Carnac's Folly: Chapter 19

Chapter 19

CARNAC BECOMES A CANDIDATE

That night Carnac mapped out his course, carefully framed the policy to
offset that of Barode Barouche, and wrote a letter to the Chairman of the
Opposition at Montreal offering to stand, and putting forward an
ingenious policy. He asked also for an interview; and the interview was
granted by telegram--almost to his surprise. He was aware, however, of
the discontent among the English members of the Opposition, and of the
wish of the French members to find a good compromise.

He had a hope that his singular position--the notoriety which his
father's death and his own financial disfranchisement had caused--would
be a fine card in his favour. He was not mistaken. His letter arrived at
Headquarters when there were difficulties concerning three candidates who
were pressing their claims. Carnac Grier, the disinherited son of the
great lumber-king, who had fame as an artist, spoke French as though it
were his native tongue, was an element of sensation which, if adroitly
used, could be of great service. It might even defeat Barode Barouche. In
the first place, Carnac was young, good-looking, personable, and taking
in his manner. Barouche was old, experienced, with hosts of enemies and
many friends, but with injurious egotism. An interview was, therefore,
arranged at Headquarters.

On the morning of the day it took place, Carnac's anguished mother went
with him to the little railway station of Charlemont. She had slept
little the night before; her mind was in an eddy of emotions. It seemed
dreadful that Carnac should fight his own father, repeating what Fabian
had done in another way. Yet at the bottom of her heart there was a
secret joy. Some native revolt in her had joy in the thought that the son
might extort a price for her long sorrow and his unknown disgrace.

As she had listened to Barouche at the meeting, she realized how sincere
yet insincere he was; how gifted and yet how ungracious was his mind. Her
youth was over; long pain and regret had chastened her. She was as lonely
a creature as ever the world knew; violence was no part of her equipment;
and yet terrible memories made her assent to this new phase of Carnac's
life. She wondered what Barouche would think. There was some ancient
touch of war in her which made her rejoice that after long years the
hammer should strike.

Somehow the thing's tremendous possibilities thrilled her. Carnac had
always been a politician--always. She remembered how, when he was a boy,
he had argued with John Grier on national matters, laid down the law with
the assurance of an undergraduate, and invented theories impossible of
public acceptance. Yet in every stand he had taken, there had been
thought, logic and reasoning, wrongly premised, but always based on
principles. On paper he was generally right; in practice, generally
wrong. His buoyant devotion to an idea was an inspiration and a tonic.
The curious thing was that, while still this political matter was hanging
fire, he painted with elation.

His mother knew he did not see the thousand little things which made
public life so wearying; that he only realized the big elements of
national policy. She understood how those big things would inspire the
artist in him. For, after all, there was the spirit of Art in framing a
great policy which would benefit millions in the present and countless
millions in the future. So, at the railway station, as they waited for
the train, with an agitation outwardly controlled, she said:

"The men who have fought before, will want to stand, so don't be
surprised if--"

"If they reject me, mother?" interrupted Carnac. "No, I shan't be
surprised, but I feel in my bones that I'm going to fight Barode Barouche
into the last corner of the corral."

"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.

At first he was almost appalled, for never since life began had his
personality been so displayed. It seemed absurd that before he had struck
a blow he should be advertised like a general in the field. Yet common
sense told him that in standing against Barouche, he became important in
the eyes of those affected by Barouche's policy. He had had luck, and it
was for him to justify that luck. Could he do it? His first thought,
however, as his eyes fell on the headlines--he flushed with elation so
that he scarcely saw--was for the thing itself. Before him there flashed
a face, however, which at once sobered his exaltation. It was the face of
Junia.

"I wonder what she will think," he said to himself, with a little
perplexity.

He knew in his heart of hearts she would not think it incongruous that
he, an artist, should become a politician. Good laws served to make life
beautiful, good pictures ministered to beauty; good laws helped to tell
the story of human development; good sculpture strengthened the soul;
good laws made life's conveniences greater, enlarged activity, lessened
the friction of things not yet adjusted; good laws taught their framers
how to balance things, how to make new principles apply without
disturbing old rights; good pictures increased the well-balanced harmony
of the mind of the people. Junia would understand these things. As he sat
at his breakfast, with the newspaper spread against the teapot and the
milk-pitcher, he felt satisfied he had done the bold and right, if
incomprehensible, thing.

But in another hotel, at another breakfast, another man read of Carnac's
candidature with sickening surprise. It was Barode Barouche.

So, after twenty-seven long years, this was to be the issue! His own son,
whom he had never known, was to fight him at the polls! Somehow, the day
when he had seen Carnac and his mother at the political meeting had given
him new emotions. His wife, to whom he had been so faithful in one sense
since she had passed into the asylum, had died, and with her going, a new
field of life seemed to open up to him. She had died almost on the same
day as John Grier. She had been buried secludedly, piteously, and he had
gone back to his office with the thought that life had become a
preposterous freedom.

So it was that, on the day when he spoke at the political meeting, his
life's tragedy became a hammer beating every nerve into emotion. He was
like one shipwrecked who strikes out with a swimmer's will to reach his
goal. All at once, on the platform, as he spoke, when his eyes saw the
faces of Carnac and his mother the catastrophe stunned him like a huge
engine of war. There had come to him at last a sense of duty where Alma
Grier was concerned. She was nearly fifty years of age, and he was
fifty-nine; she was a widow with this world's goods; she had been to him
how near and dear! for a brief hour, and then--no more. He knew the boy
was his son, because he saw his own face, as it had been in his youth,
though his mother's look was also there-transforming, illumining.

He had a pang as he saw the two at the close of his meeting filtering out
into the great retort of the world. Then it was that he had the impulse
to go to the woman's home, express his sorrow, and in some small sense
wipe out his wrong by offering her marriage. He had not gone.

He knew of Carnac's success in the world of Art; and how he had alienated
his reputed father by an independence revolting to a slave of convention.
He had even bought, not from Carnac, but from a dealer, two of Carnac's
pictures and a statue of a riverman. Somehow the years had had their way
with him. He had at long last realized that material things were not the
great things of life, and that imagination, however productive, should be
guided by uprightness of soul.

One thing was sure, the boy had never been told who his father was. That
Barouche knew. He had the useful gift of reading the minds of people in
their faces. From Carnac's face, from Carnac's mother's face, had come to
him the real story. He knew that Alma Grier had sinned only once and with
him. In the first days after that ill-starred month, he had gone to her,
only to be repelled as a woman can repel whose soul has been shocked,
whose self-respect has been shamed.

It had been as though she thrust out arms of infinite length to push him
away, such had been the storm of her remorse, such the revulsion against
herself and him. So they had fallen apart, and he had seen his boy grow
up independent, original, wilful, capable--a genius. He read the
newspaper reports of what had happened the day before with senses greatly
alive.

After all, politics was unlike everything else. It was a profession
recruited from all others. The making of laws was done by all kinds of
men. One of the wisest advisers in river-law he had ever known was a
priest; one of the best friends of the legislation of the medical
profession was a woman; one of the bravest Ministers who had ever
quarrelled with and conquered his colleagues had been an insurance agent;
one of the sanest authorities on maritime law had been a man with a
greater pride in his verses than in his practical capacity; and here was
Carnac, who had painted pictures and made statues, plunging into politics
with a policy as ingenious as his own, and as capable of logical
presentation. This boy, who was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh,
meant to fight him. He threw back his head and laughed. His boy, his son,
meant to fight him, did he? Well, so be it! He got to his feet, and
walked up and down the room.

"God, what an issue this!" he said. "It would be terrific, if he won. To
wipe me out of the life where I have flourished--what a triumph for him!
And he would not know how great the triumph would be. She has not told
him. Yet she will urge him on. Suppose it was she put the idea into his
head!"

Then he threw back his head, shaking the long brown hair, browner than
Carnac's, from his forehead. "Suppose she did this thing--she who was all
mine for one brief moment! Suppose she--"

Every nerve tingled; every drop of blood beat hard against his walls of
flesh; his every vicious element sprang into life.

"But no--but no, she would not do it. She would not teach her son to
destroy his own father. But something must have told him to come and
listen to me, to challenge me in his own mind, and then--then this
thing!"

He stared at the paper, leaning over the table, as though it were a
document of terror.

"I must go on: I must uphold the policy for which I've got the assent of
the Government." Suddenly his hands clenched. "I will beat him. He shall
not bring me to the dust. I gave him life, and he shall not take my life
from me. He's at the beginning; I'm going towards the end. I wronged his
mother--yes, I wronged him too! I wronged them both, but he does not know
he's wronged. He'll live his own life; he has lived it--"

There came a tap at the door. Presently it opened and a servant came in.
He had in his hand a half-dozen telegrams.

"All about the man that's going to fight you, I expect, m'sieu'," said
the servant as he handed the telegrams.

Barode Barouche did not reply, but nodded a little scornfully.

"A woman has called," continued the servant. "She wants to see you,
m'sieu'. It's very important, she says."

Barouche shook his head in negation. "No, Gaspard."

"It ain't one of the usual kind, I think, m'sieu'," protested Gaspard.
"It's about the election. It's got something to do with that--" he
pointed to the newspaper propped against the teapot.

"It's about that, is it? Well, what about that?" He eyed the servant as
though to see whether the woman had given any information.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me. She's got a mind of her own. She's
even handsome, and she's well-dressed. All she said was: 'Tell m'sieu' I
want to see him. It's about the election-about Mr. Grier.'"

Barode Barouche's heart stopped. Something about Carnac Grier--something
about the election--and a woman! He kept a hand on himself. It must not
be seen that he was in any way moved.

"Is she English?"

"She's French, m'sieu'."

"You think I ought to see her, Gaspard?" said Barouche.

"Sure," was the confident reply. "I guess she's out against whoever's
against you."

"You never saw her before."

"Not to my sense."

"But I haven't finished my breakfast."

"Well, if it's anything important that'll help you, m'sieu'. It's like
whittling. If you can do things with your hands while you're talking and
thinking, it's a great help. You go on eating. I'll show her up!"

Barouche smiled maliciously. "Well, show her up, Gaspard."

The servant laughed. "Perhaps she'll show herself up after I show her
in," he said, and he went out hastily.

Presently the door opened again, and Gaspard stepped inside.

"A lady to see you, m'sieu'," he said.

Barouche rose from the table, but he did not hold out his hand. The woman
was young, good looking, she seemed intelligent. There was also a latent
cruelty in her face which only a student of human nature could have seen
quickly. She was a woman with a grievance--that was sure. He knew the
passionate excitement, fairly well controlled; he saw her bitterness at a
glance. He motioned her to a chair.

"It's an early call," he said with a smile. Smiling was one of his
serviceable assets; it was said no man could so palaver the public with
his cheerful goodnature.

"Yes, it's an early call," she replied, "but I wish not to wait till you
go to your office. I wanted you to know something. It has to do with Mr.
Carnac Grier."

"Oh, that--eh!"

"It's something you've got to know. If I give you the sure means to win
your election, it would be worth while--eh?"

The beating of Barouche's heart was hard, but nothing showed in his face.
There he had control.

"I like people who know their own minds," he said, "but I don't believe
anything till I study what I hear. Is it something to injure Mr. Grier?"

"If a married man went about as a single man and stood up for Parliament
against you, don't you think you could spoil him?"

For a moment Barouche was silent. Here was an impeachment of his own son,
but this son was out to bring his own father to the ground. There were
two ways to look at it. There was the son's point of view, and there was
his own. If he loved his son he ought to know the thing that threatened
him; if he hated his son he ought to know. So, after a moment's study of
the face with the fiery eyes and a complexion like roses touched with
frost, he said slowly:

"Well, have I the honour of addressing Carnac Grier's wife?"

Barouche had had many rewards in his life, but the sweetest reward of all
was now his own. As events proved, he had taken a course which, if he
cared for his son, was for that son's well-being, and if he cared for
himself most, was essential to his own well-being.

Relief crossed the woman's face. "I'll tell you everything," she said.

Then Luzanne told her story, avoiding the fact that Carnac had been
tricked into the marriage. At last she said: "Now I've come here to make
him acknowledge me. He's ruined my life, broken my hopes, and--"

"Broken your hopes!" interrupted Barode Barouche. "How is that?"

"I might have married some one else. I could have married some one else."

"Well, why don't you? There's the Divorce Court. What's to prevent it?"

"You ask me that--you a Frenchman and a Roman Catholic! I'm French. I was
born in Paris."

"When will you let me see your papers?"

"When do you want to see them?"

"To-day-if possible to-day," he answered. Then he held her eyes. "To whom
else here have you told this story?"

"No one--no one. I only came last night, and when I took up the paper
this morning, I saw. Then I found out where you lived, and here I am,
bien sur. I'm here under my maiden name, Ma'm'selle Luzanne Larue."

"That's right. That's right. Now, until we meet again, don't speak of
this to anyone. Will you give me your word?"

"Absolutely," she said, and there was revenge and passion in her eyes.
Suddenly a strange expression crept over her face. She was puzzled.

"There's something of him about you," she said, and her forehead
gathered. "There's some look! Well, there it is, but it's something--I
don't know what."

A moment later she was gone. As the door closed, he stretched his hands
above his head.

"Nom de Dieu, what a situation!" he remarked.

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