"What brings you here?"
Mariette's harsh face smiled at him gravely.
"The conviction that if I didn't come, you would be committing a folly."
"What do you mean?"
"Giving up your Commissionership, or some nonsense of that sort."
"I have given it up."
"H'm! Anything from Ottawa yet?"
It was impossible, Anderson pointed out, that there should be any letter for another three days. But he had written finally and did not mean to be over-persuaded.
Mariette at once carried him off for a walk and attacked him vigorously. "Your private affairs have nothing whatever to do with your public work. Canada wants you--you must go."
"Canada can easily get hold of a Commissioner who would do her more credit," was the bitter reply. "A man's personal circumstances are part of his equipment. They must not be such as to injure his mission."