealing to the selfishness of all sections, and he had an eloquence which would make Barouche uneasy. That eloquence was shown in a speech Carnac made in the late evening to the assembled executive. He spoke for only a quarter of an hour, but it was long enough to leave upon all who heard him an impression of power, pertinacity, picturesqueness and appeal. He might make mistakes, but he had qualities which would ride over errors with success.
“I’m not French,” he said at last in his speech, “but I used to think and write in French as though I’d been born in Normandy. I’m English by birth and breeding, but I’ve always gone to French schools and to a French University, and I know what New France means. I stand to my English origin, but I want to see the French develop here as they’ve developed in France, alive to all new ideas, dreaming good dreams. I believe that Frenchmen in Canada can, and should, be an inspiration to the whole population. Their great qualities should be the fibre in the body of public opinion. I will not pander to the French; I will not be the slave of the English; I will be free, and I hope I shall be successful at the polls.”
This was a small part of the speech which caused much enthusiasm, and was the beginning of a movement, powerful, and as time went on, impetuous.
He went to bed with the blood of battle throbbing in his veins. In the morning he had a reasonable joy in seeing the headlines of his candidature in the papers.