AND 
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY

 
 Hearts and Creeds
 
 Now he crossed the intervening bit of floor, knelt beside the couch 
 and gathered his wife in his arms." Frontitpitef,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY 
 
 Author of " By the Good Sainte Anne," " Teddy: Her Book, 
 "Nathalie's Chum," "Sidney," etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS BY 
 ALICE BARBER STEPHENS 
 
 Montreal 
 
 The Montreal News Company 
 Limited
 
 Copyright, 1906, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All righti reserved 
 Published February, 1906 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " Now he crossed the intervening bit of floor, 
 knelt beside the couch and gathered his 
 wife in his arms " Frontispiece 
 
 " ' Please explain yourself, Jimmy/ she said, with 
 
 icy politeness" P a g e 186 
 
 " St. Just glanced up with seeming indifference, 
 
 as Leleu came in upon him" " 196 
 
 " For one long moment Arline held the little face 
 
 tightly against her skirts " " 288 
 
 2228975
 
 HEARTS AND CREEDS 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 THE electric lamps, glaring out across the terrace, 
 offered a garish contrast to the moonlight that 
 rested on the river, two hundred feet below. Over the 
 shining stream brooded the hush of a June night, a hush 
 broken only by an occasional harsh call from the watchman 
 on the ocean steamer anchored in the channel, or by the 
 quiet plashing of the little ferry-boat which wove its 
 leisurely course to and fro between Quebec and the Levis 
 shore. For the hour, the whole life and light of the town 
 seemed focused upon the long sweep of the terrace which 
 hung midway between the dark mass of the citadel above 
 and the shining stripe of the stream beneath. 
 
 " I do dislike that man ! " Patience Tyler said. 
 
 As she spoke, she tossed the slightest possible nod 
 to one of the passers-by. Then she turned to meet her 
 brother's deliberate question. 
 
 "St. Just? But why?" 
 
 Laughing a little, she shrugged her shoulders, as if her 
 dislike were momentary and a thing of no import. 
 
 " Feminine intuition. No matter now ; he 's gone. And 
 so Arline is really here ? " 
 
 " They expected her to land, this noon."" 
 
 " At last ! " The accent was of complete satisfaction. 
 
 Stanwood Tyler shook his head. 
 
 "Best not to count too much upon her, Patsy."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Why not ?" Then her step yielded to the lilt of the 
 band in the kiosk near by. " Listen ! " she said, forgetting 
 his reply. " How can you take it so quietly ? It gets in 
 my blood, and I can't keep still." 
 
 " What does ? " he queried, with the literalness born of 
 the need of distributing to three different men three bows 
 of differing degrees of cordiality. 
 
 "This. Everything. The crowd, and the lights, and 
 the band, and the mixture of two races that never can 
 combine."" 
 
 His sudden amusement lighted a face which ordinarily 
 was grave and a bit severe. Patience Tyler's name was 
 not the only tiling which showed that the family had sprung 
 from Puritan stock. 
 
 " Pat," he cautioned her ; " your phrase smacks of a 
 chemical laboratory, and chemistry has no place in a scene 
 like this." 
 
 But Patience shook her head. 
 
 " When I was in college," she suggested demurely ; " I 
 heard about oxygen and hydrogen, and the need of an 
 electric spark to bring them together. Perhaps " 
 
 Her brother's lips were still laughing ; but he eyed her 
 keenly for a moment. Then he said abruptly, 
 
 " There go Brooke Lord and his wife." 
 
 Patience faced about sharply. 
 
 " Oh, where ? " 
 
 " Up the terrace." 
 
 " Let 's follow. I adore Mrs. Brooke. Besides, she can 
 tell me about Arline." 
 
 And Stanwood Tyler, congratulating himself upon the 
 success of his ruse, suffered himself to be led away by his 
 impetuous young sister. Six years older than Patience, he 
 had been in Quebec two years longer than she. He knew 
 that the possible amalgamation of races was no fit subject 
 for band night on the terrace.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 3 
 
 All the world, apparently, was on the terrace, that night. 
 It was the first evening concert of the season, and the band 
 from the citadel added zest to the more quiet charms of 
 the moonlight and the sweet June air. Old and young, 
 French and English, the classes and the masses passed and 
 repassed along the vast stretch of level boards, loitering, 
 sauntering, pausing to exchange greetings with loiter- 
 ing friends, or pacing steadily to and fro, regardless of the 
 crowd about, them and absorbed only in their own low- 
 voiced conversation. On one side of them, lights glared 
 vividly down upon them from the open windows of the huge 
 Chateau ; on the other, lights winked softly back at them 
 from the distant heights of Levis, or cast rippling trails of 
 gleaming yellow across the water's face. Ever and anon, 
 the hum of voices rose even above the crash of the band ; 
 then the voices sank again, and the rhythmic beat of 
 brazen instruments filled in the pause once more. But 
 the band spoke one tongue and was understood of all. 
 The human voices spoke two distinct languages, and one 
 of those, in turn, was broken into many dialects. The 
 English was comparatively uniform. In the French, one 
 heard the speech of Paris and of Gascony, the speech of 
 the educated ecclesiastic and of the country habitant who 
 had strayed up from his schooner in the basin below, 
 drawn thither, moth-wise, by the brilliant lights which 
 glared and blazed athwart the summer night. 
 
 At the extreme southern end of the terrace, just be- 
 neath the bulging face of the King's Bastion, the Tylers 
 overtook their friends. Mrs. Brooke Lord looked up with 
 a smile, as the giiTs voice fell on her ears. 
 
 " Then you did come, Patience? I was sure you could n't 
 resist such a night as this. Good evening, Mr. Tyler. 
 How full the terrace is ! We are waiting here for the 
 others. Won't you wait with us ? " 
 
 But already the two men were exchanging greetings,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 and Mrs. Brooke Lord was left free to answer the question 
 of Patience. 
 
 " Yes, Arline has come. She stopped to do a bit of 
 unpacking, and Jimmy was to bring her up here at 
 nine." 
 
 " She had a comfortable passage ? " Patience asked 
 courteously, yet with the indifference of one who has never 
 known the pangs of seasickness. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord laughed. She was a dark little Eng- 
 lish Canadian, not pretty, but wholly pleasing and with a 
 manifest air of good breeding which had been swift to 
 arouse the critical admiration of Patience Tyler. It was 
 as well, perhaps, that it was so, for it had been under the 
 dainty manoeuvring of Mrs. Brooke Lord that Patience 
 had made her bow to Quebec society, six months before. 
 Mr. Brooke Lord was president of the company for which 
 Stanwood Tyler had been chosen as resident consulting 
 engineer, and the rest of the connection had been logical 
 and obvious. 
 
 With the laugh still on her lips, Mrs. Brooke Lord made 
 room for Patience beside the high iron rail. 
 
 "Yes, as comfortable as may be," she replied then. 
 " Poor Arline is a bad sailor, and for her a crossing is 
 always more or less of a martyrdom." 
 
 " I wonder that she feels able to come up here, to- 
 night," Patience observed, with her gaze fixed upon the 
 sheet of molten silver flowing silently past the base of the 
 cliff. 
 
 Far back in Mrs. Brooke Lord's eyes, there came the 
 suggestion of a smile. It had vanished, however, before 
 the girl looked up again, and her tone was fittingly grave, 
 as she answered, 
 
 " Yes ; but the attraction is a strong one. Arline has 
 lived here always and knows so many people. She has 
 been in England for just a year now. No wonder that she
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 is eager for a sight of the terrace once more, after a week 
 of woe on that steamer down in the channel." 
 
 Stanwood Tyler caught her words and turned to follow 
 her glance. 
 
 " Your sister is here, then ? " 
 
 " In the city. She will be here directly. She came in 
 on the Victorian, this noon." 
 
 " It will be good to see her once more, 1 ' he said ; but 
 there was no ring of heartiness to the brief words. 
 
 Patience, however, supplied the omission. 
 
 " You can fancy how eager I am to see her," she said ; 
 " or, rather, you can't. You have made me so at home 
 with you all, that I feel almost as if I were kin to you 
 and ought to know your sister already. It is going to be 
 delightful for me, her being here." 
 
 It was Brooke Lord who answered, and his accent was 
 deliberate and weighty, as befitted the accent of a man 
 accustomed to speak at meetings of boards and corpora- 
 tions. In her secret heart, Patience Tyler was always a 
 little afraid of him, and she wondered stealthily, now and 
 then, how his dainty, feminine little wife had ever dared to 
 marry him. However, even to the superficial glance of an 
 outsider like Patience Tyler, it was plain that the Brooke 
 Lords were an abnormally happy and united pair, and the 
 girl could only sum up the situation with a shrug and a 
 mental reference to a difference of taste in husbands. 
 Now she gave a nod of assent to Brooke Lord, as he said 
 judicially, 
 
 " Yes, you and Arline will be good friends. Arline is 
 clever and has had what advantages she could get, in this 
 corner of the world. Eh, St. Just ? Oh, yes ; good 
 evening." 
 
 " And it is a good evening. Is it that Madame Lord 
 finds herself well ? " The bow and the smile and the idiom 
 were French, the accent that of excellent English. Then
 
 6 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the young fellow's smile grew more animated, as he turned 
 to Patience. " Ah, Miss Tyler, so you too are here to 
 listen to the music ? Or is it to watch the passing show ? 
 You Americans are so very observant, and this is an 
 interesting sight ; is it not ? " 
 
 " Yes, and a beautiful one." But the light had gone 
 out of Patience's eyes, the animation from her tone. She 
 spoke with a chilly brevity which she knew how to assume 
 at times. Then, half facing back to the river, she de- 
 liberately left the others to continue their talk without 
 her aid. 
 
 " I wish I knew why it is that I dislike that man," she 
 said thoughtfully, when once more St. Just had joined the 
 moving throng. " It 's not his eyes, nor his long upper 
 lip. I don't know what it is ; but he gives me goose-flesh 
 between my shoulder blades, whenever I think about him." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord laughed. She never failed to gain 
 a certain amusement from Patience Tyler's outspoken, 
 American analysis of the passing situation. 
 
 " He was very well introduced here," she demurred. 
 
 "Very likely. So was I," Patience answered whimsi- 
 cally. " Still, that does n't account for everything." 
 
 " For more than you might think," Mrs. Brooke Lord 
 replied, with a swift recollection of certain clauses of 
 Quebec's social law. 
 
 Brooke Lord broke off in the midst of a sentence. 
 
 " St. Just is clever and of excellent family," he observed, 
 with the same judicial accent he had but just bestowed 
 upon the subject of his sister. "He is a Parisian, of 
 course, and quite unlike the type of men we are used to 
 meeting here." 
 
 " But I 'm not used to meeting anything," Patience pro- 
 tested, with sudden perversity. " I Ve seen very little of 
 the French, anyway, so I can approach the subject with a 
 perfectly unbiased mind."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Brooke Lord bowed in assent ; but he added, 
 
 "And yet, I should regret being accused of having 
 a bias." 
 
 But Patience laughed in girlish mockery which even 
 Brooke Lord found it hard to withstand. 
 
 " Bias ! " she echoed. " You are cornerwise with it, all 
 you Canadians here, and your bias is about so wide." She 
 measured with her two forefingers. Then she laughed 
 again, low, but with mirth. 
 
 Brooke Lord stiffened slightly. 
 
 " I was not aware " he began. 
 
 Patience interrupted him. 
 
 " Oh, yes ; you were. Moreover, you like to be biased. 
 In fact, I think I should like it, myself, if I were in your 
 place. Being merely an American, I stand back and laugh 
 at it all ; but," the laugh left her eyes, and she faced him 
 steadily ; " but the truth is, Mr. Lord, I Ve enough of the 
 English tradition, myself, to see your side of the question 
 and, maybe, to agree with you better than I like to admit." 
 
 " But," Stanwood Tyler spoke thoughtfully ; " after all, 
 what is the question ? " 
 
 Patience turned about and tucked her hand through 
 the curve of his elbow. 
 
 " The electric spark," she responded demurely. " Re- 
 member, though, that it is band night on the terrace." 
 
 As a rule, it was characteristic of Patience Tyler never 
 to allow herself to be suppressed. This time, however, 
 she yielded to the imperative little gesture by which her 
 brother gave warning that her banter had passed beyond 
 the limit of Brooke Lord^ ken. Then Stanwood Tyler 
 said gravely, 
 
 " I think I see Miss Lord now, coming up the terrace. 
 Shall we walk down to meet her ? " 
 
 He spoke to Mrs. Brooke Lord ; but it was Patience 
 who answered alertly,
 
 8 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Yes, come. I really am impatient, you know." 
 However, someone claimed Brooke Lord's attention, and 
 they were still waiting by the rail at the end of the terrace 
 when Arline Lord and her brother joined them. Patience 
 faced about in frank curiosity, as the brother and sister 
 came near them. Jimmy Lord, tall and lean with the mus- 
 cular spareness which she had learned to regard as charac- 
 teristic of the Anglo-Canadian, was no unfamiliar figure 
 upon her horizon. Months ago, the two had become ex- 
 cellent comrades, and, from the start, Patience had looked 
 upon their camaraderie with the impersonal eyes with 
 which she had viewed countless friendships of her college 
 days. One and all, they were based on propinquity, 
 athletics and a kindred taste in the matter of books. In 
 Arline, she looked for something different, something 
 more stirring and infinitely more subjective. Devoted as 
 she was to Mrs. Brooke Lord, Patience could never quite 
 forget the matron in the friend. Brooke Lord and the 
 babies formed an immutable background to all the pic- 
 tures. One never could discuss vital and personal concerns 
 with a companion who was liable to be interrupted at any 
 instant by a demand as to the whereabouts of shirtstuds 
 or the new bottle of Baby Food. Mrs. Brooke Lord was 
 a point in perspective ; Arline might well be a point in 
 space. 
 
 The first impression of Arline was wholly pleasing. 
 Tall, so tall that Patience, even, was unable to meet her 
 eyes on a level, Arline Lord bore herself with the care- 
 less ease of an acknowledged queen. Her features were 
 regular, her head poised nobly, her walk and bearing and 
 her simple gown were distinctive, elegant. As she came 
 slowly up the terrace at her brother's side, Patience saw, 
 one after one, heads turn to look after her and hats doffed 
 in greeting. It was later on, when she was alone, that 
 night, that Patience bethought herself that, for the most
 
 Hearts and Creeds 9 
 
 part, the greetings were admiring rather than cordial. It 
 was later still that she suddenly took note of the fact 
 that, although Arline's lips were full and mobile, her 
 violet eyes were cold. 
 
 Nevertheless, Arline met her cordially. She could not 
 well fail to do so, however, under the influence of Jimmy's 
 boundless enthusiasm. Jimmy Lord was a self-avowed 
 optimist; but he owned a saving sense of humour which 
 was aimed as often at himself as at his neighbour. For 
 the rest, after six or seven years of Eton and Oxford, he 
 had settled down in Quebec to enjoy himself and to spend 
 the money left him by his father's will. People who knew 
 the Lord family most intimately were prone to smile a 
 little, as they confessed that much of Jimmy's enjoyment 
 and a good share of Jimmy's spending concerned them- 
 selves with the home of Jimmy's brother who had cotne in 
 for a far smaller share of the paternal fortune. Never- 
 theless, Jimmy's foothold in society was by no means de- 
 pendent on his bank account. Jimmy was Jimmy ; and, 
 without his jovial presence, functions languished and were 
 regarded as unsuccessful. 
 
 " I know we are shockingly late," he was saying now, 
 in answer to the questions of his sister-in-law. " Arline 
 wanted to get a note off by to-morrow's steamer, and we 
 waited for that. A jolly sort of night; isn't it, Miss 
 Tyler?" 
 
 " Glorious. I wish it would never end," she answered, 
 with an alert enthusiasm which caused Arline to lift her 
 yellow brows in mute question. 
 
 But Jimmy swept in. 
 
 " But you 'd be so beastly sleepy at to-morrow break- 
 fast, you know," he remonstrated. 
 
 " I never think of to-morrow," she answered audaciously. 
 
 " No ; you can sleep it off, while the rest of us bemoan 
 your absence," Jimmy said, as he boved to St. Just who
 
 10 Hearts and Creed* 
 
 was once more rounding the end of the terrace. " This 
 is your first night of seeing the terrace in full swing ; 
 isn't it?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " And you find it " 
 
 " Adorable.' 1 Patience capped his phrase. 
 
 Again Arline's brows went upward. 
 
 *' You are enthusiastic, Miss Tyler."" 
 
 There was an almost imperceptible accent of superiority 
 in the words, and Patience met it defiantly. 
 
 " Well, why not ? " she demanded. 
 
 Arline smiled. Even under the harsh glare of the elec- 
 tric lights, her face showed itself as one of unusual beauty. 
 
 " No reason. I always love to hear strangers say a 
 good word for the dear old city ; it is so quaint and 
 quiet." 
 
 Patience glanced about her. 
 
 " Not so quiet now," she objected. 
 
 " No ; not in one sense. But, after all, band night on 
 the terrace is a good deal like Saturday morning on the 
 market. Everybody is here ; but it is only now and then 
 that one sees a familiar face. After London, one realizes 
 it more than ever ; and yet I never used to come here 
 without feeling that I should like to meet somebody new, 
 somebody of whom I had never even Yes, Brooke. 
 What is it?" 
 
 As she spoke, she turned about to face her older brother 
 who, leaving the others to linger by the rail, had wandered 
 away into the heart of the ever-thickening throng. Now, 
 however, he had returned to halt at his sister's elbow, and 
 at his side had halted another man, young and slight 
 and short and swarthy, with luminous dark eyes and thin, 
 close-shut lips around whose corners played always the 
 faint suggestion of a smile. 
 
 Brooke Lord's answer was delayed by the thud of the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 11 
 
 evening gun. The sound boomed down from the bastion 
 just above their heads, for one brief instant sent a rocking 
 thrill along the terrace and then went crashing across 
 against the Levis heights, where echo replied to echo and 
 echo to echo again, growing faint and fainter until the 
 last dim echo sank away into the moonlit, distant silence. 
 
 When Brooke Lord spoke again, his voice was somewhat 
 impatient, as if the needful delay had irked his ponderous 
 dignity. 
 
 " Aiiine," he said ; " Leleu has asked to meet you.""
 
 CHAPTER TWO 
 
 IN a sense, it was more easy to analyze Amedee Leleu 
 than it was to account for the results of the analysis. 
 To the impressionable, mobile temperament of a boy, he 
 linked the unthwartable purpose of a man. The two ele- 
 ments were at constant strife. The man dominated the 
 boy, only to be foiled again in turn. As yet, neither one 
 of them had held the supremacy for long at a time. For 
 the future, not one of Leleu's friends was willing to risk 
 a forecast. That his power matched his purpose was evi- 
 dent, evident, too, that both power and purpose might 
 weaken in the face of the inherent gentleness of his nature. 
 
 By birth, Leleu was a countryman. He came from 
 farther down the river where, long decades ago, his ances- 
 tors had received their seigniorial rights from the hand of 
 the King of France. The rights had vanished ; but the 
 tradition had remained. The Leleus were subjects of 
 Protestant Britain ; but they were French Catholic to the 
 core of their soul, French Canadian Catholic, rather, for 
 in these later years, the French on this side the Atlantic 
 have developed racial traits which are all their own. 
 
 As a rule, each generation of Leleus had had two or 
 three sons, and it had become a matter of family pride 
 that, in each generation, one son should remain on the 
 family estate and one should be educated for the priest- 
 hood. The other sons, if there were others, were expected 
 to follow a profession, and many a Doctor Leleu or Law- 
 yer Leleu had helped to make at least the neighbourhood 
 history of some part of the province. Of the sons of the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 13 
 
 past generation, but two Leleus were left, one a priest 
 attached to the Grand Seminary in Quebec, the other the 
 father of Amedee Leleu. And the father of Amedee Leleu, 
 the stern young autocrat of the entire county, had taken 
 in marriage the fragile daughter of one of his neighbouring 
 autocrats. Seven years later, her life had ended with the 
 first breath of her third-born son, and Amedee had come 
 into life, deprived of all memory of his mother, but, alone 
 of all three sons, the inheritor of her gentle, high-strung 
 temperament. 
 
 The oldest of the sons had chosen the church and 
 already was received into the number of Redemptorist 
 Fathers who watch over the shrine of Sainte Anne. The 
 second son, then, succeeded to the family estate, quite to 
 the satisfaction of young Amedee who, from his boyhood, 
 had steadfastly adhered to his choice of law as his ideal 
 profession. Of certain corollaries to that profession as yet 
 he made no mention. So long as he remains in the home, 
 the youngest child never quite outgrows his babyhood ; 
 and the paternal Leleu, moreover, would not have been 
 altogether satisfactory, as a confidant in regard to boyish 
 ambitions. 
 
 By the advice of his uncle, Amedee had been sent early 
 to Quebec. For three entirely happy years, he had wan- 
 dered about the gray old streets, clad in the long, straight 
 coat and bright green sash of the Seminary boy ; for six 
 or seven years, he had been a student of Laval, winning 
 honourably his bachelor's degree and then, with even 
 greater honour, his right to the blue-bound hood of the 
 legal faculty. These Laval years were also happy, but 
 less unreservedly so. As Seminary boy, he had regarded 
 all things as well within his grasp. As student in the 
 university, his ambitions grew and, with their rapid 
 growth, grew also doubts of their fulfilment. Neverthe- 
 less, when he sailed for Europe where he was to complete
 
 14 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 his study by a year or two in the Paris schools, young 
 Amedee Leleu, his thin lips shut tight together, stood far 
 towards the steamer's bow, facing forward down the river. 
 He loved the past days and the old scenes ; but their work 
 was done. It was the new which was to make him fit to 
 play the part he had chosen for his life. 
 
 At the end of three months, he found himself looking 
 back with a certain regret upon the boy who had left 
 Canada. It seemed to him that one phase of his life had 
 ended with the hour when he had sailed away from under 
 the shadow of the gray old citadel. The past three 
 months had broadened his nature and its outlook. 
 Nevertheless, he had seasons of wondering whether the 
 broadening had been quite worth the while. He had left 
 Quebec, his head full of dreams of a paternal, but glorified 
 France, of a country loyal at heart to the best of the 
 traditions she had grafted upon her young colony, two 
 hundred years before. He was quite aware of the outward 
 change in her political life ; but he had imagined that the 
 same warm human pulse was beating in the frequenter of 
 the Parisian boulevard as beat in his own monarchical, 
 Catholic heart. He was swift to realize his own mistake. 
 Already the Combes ministry was seeking a spot for the 
 point of that entering wedge which was to tear asunder 
 the masses of Parisian politics and of the Vatican ; .but 
 Leleu had no need to keep his eyes upon the ministry to 
 learn that the structure of French Catholicism was rotten 
 to the core. The talk of his mates on their way to their 
 lectures was enough. Of the dozen men with whom Leleu 
 was thrown in daily contact, three were but feebly Catholic 
 and seven more conversed in the terms of latter-day agnos- 
 ticism. And the mouthpiece of the seven had been 
 Achille St. Just. For a few weeks, Leleu tried in vain to 
 content himself with the friendship of the remaining two, 
 one of whom was anaemic and the other dull. For a few
 
 Hearts and Creeds 15 
 
 weeks more, he cast in his lot with the seven, and sought 
 to disregard their avowed free-thinking for the sake of the 
 clever terms in which it phrased itself. Then the spirit of 
 his ancestors swept back upon him. He shook himself 
 free of all things save his work, and went his way, alone. 
 
 Some men would have yielded to the influence of the 
 place and hour, would have adopted the prevailing irre- 
 ligion. Not so Leleu. His devout, unquestioning belief 
 was jarred, only to return to a more stable equilibrium. 
 His high-strung, susceptible temperament, inherited from 
 his mother, caused him to be sorely wounded by the 
 general attitude of scoffing disregard of all he deemed 
 most sacred. The sterner stuff in his paternal blood led 
 him to shut up the wounds from the sight of all and 
 nurse them until they had healed to a scar which should 
 be tougher than the original fibre of his being. Amedee 
 Leleu, thanks to his ancestry, succeeded in achieving the 
 wellnigh impossible. Out of the turmoil of student Paris, 
 out of the prevailing atheism which surrounded him on 
 every side, he came back to his native province, a clean- 
 minded Catholic gentleman, broader of intellect for his 
 foreign training, firmer of purpose, but at heart as simple 
 as a boy. Loyalty, faith and the love of woman : these 
 still for him were words fraught with solemn meaning. 
 
 With him, a good deal to Leleu's regret, had come 
 Achille St. Just. As clever as Leleu and as full of pur- 
 pose, St. Just was vastly more unscrupulous as to his 
 methods of attaining that purpose. In his boyhood, St. 
 Just had made up his mind to win out in some race or 
 other ; it mattered little to him where was the race-course 
 or what was the prize. In those first early weeks, he had 
 seen much of Leleu. He had liked the young Canadian, 
 for Leleu was attractive in person and in mind. After- 
 wards, St. Just had never entirely yielded to Leleu's 
 efforts to withdraw from the friendship. He went in for
 
 16 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the same lectures, dropped in often at Leleu's room and 
 treated him with a cordial fellowship which, however 
 selfish in its motive, yet was not wholly unwelcome to the 
 homesick, reserved young fellow, so plainly alone in this 
 roistering environment. St. Just had infinite tact. From 
 the first, he held the conversation away from possible 
 points of controversy, and devoted his time with Leleu to 
 solving the question as to whether French Canada would 
 be the best race-track open for his speeding. He solved 
 it in the affirmative. With the facility which marked his 
 whole career, he possessed himself of certain useful letters 
 of introduction, and sailed for Quebec on the same steamer 
 which was taking Leleu home to begin the career that 
 long since he had marked out on the chart of his life. 
 
 On the same steamer, there had also crossed Brooke Lord. 
 Quebec passengers were few, as were also good sailors, and 
 the crossing was stormy. Driven to seek one another's 
 society, the three men had smoked and talked together 
 for hours at a time. When they went their way from the 
 custom house, Brooke Lord had mentally registered his 
 full approval of Leleu, of whom he had never since lost 
 sight. St. Just, meanwhile, had made up his mind that 
 Brooke Lord was a man for him to know. A week later, 
 by skilful manoeuvring, he was making his bow before the 
 tea table presided over by Mrs. Brooke Lord. To the 
 mind of St. Just, no man could achieve professional success 
 without the aid of some measure of social recognition. 
 His theory even extended itself to the belief that political 
 advancement was decreed in the drawing-room no less 
 often than in the caucus in the City Hall. At all events, 
 he resolved to cast an anchor in either direction. 
 
 All that was a year before. Since that time, the two 
 men, Leleu and St. Just, had gone their separate ways, 
 meeting occasionally as was almost inevitable in so small 
 a city, but sharing few interests in common. Leleu had
 
 Hearts and Creeds 17 
 
 come home to accept a position as secretary to a Liberal 
 French minister. St. Just, after a swift survey of the 
 field, had determined to devote his facile wit and fluent 
 pen to the cause of journalism. Local politics had no 
 especial meaning to him. He merely assured himself that 
 his best chance for winning recognition for his talent lay 
 in the field of least competition, and that, for the present, 
 that field stretched away on the Conservative side of the 
 political fence. It would be time enough to develop 
 political affiliations of his own, when his name had begun 
 to carry weight. Nameless, he could be a free lance, and, 
 professing allegiance to a party, he could still concentrate 
 his work entirely upon himself. In the meantime, he made 
 the most of his temporary Conservatism by winning a 
 position of some prominence in the heart of the social 
 circle of English Protestantism. 
 
 On the day after their introduction on the terrace, Leleu 
 met Arline just outside the toll-gate on the Grande Alice. 
 His own duties at the Parliament Buildings were but just 
 ended ; but the girl was evidently coming in from a long 
 walk. In her pale cloth gown and wide hat, flushed and 
 animated with her exercise, she seemed to Leleu even more 
 striking than on the previous night. After the short, dark 
 girls of his own race, alert and piquant though they were, 
 Arline's tall blond beauty was no less a revelation to him 
 than was her masterful bearing, the quiet power of her 
 whole poise. He was conscious of a quick thrill of pleas- 
 ure, as he watched her approach, and he halted before her, 
 hat in hand and his curiously winning smile showing about 
 the corners of his lips. And Arline glanced at him in- 
 quiringly, with interest, and then with a gracious smile of 
 recognition. Pausing, she held out her hand. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Leleu. How dull of me, not to know you ! 
 But the dazzle on the terrace does change one so. 1 " 
 
 "And in all the familiar faces who greet you, there
 
 18 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 must be small chance for a stranger to win a share of your 
 attention," Leleu suggested. 
 
 He spoke with the slightest possible accent ; but the 
 formal phrasing of his words showed that he might easily 
 be baffled by an unaccustomed idiom; In London and 
 Paris, Arline spoke fluent French. Here at home, how- 
 ever, it was for the Frenchman to come all the way. She 
 made no effort to bridge the chasm between the races. 
 
 " Yes," she answered carelessly ; " I suppose old friends 
 are bound to have the first right. You are a stranger 
 here, Mr. Leleu ? " 
 
 " I was educated here from my boyhood," he told her 
 quietly. " Only for two years I was in Paris." 
 
 " And have just come back ? " she questioned, with a 
 perfunctory showing of interest. 
 
 " A year ago. I returned on the same steamer with 
 Mr. Brooke Lord." 
 
 " Yes, I remember now. He told me, last night." 
 
 Once more, Leleu winced at the total disregard of her 
 tone. And yet, after all, there was no especial reason that 
 this queenly girl, in all the excitement of her first night 
 at home, should have allowed Brooke Lord's account of 
 him to find lodgment in her memory. Nevertheless, Leleu 
 would have preferred to have it otherwise. Far back in 
 his dark eyes there lurked an expression which should have 
 told one less observant than Arline that already he found 
 her more attractive than he would have liked to confess. 
 
 " He had just then left you with your aunt in London, 
 I suppose ? " Leleu said, after a little pause. 
 
 " Yes, if it was when he came over, last year." Arline's 
 hands were busy with the fastenings of her light summer 
 coat. Already the sun was dropping towards the west, 
 and a breeze had sprung up from the river. The girl drew 
 her shoulders together, then moved slowly forward. 
 
 "That was the time." Leleu raised his brows inter-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 19 
 
 rogatively, as he fell into step at her side ; but Aiiine's 
 face was impenetrable, so he walked on, albeit with some 
 hesitation. Among his French friends, however, Leleu 
 had never known the need for hesitation. Nevertheless, 
 it was not pique alone which led him to maintain his place 
 at Arline's side. " You also were in Paris ? " he asked at 
 length. 
 
 " Yes, for three months." 
 
 " And you enjoyed it ? " 
 
 k ' Of course. Who could help it ? " Her accent showed 
 a slight disposition to disdain any one who could withstand 
 the charms of the French capital. 
 
 Leleu was conscious of a sudden swift desire to acquaint 
 her with the fact that he was of the small minority whom 
 she could so disdain. Then he smothered the desire. His 
 instinct assured him that it would be fatal to a further 
 acquaintance, were he to disagree with Arline now. The 
 poise of her head, the curve of her short upper lip, led him 
 to suppose that she would be less wayward than captious 
 in her tastes, less stable in adhering to her own tastes 
 than tolerant of the distastes of others ; in short, that 
 she was a woman to argue, rather than to be argued 
 with. And, after all, what use would there be in an argu- 
 ment for which they had no common ground ? The Paris 
 of the gay girl tourist was by no means the Paris of his 
 own student days. He changed the subject swiftly. 
 
 " You have been for a long walk ? " 
 
 " To Sillery. I tried to coax Jimmy to go with me ; 
 but he had some engagement or other. It is an odd feel- 
 ing, this coming home to find your family deep in engage- 
 ments that you know nothing about. One feels quite in 
 the way." 
 
 " Oh, not at all," Leleu protested dutifully. 
 
 This time, Arline's smile was wholly sincere. 
 
 " You said that with most becoming promptness, Mr.
 
 20 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Leleu. An Englishman would have stopped a bit to think 
 the matter over, before he committed himself. That is 
 the besetting sin of us English : we are always afraid of 
 seeming to talk at random."" 
 
 Leleu's smile widened. 
 
 " But I was not speaking at random in the least," he 
 protested again. 
 
 " I hope not. But what were we talking about ? Oh, 
 that I felt in the way. Still, I dare say that will be over 
 in time. But to-day my sister had to go to tea with some 
 people that I never heard of, and Jimmy had an engage- 
 ment of some sort out at the Falls. He offered me his 
 dog as companion ; but the creature barks and worries my 
 skirts, so I declined."" She laughed a little, as she spoke. 
 " You know my brother Jimmy, I think ?" 
 
 " A little. Not so well as I know Mr. Brooke Lord."" 
 
 " And yet, Jimmy is generally called the easier one to 
 know," Arline commented thoughtfully. " Still, I suppose 
 he is more likely to stay with his own set than Brooke is."" 
 
 " Yes," Leleu answered briefly. " And that set is 
 wholly English." 
 
 The silence dropped, and lengthened. Then, as she 
 turned to the left and came under the trees of the Belvi- 
 dere, Arline broke it, moved by a sudden impulse for 
 which afterwards she was quite at a loss to account. 
 
 "My sister, Mrs. Brooke Lord, receives on Monday 
 afternoons, Mr. Leleu. I have no doubt 
 
 He interrupted her a bit eagerly. 
 
 " I thank you ; it would give me pleasure." Then he 
 glanced up at the cool shade above him and shrugged his 
 shoulders ever so slightly. " But forgive me, Miss Lord. 
 I have intruded too long upon your walk. Permit me." 
 And, once more lifting his hat, he stepped aside and left 
 her to pass on alone.
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 "^TT^HE difference between the French and English 
 point of view. My dear Miss Tyler ! " Jimmy 
 Lord remonstrated. 
 
 Patience provided an elderly dowager with a minute cup 
 of tea and five lumps of sugar. Then she dropped her 
 hands into her lap and turned to face Jimmy who, under 
 the shallow pretext of offering her occasional help, was 
 leaning against the mantel at her side. 
 
 " But there is a difference," she urged. 
 
 " Voila la difference /" Jimmy hummed softly. "That 
 is an excerpt from a naughty, slangy song, Miss Tyler ; 
 but it seems appropriate, though you say you don't voild 
 the difference in the least." 
 
 "Yes, I do. I see it, only I can't seem to grasp its 
 nature." Patience spoke with a sudden vehemence. " You 
 have lived here always. You must know what it is." 
 
 Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Perhaps," he admitted nonchalantly. 
 
 Patience poured another cup of tea and, under the 
 direction of its future possessor, dropped four lumps of 
 sugar into the cup. 
 
 " Fancy drinking such treacle ! " she said, with a grimace 
 of disgust, as the recipient of the cup vanished in the little 
 throng of callers. 
 
 " How do you take yours ? " 
 
 " With a bit of lemon." 
 
 " Characteristic of the races," Jimmy commented, as he
 
 22 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 munched a biscuit. " Lemon goes with your national 
 nerves. We prefer the physical sustenance of sweetened 
 cream." 
 
 Patience laughed. 
 
 " Let 's return to our sheepfold," she suggested. " You 
 have summed up one difference. Now try the other. 11 
 
 " It 's not the same thing, 11 Jimmy parried. " France 
 drinks coffee. In England and America there 's kinship, 
 and history repeats itself in the tea. I don't mean Boston 
 harbour, either. I always did grudge that waste. If I 'd 
 been in the place of your chaps, I 'd have gone out, next 
 night, and dredged for it." 
 
 " And incidentally drowned your principles ? " 
 
 " No, 11 Jimmy answered blandly ; " first I 'd have chucked 
 the tea, and then I M have chucked the principles. But, 
 about your latter-day tea, your lemon is like your politics, 
 a reaction from our sweetened cream. In either case, the 
 tea is the main thing, after all ; it does n't matter so much 
 how you doctor it up to suit your individual taste. Oh, 
 how do you do, Mrs. Laurie ? " 
 
 " Good afternoon, Jimmy. So glad to see you working 
 for once. Are you really helping Miss Tyler ? " 
 
 " No ; merely providing her with a few good epigrams 
 for use at dinner, to-night. I hope, for her sake, you will 
 put us at opposite ends of the table." 
 
 " Certainly. I have you engaged as my right-hand man, 
 and Mr. Laurie always wants Patience near him. 11 
 
 " What a ripping sort of arrangement ! Then, unless 
 there should come a general pause or you should compare 
 notes afterwards, I won't have to think up anything more 
 to say. It 's not too bad an idea, this making one set of 
 talk do double duty. We are going to discuss racial 
 traits, Mrs. Laurie. Apropos, what do you take in your 
 tea?" 
 
 Mrs. Laurie raised her brows. She was not quite sure
 
 Hearts and Creeds 23 
 
 how to take Jimmy's banter. She found refuge in exceeding 
 literalness. 
 
 " Only two lumps, and just a dash of cream, please."" 
 
 Jimmy handed her the cup with an exaggerated bow. 
 
 " Mrs. Laurie, I am convinced that you had an American 
 grand mother." 
 
 Mrs. Laurie's face betrayed her surprise. 
 
 " Yes ; but how did you know ? " 
 
 " Intuition, coupled with scientific investigation. Don't 
 apologize. It is really quite respectable to be an American, 
 nowadays. The Rhodes scholarships settled all that. But 
 are you going to leave us ? " 
 
 " I want to see your sister. Where is she ? " 
 
 " I 'm not quite sure. Molly can tell you, though. 
 She planned the fighting line, to-day." And Jimmy 
 pointed to his sister-in-law at the distant end of the 
 room. Then, as Mrs. Laurie's silken linings announced 
 her departure, he turned back to Patience once more. 
 
 " Too bad to tease her," she rebuked him. " Mrs. Laurie 
 really is an old dear." 
 
 Jimmy lifted his hand in counter rebuke. 
 
 " Delete the adjective, Miss Tyler ; else you will be a 
 subject for a court taster, to-night. Mrs. Laurie has 
 turned just thirty. That by no means signifies that she 
 has just turned thirty. In fact, I think she rounded the 
 angle, when I was still in knickerbockers ; but history 
 ceased at that hour." 
 
 "And the French?" Patience reminded him. 
 
 " Miss Tyler, the worst trait of you Americans is your 
 talent for persistent iterations." 
 
 " And of you English, your avoiding a difficult answer," 
 she retorted. 
 
 Jimmy laughed. Then he glanced over his shoulder. 
 Then he made trenchant reply, 
 
 " Miss Tyler, the difference between the French and the
 
 24 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 English Canadian is just this : the Englishman hopes he 's 
 in for eternal salvation and a firm grip on the country, and 
 the Frenchman knows it." 
 
 Suddenly the girl caught his late mood of banter. 
 
 " Knows the Englishman is ? " she questioned. 
 
 And once more Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Never ! " he responded briefly. Then he looked up 
 with a smile, as AmJdee Leleu drew near the table. 
 
 " Molly," Arline had said, that morning ; " I have asked 
 the man to call." 
 
 " What man ? " Mrs. Brooke Lord asked, with absent 
 inattention. 
 
 Arline never moved her eyes from the street, where they 
 rested on the short, slight figure of Amedee Leleu, hurry- 
 ing towards the Parliament Buildings across the way. It 
 was not until the figure had reached the opening in the 
 low gray wall and turned in through the little park that 
 she spoke again. Then, 
 
 " Mr. Leleu," she answered. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord looked up from her letters. 
 
 " Oh, my dear ! " she remonstrated. 
 
 " Well, why not ? " Arline's tone betrayed a certain 
 hostility. Her sister-in-law was older than she and, as the 
 daughter of a prominent senator, took social precedence of 
 the child of a wood-pulp millionaire. Both facts had 
 always led Arline to be swift to resent any social advice 
 offered her by Mrs. Brooke Lord. 
 
 Now Mrs. Brooke Lord's tone betrayed her own mental 
 reservations. 
 
 "Nothing; only " 
 
 " But Brooke introduced him." 
 
 " I know ; but a man like Brooke meets all sorts of 
 people." 
 
 Arline faced about sharply. The colour had come 
 into her cheeks, and her hand, resting on a fold of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 25 
 
 the curtain, suddenly crumpled the fold into deep 
 wrinkles. 
 
 " What have you against Mr. Leleu, Molly ? " she de- 
 manded, and her voice rose by a tone or two on the words. 
 
 "Nothing, my dear." Mrs. Brooke Lord laughed 
 lightly. "The only question is, what have you for 
 him ? " 
 
 " Merely that I like him. 1 ' 
 
 " At a first glance ? " Mrs. Brooke Lord questioned. 
 " He must have made a strong impression ; you have seen 
 him once." 
 
 " Twice," Arline corrected her coldly. " I really can't 
 see why the fact should afford you such amusement, 
 Molly. Mr. Leleu is obviously a gentleman ; his manners 
 and his tailor are equal to Brooke's, if not to Jimmy's." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord flushed at the subtle thrust. She 
 was fond of Jimmy ; she adored her husband. Not all 
 the adoration in the world, however, could blind her to 
 a certain ingrained difference between the two men. 
 Nevertheless, the experience of years had taught her to 
 turn a deaf ear to at least half the utterances of Arline, 
 when a mood of perversity was upon the girl. Arline's 
 suggestion of a year in Europe had found an unex- 
 pected champion in Mrs. Brooke Lord. 
 
 " Mr. Leleu is a gentleman, Arline," she said. " No- 
 body has ever said a word against him, and Brooke 
 thinks he is very clever." 
 
 " What does he do ? " Arline asked, as she let go the 
 curtain and allowed her hand to drop to her side. 
 
 " He is secretary to somebody or other. Brooke says, 
 though, that people are beginning to have their eyes upon 
 him." 
 
 " Then why has n't he been here to call before now ? " 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord rose, crossed the room and picked up 
 her engagement book.
 
 26 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Because I never asked him," she said quietly, as she 
 turned the leaves. 
 
 However, Arline pressed her question. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 "Because there never seemed any real reason that I 
 should do so. Our set is rather full ; one can't extend it 
 indefinitely. Mr. Leleu has friends of his own." 
 
 Arline's tone sharpened again. 
 
 "And they, I suppose, are socially impossible, judged 
 by the standards of Mrs. Brooke Lord."" 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord hated sarcasm. Now she bit her lip. 
 For her husband's sake, she would never cross swords with 
 Arline. Moreover, there were hours when she loved the 
 girl absolutely. For the sake of those hours, she had 
 schooled herself to limitless patience. 
 
 " Not at all," she answered. " He is in the best of the 
 French set. He is a nephew of Father Leleu, and a 
 friend of half the Laval faculty and a third of the Liberal 
 senators. Brooke says it is a rare thing for so young a 
 man to be accepted in such high places." 
 
 " Then why don't you accept him ? " 
 
 With deliberate care, Mrs. Brooke Lord made an entry 
 or two in the book in her hand. Then she gave careless 
 answer, 
 
 "Really, I never bestowed on the matter any especial 
 thought. Chiefly because he is French, I suppose." 
 
 " But you accept Monsieur St. Just," Arline said shortly. 
 
 " Yes ; but he is from Paris." 
 
 " What difference does that make ? " Arline asked even 
 more shortly. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord smiled, as if to herself. 
 
 " He has n't any corollaries," she replied. " Besides, 
 he 's Protestant." 
 
 " No ; he 's not," Arline contradicted. " Jimmy told 
 me he's an out and out atheist."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 27 
 
 " How tiresome ! But, at least, he is n't Catholic," 
 Mi's. Brooke Lord said tranquilly. 
 
 With a sudden sweep of her arm, Arline thrust apart 
 the curtains and crossed the room to Mrs. Brooke Lord's 
 side. Her cheeks were blazing again, her head held high, 
 and she moved with the lithe, yet commanding tread of a 
 panther. 
 
 " How narrow you are, Molly ! " she burst out angrily. 
 "I can't understand it; I hate it. You call yourself a 
 Christian ; you call yourself a friend of all mankind. And 
 just because this man goes to the Basilica instead of the 
 Cathedral, you grudge him a cup of tea and a biscuit. 
 It 's narrow, and it 's petty and a disgrace to any woman." 
 She swept her hands backward, then clasped them before 
 her again with a swift, impetuous gesture. " No ; don't 
 try to explain it. It explains itself. You talk of the 
 snobbery of London, and even of Montreal ; but you outdo 
 them both. There 's not a man in Quebec, according to 
 your own showing, better born, better bred, better to 
 look at than Mr. Leleu, and yet he is n't fit to come into 
 your house, because " her accent stayed itself and 
 became slow and cutting ; " because he happens to have 
 had the misfortune to be born a Catholic and French." 
 
 Some instinct of wishing to protect the girl from the 
 judgment of her own kin led Mrs. Brooke Lord to raise 
 her hand in warning, as Jimmy passed through the room. 
 Arline was swift to interpret the gesture. 
 
 " No ; I am not ashamed of my ground; I see no need 
 to suppress it. I am not so narrow as that, so tied up in 
 the leading-strings of my set." Then she faced about 
 suddenly. " And what do you wish me to do, Molly ? 
 Shall I send the man a note, revoking my invitation to 
 call, or" 
 
 And Jimmy, as he passed on out of hearing, observed 
 to himself,
 
 28 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " When women fight, it 's a man's place to hold up his 
 hands and scuttle off to cover. It strikes me, though, that 
 Arline has settled down to work in good season. Poor old 
 Molly ! But she is a darling, anyhow."" 
 
 Two hours later, Jimmy showed still further his knowl- 
 edge of womankind. He met Mrs. Brooke Lord and 
 Arline, as they were amicably shopping together in 
 Fabrique Street, and he bowed to them without a hint of 
 amusement or surprise. However, he admitted to himself 
 that he was distinctly curious in regard to the nature of 
 the welcome which would be accorded to Leleu, that after- 
 noon. At heart, Jimmy shared the beliefs of Mrs. Brooke 
 Lord. Leleu was all right and doubtless well worth the 
 knowing. Still, there was no especial use in hybridizing 
 one's social set. To Jimmy's mind, one's teacups and 
 dinner plates should always be marked with a Union Jack. 
 At official functions, of course, it was different. There, 
 one was bound to meet all sorts. But then, one was not 
 responsible for the choice of one's fellow guest ; that lay on 
 the knees of one's host. 
 
 Nevertheless, although this was Leleu's first invasion of 
 the Conservative English set, there was neither hesitancy 
 nor deprecation in his manner, as he crossed the room, 
 halted to speak to his hostess and Arline and then, moved 
 by some subtle sense that the social atmosphere was 
 overcharged, passed on directly towards the table where 
 Patience Tyler was pouring tea. He had met Patience a 
 round dozen times before that day. He had not admired 
 her especially ; but he had enjoyed her unreservedly. 
 Again and again, her outspoken directness had taken his 
 breath away ; but, when once more he had caught his 
 breath, he found himself the better for the whiff of ozone. 
 And, upon her side, Patience looked with full, albeit quite 
 unsentimental approval upon this slender, dark-faced boy 
 with the luminous eyes and mobile lips. He roused in her
 
 Hearts and Creeds 29 
 
 no sense of spiritual recoil such as she never failed to ex- 
 perience in the society of Achille St. Just. Like many 
 another self-reliant American girl, Patience Tyler owned a 
 full system of moral weights and measures which she ap- 
 plied to the personality of the men she was accustomed to 
 meet. More than that, she had formed the habit of talk- 
 ing over the resulting measurements with her older brother. 
 Her dashing intuitions, coupled with his more sober judg- 
 ment, offered no despicable standard of attainment ; but 
 Leleu, long since, had attained it to the full. 
 
 " I had no thought of finding you here, Miss Tyler," he 
 said, as he paused before her tray. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I am always here. You know Mr. Lord, I 
 think," Patience responded, with an easy disregard of the 
 Canadian law of introductions. " You are the unexpected 
 vision." 
 
 Leleu bowed in brief assent. 
 
 " It was Miss Lord who asked me." 
 
 " You knew her abroad, perhaps ? " 
 
 " No ; only here. No tea, thank you." And Leleu, 
 bending down to help himself to a biscuit, lost Jimmy's 
 expressive gesture and rapid comment, 
 
 " Another proof of my theory of racial traits." 
 
 " So you don't think salvation lurks in tannin ? " 
 Patience queried, in a swift aside. Then she faced 
 Leleu. "Mr. Leleu," she asked audaciously; "if you 
 saw a Frenchman drinking a cup of tea, what would you 
 think of him ? " 
 
 And Amedee Leleu, all unwittingly, plunged into the 
 heart of their previous discussion with his answering 
 words, 
 
 " That he was putting himself in training for the Con- 
 servative ministry. 11 
 
 Patience laughed. Then she lifted a warning hand. 
 
 "Take care, Mr. Leleu," she cautioned him. "They
 
 30 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 won't let me talk politics here, at least nothing later than 
 the epoch of Sir John. I can't quite understand the situ- 
 ation. You all do politics, every day and all day long ; 
 you all know politics from A to Izzard ; but not a soul of 
 you is allowed to mention the word politics in polite society 
 on pain of death. If it is so bad as to be unmentionable, 
 what makes you do it ? " 
 
 Jimmy broke in, and his reply was trenchant. 
 
 " We don't. We leave it to the French."" 
 
 Leleu smiled. 
 
 " Not always." 
 
 " Yes," Jimmy responded tranquilly. " We leave you 
 fellows to do all the politics. We English only vote." 
 
 " What is the discussion ? " Arline queried, as she came 
 slowly towards the group. 
 
 " Politics," Patience said, as she picked up a fresh cup. 
 " Your brother will tell you it is my standing grievance 
 that I am not allowed to talk politics in this country." 
 
 " But it is so tiresome. Why should you care to talk 
 about it ? " Arline inquired, as she smiled up at Leleu who 
 had brought forward a chair and handed her a cup of tea. 
 
 " Because it is so interesting. Stanwood and I have 
 the best possible times, arguing it over at breakfast. He 
 is a Conservative, of course ; and I am a Liberal of scarlet 
 dye, and we fight it all out together." 
 
 Jimmy possessed himself of another biscuit. 
 
 "And he calls you 'my dear, 1 " he commented; "and 
 then you clatter the spoons at him. That ""s the worst of 
 you women as adversaries. Just as a fellow thinks he has 
 had the best of you and talked you down, you begin a 
 most infernal row with your tea things and drown him out 
 completely. I tell Brooke that, if Molly ever gets un- 
 manageable, he 'd best tackle her when she 's tying up her 
 shoes." 
 
 "But she could always throw a slipper at him,"
 
 Hearts and Creeds 31 
 
 Patience suggested. " And, when I go to talk Stamvood 
 down, he rattles the paper at me, and that is as bad as the 
 spoons." 
 
 " Worse, for it wrecks the paper, besides losing his place 
 for him. But what ever turned you a Liberal, Miss Tyler ? " 
 
 " Stanwood's Conservatism. There 's no fun unless you 
 get both sides of a thing. Just think how monotonous 
 it would be, if we all thought alike ! " 
 
 Arline sipped her tea with thoughtful relish. 
 
 "But don't you like to agree with people, Miss Tyler ?" 
 she asked, less from interest in the answer than from 
 a feeling that Patience had been usurping too great a 
 share of attention. 
 
 And Patience, as she glanced at the queenly composure 
 of the figure in the dull blue gown, felt a wayward desire 
 to jostle Arline from her placid mental groove. 
 
 " No ; not until I have been argued into it," she replied, 
 with a gay little nod up at Leleu who, on more than one 
 occasion, had attempted that argument. 
 
 Arline caught the smile and the returning flash in 
 Leleu's dark eyes. She set down her cup with a sharp 
 click. Then she raised her golden-brown brows. 
 
 "Really ? I don't care for argument, myself; it seems 
 to me rather tiresome. Mr. Leleu, I want to show you 
 some of my brother's old prints. Do you mind coming to 
 the library ? " 
 
 Followed by Leleu, she moved away through the empty- 
 ing rooms. Left alone beside the table, Jimmy and Pa- 
 tience looked at each other, started to speak and then fell 
 silent. At last, however, Patience laughed. At the sound, 
 Jimmy's face cleared and he drew a sigh of frank relief. 
 
 " Hang it ! " he said. " One can't well apologize for 
 one's own people, Miss Tyler. Still, it does n't so much 
 matter, after all. You '11 get to know Arline in time."
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 THE Tylers boarded on the Cape, within a stone's 
 throw of the Governor's Garden. The house, 
 among its ancient neighbours, seemed distressingly modern 
 with its tiled vestibule and its small reception hall. Stan- 
 wood had chosen it, as soon as it had been decided that 
 Patience was to come to him. He had been in the ancient 
 city long enough to have had its picturesqueness lose 
 somewhat of its pristine glamour. He had realized that 
 Patience, coming, not as a tourist, but as a resident, would 
 in time learn to share his belief that modern oxygen was 
 preferable to the mustiness of ages. Accordingly, he had 
 made unhesitating selection of the three front rooms on 
 the second floor of a house which boasted modern ventila- 
 tion and an occasional open fireplace, and he listened with 
 unabated tranquillity, on the night of his sister's arrival, 
 to her charge of undue Philistinism. When she had fin- 
 ished, he took his pipe from between his teeth. 
 
 " Hold your peace, Patsy, and go on with your unpack- 
 ing. When you have eaten breakfast and seen the view 
 from these windows, then you may continue talking." 
 Then he rose and shut one arm around her waist. " Oh, 
 Patsy girl," he added ; " but it 's good to have you here ! " 
 
 And Patience, as she returned to her half-empty trunk, 
 was supremely content. Next day, her contentment showed 
 no diminution, while she leaned out of the window to wave 
 a farewell to her brother as he rounded the corner by the 
 Chateau, and then fell to work, settling their possessions 
 in the airy, sunshiny library which separated her room
 
 33 
 
 from that of Stanwood. Jimmy Lord, dropping in with 
 a message from his brother, that same evening, had found 
 the room in order and Stanwood busy with oysters and a 
 chafing dish, while Patience, in a long, light frock, lounged 
 by the fire, issuing directions in regard to the best quan- 
 tity of salt. Jimmy, on his way to the Garrison Club, 
 had rebelled at the idea of serving as his brother's mes- 
 senger. Two hours later, he was pronouncing the even- 
 ing a complete success, although the friends still awaiting 
 him at the club were of another mind. The next day, 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord had called ; and, from that time on- 
 ward, Stanwood Tyler had dismissed from his mind all 
 anxiety in regard to his sister's happiness. 
 
 The Tylers came from Brookline. They owned a 
 colonial governor and a Huguenot fighter among the 
 ranks of their ancestry. Stanwood had gone from Cornell 
 to Schenectady and thence to Quebec. Patience had fol- 
 lowed him by the way of Smith. These two were the 
 only children of the family ; they had been peculiarly 
 intimate from the days when Stanwood had given Shake- 
 speare recitals before a select audience of an excited Patience 
 and six passively attentive dolls. It had seemed quite a 
 matter of course to all the Tyler kindred, then, that 
 Patience, tiring of her parents 1 ceaseless wandering through 
 Europe in search of a health which was already theirs, 
 should go to join her brother in the northern city to which 
 his profession had led him. Patience was self-reliant, and 
 Stanwood was steadiness itself. For the rest, Mrs. Brooke 
 Lord had offered her social services, and Patience's great- 
 aunt Adams had received from her old school-fellow, Lady 
 Russell, a satisfactory assurance concerning Mrs. Brooke 
 Lord's social standing. Accordingly, Patience Tyler, 
 sound of body and of nerve, with a head full of ideas and 
 a trunk full of New York gowns, had found herself being 
 driven up Palace Hill, one crisp October evening. Had 
 
 3
 
 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 she but known it, that evening was destined to mark the 
 line cutting her life sharply in two. 
 
 Nine months had passed since then, and the July sun 
 was gilding the old gray city and turning the Levis 
 heights to the hue of the darkest amethyst. All over the 
 Cape and far out the Grande Allee, the houses showed 
 themselves inhospitably closed and barred. The babble 
 of the tourist was in the land, and the inhabitants had 
 taken themselves out of reach of the camera, and the in- 
 quisitive eye, and the too eager brain which prides itself 
 on being able to " do " the city between breakfast and 
 luncheon, and have the afternoon left over for Sainte 
 Anne and the Falls. The Lords had lingered late, that 
 year, for the summer had been slothful in its coming. At 
 length, however, they too had wearied of the pavements, 
 and had betaken themselves to their summer cottage which 
 was perched upon the bluff at the northern end of the 
 Island. 
 
 Patience had expressed a decorous sorrow at their de- 
 parture; yet, fond as she was of Mrs. Brooke Lord, the 
 going did not leave her altogether desolate, and she felt 
 no especial regret that business kept her brother in town 
 through the entire summer. As a matter of course, she 
 remained with him. She had come to Quebec for the sake 
 of his company. Accustomed to the larger towns and 
 the fiercer heats to the southward, she saw nothing espe- 
 cially formidable about a July in town, when July weather 
 was merely temperate and when town meant a quiet corner 
 looking out upon the ancient garden and upon the river 
 beyond. 
 
 Now and then she went over to the Island for a day with 
 the Lords. She enjoyed it ; but she was invariably glad 
 to see Stanwood come swinging up the path from the 
 landing, ready to dine and carry her back to their own 
 cosy quarters in town. She and Stanwood had known each
 
 Hearts and Creeds 35 
 
 other for twenty-three years. As yet, they had never been 
 forced to bridge an awkward pause between themselves. 
 And with Arline, pauses were many. It had not taken 
 Patience many weeks to construct a long list of subjects 
 at which she was bound to shy, as a country-bred horse 
 shies at a motor car. Shying, she was able to avoid a 
 collision, and a collision with Arline, she felt, would be 
 fatal to her later poise. Arline was undeniably charming ; 
 but, like a bit of dainty fur, her charm vanished speedily, 
 so soon as she was rubbed the wrong way. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord, however, Patience did miss acutely. 
 She found a partial solace in the fact that almost daily 
 some old friend of the Tylers registered at the Chateau ; 
 she found an even greater solace in the frequent visits of 
 Jimmy Lord who led a peripatetic sort of existence, that 
 summer, and made a point of dropping in at the Tylers,' 
 each time he came up to town. There he lounged in the 
 open windows of their cosy library, alternately talking 
 politics with Stanwood and chaffing Patience ; or he joined 
 them in their evening saunter along the terrace ; or, of a 
 Sunday afternoon, carried off the brother and sister for a 
 long drive to Lorette and home through the distant purple 
 hills. And so the summer wore on and, as the long days 
 loitered by, Patience Tyler's clear eyes looked into Jimmy's 
 with the same frank liking they were wont to show to 
 Stanwood or to Molly Lord. To Patience, just then, life 
 was too full of interest to give her space for sentimental 
 musings. Her liking for Jimmy was as objective as was 
 her curiosity regarding the brown-cowled, bare-footed 
 Franciscan friar who rubbed elbows with her on one of her 
 daily walks out the Grande Allee. 
 
 She met Leleu often, in the course of these walks. With 
 the first breath of summer, he had gone into camp with 
 some friends in the mountains back of Lorette. His 
 duties called him to the Parliament Buildings, however,
 
 36 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 two or three times a week, and, in the late afternoons, his 
 path was likely to cross the path of Patience. Usually he 
 lingered a little to talk to her ; once or twice he had turned 
 to walk along by her side. When they had parted, 
 Patience had been conscious of the smile which curved her 
 own lips ; but her amusement had been wholly free from 
 bitterness. She liked Leleu absolutely ; nevertheless, she 
 was quite willing he should focus his talk absolutely upon 
 Arline. Her one regret lay in Arline's own attitude, in the 
 careless fashion in which the girl spoke of the attentions 
 that, only an hour before, she had been receiving with 
 every mark of gracious pleasure. 
 
 " Arline is my present problem," Patience said to her 
 brother, one night. 
 
 " Unsolved ? " he queried, as he leaned out of the 
 window to flirt the ash from the bowl of his pipe. 
 
 Patience wrinkled her brows. Then she folded her 
 arms on the sill and spoke with her eyes fixed upon the 
 moonlit spaces between the trees in the garden below. 
 
 " She always will be. She is charming sometimes. 
 She is beautiful always. She is Jimmy's sister, and 
 sister-in-law to Mrs. Brooke Lord. I ought to like her, 
 and I don't. 11 
 
 Her brother smiled at the flat, unmodified conclusion of 
 her phrase. 
 
 " For any especial cause ? " he inquired. 
 
 " Women always have a cause," she retorted. 
 
 "No; merely a reason, as a rule, 11 he corrected her. 
 " And your cause ? " 
 
 Patience's answer was as unexpected as it was prompt. 
 
 " Because, before I had known her a week, she pointed 
 to a man on the terrace and told me that he had asked her 
 to marry him." 
 
 With a rigid forefinger, Stanwood was prodding leisurely 
 at the fresh tobacco in the bowl of his pipe.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 37 
 
 " Very likely he had," he replied composedly. 
 
 Patience rumpled her hair, in token of her antagonism. 
 
 " But she had no business to tell of it, if he had," she 
 objected. 
 
 " I 'm not sure she had any business to tell of it, if he 
 had n't. In a case like that, Patsy, it 's worse to romance 
 than it is to tell the truth." 
 
 "And bad enough to do either. We're supposed to 
 have evolved a little since the day when our ancestors 
 decorated themselves with a peplum of scalps," she an- 
 swered, with spirit. " I 've had no practice, Stan ; but my 
 theory is that a girl should take such things in all humility 
 and make as little fuss about them as possible. Arline, to 
 judge from her talk, has marched through life over a road 
 paved with hearts in place of cobblestones and, what's 
 more, she has kept an accurate account of the size and 
 colour and softness of every single cobble on which she has 
 ever set foot. I don't like it, Stanwood. It 's not my way, 
 and it 's not the way of Mrs. Brooke." 
 
 " But Arline is different," he argued. 
 
 " How different ? " 
 
 "Imperious. Alluring." He sought about vainly for 
 the right word. " Oh, confound it, Pat, I can't define it ; 
 but you ought to know what I mean." 
 
 She faced him steadily, and there was a world of dignity 
 in her dark eyes. 
 
 " No, Stanwood ; I don't know at all." 
 
 The flaring match in his hand threw a sudden light 
 across his face, and, as she saw his expression, Patience felt 
 slightly reassured. He puffed twice or thrice, deliberately, 
 luxuriously. Then he answered, 
 
 " Why, Arline is the sort of woman who has the trick 
 of ordering a fellow to love her, and making him feel it 's 
 not quite prudent to refuse. I 've known her longer than 
 you have, Pat. She 's a queen in her charm ; but "
 
 38 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Well ? But ? " she echoed questioningly. 
 
 Stan wood attacked his pipe with a pencil end, before he 
 made leisurely answer, 
 
 " But she \ the very devil in her temper. After all, a 
 woman is a good deal like a sword. She 's bound to cut 
 you before you 're through with her ; but, all the time, it 's 
 the temper that counts."" 
 
 And Patience went to bed, that night, content. Stan- 
 wood's possible liking for another woman had held no 
 place within her girlish dreams. 
 
 Two days later, she fulfilled a week-old promise to spend 
 the day on the Island. On her way to the boat, she had 
 met Leleu in the narrow wooden tunnel leading to the top 
 of the elevator, and she had gone on her way, burdened 
 with a message to Arline. The message, a mere formal 
 assurance of Leleu's intention to call, had slipped from her 
 memory in the flurry of greetings, and only recurred to 
 her once more as they sat loitering through a leisurely 
 luncheon. To Patience's mind, there was nothing indis- 
 creet in repeating the message in the presence of Arline's 
 family, and it was with some surprise that she saw the wave 
 of angry scarlet rise up across the girl's face. 
 
 It was Jimmy, however, who spoke. 
 
 " Oh, Arline, spare us the Johnny ! " he remonstrated. 
 
 " But I asked him to call," she said briefly, though the 
 poise of her head added emphasis to the colour in her 
 cheeks. 
 
 " Down here ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 Jimmy folded his hands above the rim of his plate. 
 
 " Sufficient unto the winter is the Frenchman thereof. 
 In summer, give us this day immunity therefrom," he 
 observed piously. 
 
 Patience struck in before Arline had time to reply. 
 
 " I like Mr. Leleu," she said defensively.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 39 
 
 Jimmy took another help of green peas. 
 
 "Everybody needs a few friends," he remarked, with 
 dispassionate calm. 
 
 "And Mr. Leleu deserves many," Patience reminded 
 him. 
 
 " Doubtless he has them." 
 
 Patience laughed. 
 
 " Evidently you don't count yourself among the number," 
 she said. 
 
 " No ; I can't say I do." 
 
 " Why not ? " she persisted, for she felt sure that Arline 
 was about to ask the same question, and the glint in 
 Arline's eyes made her regard it as safer for her to hold 
 the talk well in her own hands. 
 
 Rapidly Jimmy sorted out the contents of his plate and 
 made audible enumeration. 
 
 "Twenty-nine pretty little peas, ready to roll one way 
 as well as another. One ugly great baked potato that 
 refuses to budge." Then he looked up, smiling blandly. 
 "Miss Tyler, once on a time, I spent a night in a coun- 
 try farmhouse. For breakfast, they gave us peas and 
 potatoes cooked together, and the mixture was most 
 unsavoury." 
 
 Arline pushed her plate aside, and beckoned to the 
 servant. 
 
 " Take the plates, Ashley." 
 
 Even Mrs. Brooke Lord rebelled at this assumption of 
 authority. 
 
 " But Jimmy is not ready, Arline," she remonstrated. 
 
 Arline glanced at her brother; then carelessly she 
 turned her eyes away. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon," she said. " I supposed he 
 had finished eating and was only talking to pass the time." 
 Then she turned to Patience. " Next time you see Mr. 
 Leleu," she said, with quiet distinctness ; " please say to
 
 40 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 him that the same welcome awaits him here as met him on 
 the Grande Alice." 
 
 But Jimmy persisted in having the last word. 
 
 " And that," he added, with portentous gravity ; " and 
 that is most varied and cordial." 
 
 An hour later, however, Arline returned to the subject. 
 Owing to the persistent efforts of Patience, it had been 
 dropped from further discussion at the table. Helped by 
 Jimmy, she had guided the talk into other lines and, by 
 the time luncheon was over, Arline's cheeks had cooled to 
 their more normal colour, her lips softened to their gentler 
 curves. Then Mrs. Brooke Lord had gone away for her 
 afternoon nap, and Jimmy had followed Patience back to 
 the wide veranda looking out upon the river and the 
 citadel-crested bluff beyond. Patience would have sat 
 there, idly content, through the entire afternoon ; but 
 Arline, pacing restlessly to and fro, had ended by demand- 
 ing a walk, and Patience had been forced to yield to the 
 expressed wishes of her hostess. Her yielding was none 
 too gracious, however, and Jimmy, as he sauntered away 
 in the opposite direction, gave devout thanksgiving for 
 her obvious ungraciousness. 
 
 " I can't think what makes Jimmy dislike Mr. Leleu so 
 much ! " Arline burst out, when they had passed the stile 
 and were crossing the field in front of the little church on 
 the hill. 
 
 Patience sought to modify the phrase. 
 
 " He does n't dislike him ; that 's only put on, 
 to tease you. It's only that they haven't much in 
 common." 
 
 " As much as any one. And it is so tiresome of Jimmy 
 to tease. He 's not a child." 
 
 " Neither are you," Patience longed to retort. Prudently 
 she forbore, and changed the subject. " Are the races 
 coming off, next week ? " she asked, as she sat down on the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 41 
 
 step of the church and turned to look back at the city, 
 lying in a rosy haze above the glistening breast of the 
 river. 
 
 Arline laughed shortly, and her laugh grated on Pa- 
 tience's ears. 
 
 " I suppose so. There 's no reason they should not. 
 Never mind the races, Patience, though I appreciate your 
 effort to keep the talk away from dangerous channels. 
 The best pilots, though," her smile was a bit sarcastic ; 
 " see to it that their steering gear does n't give too audible 
 warning, when it goes into action. But about Mr. Leleu. 
 Jimmy doesn't like him, I suppose, because he is French 
 and a Catholic. Really, though, I can't see what differ- 
 ence it all makes." 
 
 " He probably likes best to have his friends among men 
 who share his opinions," Patience suggested, with a tame- 
 ness of which she was quite well aware. 
 
 Arline's lip curled disdainfully. 
 
 " What difference ? One does n't discuss such things." 
 
 " Why not ? " Patience asked abruptly, for Arline's 
 tone was bitter with contempt. 
 
 But Arline swept on, heedless of the interruption. 
 
 " Jimmy is narrow, distressingly narrow. It grows upon 
 him. I suppose it comes from living with Molly. Molly 
 has n't an idea that has n't been sanctioned by the utter- 
 ance of some magnate of her father's set of friends. For 
 myself, I should hate to be so bound down, so wrapped in 
 the meshes of a net my ancestors had woven. And Jimmy 
 is as bad." She broke off suddenly. " You like Mr. 
 Leleu ? " she asked. 
 
 " Certainly," Patience assented. " But then, I 'm an 
 American." 
 
 " What difference does that make ? " Arline demanded 
 impatiently. 
 
 Patience bent down and pulled a handful of grass from
 
 42 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the turf at her feet. The action hid the little smile that 
 hovered about her lips. 
 
 " Merely that I have left my ancestral net at home in 
 Boston," she replied demurely. " I was afraid the meshes 
 would n't fit the fish up here." 
 
 Arline frowned. She suspected mockery ; yet she was 
 unable to detect its presence. She returned to her first 
 theme. Though she spoke hotly, Patience's keen ear 
 detected the cold ring of truth beneath the passing heat of 
 her words. 
 
 "I like Mr. Leleu. I liked him at first. His being 
 French makes no especial difference; he's not likely to 
 try to convert me from the English church. Sometimes, I 
 think, absurd as it seems, that that's what Jimmy is 
 afraid of. Shocking bad form, you know," her voice 
 dropped to Jimmy's lazy drawl ; " perfectly shocking form 
 to turn Catholic. Mr. Leleu is attractive ; you know it, 
 yourself, Patience. And yet, after all," she laughed 
 slightly, and the laugh was steely hard ; " after all, I 
 should never have given the man a second thought, if 
 Molly and Jimmy had n't made such a fuss when I asked 
 him to call. That's the woman of me, I suspect. We 
 only want our toys, when somebody tries to pull them 
 away from us. Now what have I said to shock you, you 
 young Puritan ? " 
 
 Lifting her eyes, Patience made swift contrast between 
 Leleu's eager face and voice as he sent his message to 
 Arline, and the cold beauty of Arline^s laughing face as 
 she had spoken of her toys. Some sudden pity for the 
 man dreaming rosy dreams in the rosy city across the 
 channel gave her resolution to turn upon Arline with an 
 accent of grave rebuke. 
 
 " Arline," she said quietly ; " Mr. Leleu is not a toy." 
 
 Arline lifted her brows, and her violet eyes, albeit un- 
 softened, were lighted with merriment.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 43 
 
 " Not for you, perhaps," she retorted ; " but he is for 
 me that is," she rose and stood smiling down at the 
 intent face of her companion ; " for the present." 
 
 And, still smiling, she turned about and led the way 
 down the path towards the stile.
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 ND there is always Sir Morris," Patience suggested 
 hopefully. 
 
 " Rather ! As long as I was making up the party for 
 him," Jimmy assented. "That was one reason I'd have 
 liked Brooke to be here." 
 
 " And he really must go ? " 
 
 " Yes. He has some sort of an engagement in Ottawa. 
 I tried to persuade him to wait over till the next day ; but 
 it would be easier to move Ararat than change Brooke's 
 mind. 11 
 
 Patience laughed. 
 
 "Stanwood accomplished it, though. Your brother 
 was determined he should go, too ; but Stanwood told him 
 he had this engagement for to-morrow night, and would 
 follow him up, the next day. 11 
 
 "That's rather decent of Tyler, 11 Jimmy commented. 
 " One hates to have one's function go bad on one's hands." 
 
 " How many are there to be ? " Patience asked idly. 
 
 " Six." 
 
 " Seven, " Arline corrected him unexpectedly. 
 
 Jimmy whirled about on his heel. 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " he asked. 
 
 Arline pulled from her belt the bunch of late sweet 
 peas and nonchalantly twisted them this way and that in 
 her hands. 
 
 " Four of you men, Molly, Patience and I," she replied. 
 
 " But Brooke is n't coming." 
 
 " I know." Arline's tone was still indifferent ; but the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 45 
 
 colour was rising in her cheeks. " And so I asked Mr. 
 Leleu to go in his place. 11 
 
 " The deuce you did ! " Jimmy said explosively. 
 
 " Yes. I met him in the Ring, this morning, and he 
 asked if he might call, to-morrow night. Brooke had just 
 failed you, and I thought the simplest thing was to ask 
 Mr. Leleu to take his place. 11 
 
 Jimmy started to speak, checked himself, whistled in- 
 stead ; then said, with apparent mildness, 
 
 "Did it ever occur to you, Arline, that this was my 
 party? 11 
 
 " Of course. Don't be statuesque, Jimmy ; it is so 
 foolish. 11 
 
 " And that it was done for Sir Morris ? " 
 
 " Certainly. What has that to do with it ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; except that Leleu is a foreign element. 11 
 
 " So is Sir Morris, 11 Patience broke in lightly. 
 
 " Yes ; but this is to make him feel at home. Really, 
 Arline, I wish you would consult me before " 
 
 " Don't be overbearing, Jimmy. There was no time to 
 consult you. Besides, there was no reason. You had 
 been cross at Brooke because he would n't go ; now you 
 are cross at me because I have done my best to find a sub- 
 stitute to go in Brooke 1 s place. Really, you are very 
 unreasonable. Moreover, it is hardly polite to Patience, 
 to discuss this matter before her, 11 Arline concluded, with 
 a swift dexterity in placing her brother upon the defensive. 
 
 This time, Jimmy fairly lost control of himself. 
 
 " Oh, by Jove, Arline, what a contrary thing you are ! 11 
 he blurted out. " You knew it was my crowd, that I had 
 asked it and all that, and that I don't like Leleu a little 
 bit." 
 
 Arline snapped the heads from half a dozen of the 
 sweet peas in her hand ; but her voice was level, as she 
 answered,
 
 46 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Of course, Jimmy, if you feel like that, I shall be glad 
 to pay Mr. Leleu's share of the expense." 
 
 Jimmy took a hasty turn to the window and back, 
 digging his hands, the while, deep into the side pockets of 
 his short morning coat. Patience, watching him, judged 
 that it was time to interpose. As a rule, she held her 
 peace ; but it was a rare thing for Jimmy Lord to lose his 
 jovial, careless self-control. 
 
 " Who is Sir Morris, anyway ? " she asked. 
 
 "I fagged for him at Eton," Jimmy replied briefly. 
 
 Patience repressed a smile. It was so like a man, she 
 reflected, to take it out upon the unoffending woman. 
 Nevertheless, she persisted in her effort to bring Jimmy 
 back to his wonted mood of easy tolerance for all things. 
 
 " What is he doing here ? " she asked again. 
 
 " Seeing the country and studying the natives." 
 
 "Oh, then he has literary aspirations," Patience com- 
 mented promptly. 
 
 " No ; I fancy not. He was an awful duffer at Eton, a 
 good fellow enough and with a record in the boats later 
 on. He did n't know syntax from syncope, though, and he 
 licked me once for telling him to leave the d out of col- 
 lege, said a fag need n't put on such side." And Jimmy's 
 ill temper vanished, as he chuckled over the long-gone 
 episode. 
 
 Patience echoed his laugh. 
 
 "And now you're taking him to Everyman ! " she 
 said. 
 
 " Why not ? It 's mediaeval enough, even for a baronet 
 of sorts." 
 
 " Doubtless he would prefer Charley's Aunt? she sug- 
 gested. 
 
 Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Don't know the lady." 
 
 "That shows your ignorance, for she has an inter-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 47 
 
 national fame. She started with us ; but, the last I heard, 
 she had been done into modern Greek." 
 
 Jimmy's face cleared. 
 
 " Then she 'd be no good to Sir Morris. He was always 
 getting into disgrace on his Homer. That's how I hap- 
 pened to be out of the sixth form ahead of him. In fact," 
 Jimmy chuckled again ; " for all I know, he may be in the 
 sixth form still, and just over here on a holiday." 
 
 But Arline broke in impatiently. 
 
 " Jimmy, are you ever coming ? I have an engagement 
 at eleven. Were you coming out now, Patience ? " 
 
 Patience shook her head. 
 
 " I am going to run through Mother Goose and take a 
 dip into Alice" she said, laughing. " According to your 
 brother, to-morrow night's festivity is for the sake of 
 making Sir Morris feel at ease among strangers, and it 
 will be well to be ready to follow his conversational 
 lead." 
 
 Arline smiled tolerantly. She liked Patience, in spite 
 of her American sense of humour. 
 
 Later, as she walked away at Jimmy's side, some swift 
 revulsion in her mood led her to treat his opinions with the 
 courteous deference which, as a rule, she reserved for other 
 men than her brothers. And Jimmy, as always, showed 
 himself quick to forgive. Could the secret truth have 
 been known, he was much more penitent for his brief 
 showing of temper than was Arline for all the provocation 
 she had heaped upon him ; and, in his penitence, he was 
 ready to meet her overtures fully two-thirds of the way 
 across. Moreover, it was never too easy for him to with- 
 stand Arline, when she clothed herself in the gentle charm 
 of womanhood. At such times, her beauty dazzled him, 
 and the caressing intonations of her voice blotted out all 
 memory of the sharper accent of the hour before. And 
 Arline, upon her own side, was wholly sincere. So long as
 
 48 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 her friends bowed to her arrogant will, she gave them a 
 fervid affection. 
 
 Just as she parted from Jimmy at the corner of Louis 
 Street, she half paused and held out her hand. 
 
 " I 'm sorry I was cross, Jimmy,"" she said, with a certain 
 grave dignity which sat well upon her. " I was tired and 
 irritated and a bit unreasonable. No. Let ^s not speak 
 of it again," she went on, interrupting him as he was about 
 to reply. " It 's over ; there 's no use in going back to it. 
 The thing for us to do now is to make Sir Morris have the 
 best possible time, to-morrow night." She turned away ; 
 then she added casually and over her shoulder, " I suppose 
 Sir Morris is the genuine thing." 
 
 And Jimmy stayed his own steps long enough to 
 answer, 
 
 " Why, really, Arline, I never stopped to ask." 
 
 Then he betook himself up Louis Street to the club, 
 while Arline crossed the Ring on the way to Fabrique 
 Street and the shops. 
 
 The next night, the Tylers were the last ones to appear 
 in the box at the Auditorium. As was his way in society, 
 Stanwood was immaculate, grave, impenetrable. Patience, 
 on the other hand, was daintily alert, curious in regard to 
 Sir Morris whom she had not yet seen, and nervous in re- 
 gard to the attitude which it might please Arline to 
 assume. Mingled with her nervousness was a distinct sense 
 of pity for Leleu, innocent and ignorant cause of all the 
 dissension. The young Frenchman, in these autumn days, 
 was looking upon the situation quite simply. Secure in 
 the knowledge of his own family and social position, it 
 never once had occurred to him that the Brooke Lords 
 were receiving him with a mental reservation. To Arline 
 he had given frank, manly evidence of his regard for her. 
 She had met him cordially, had accepted his calls and his 
 occasional boxes of flowers, and, from the first, she had
 
 Hearts and Creeds 49 
 
 made no effort to check his growing devotion. Leleu's 
 code was simple to the verge of ancient chivalry. Watch- 
 ing Arline, he had felt no doubts of the final outcome of 
 their friendship. 
 
 Rather to her surprise, Patience found Leleu seated in 
 the corner of the box, behind Mrs. Brooke Lord's chair, 
 and Arline devoting herself to Sir Morris with an ex- 
 clusiveness of attention which vouchsafed no fraction of 
 its entirety to the crestfallen young Frenchman. Patience's 
 quick eye took in the scene at a glance : the droop of 
 Leleu's lip, the shadow in his dark eyes, the brave effort 
 he made to hold his mind upon the kindly nothings which 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord was babbling into his listless ears. It 
 was plain that something had hurt him to the quick ; and 
 Patience, as she greeted Arline, felt no doubt at all as to 
 the nature of that something. Arline was dazzling, that 
 night. Her gown of some clinging black stuff served as a 
 foil for her queenly figure and for the radiant colour of her 
 hair and eyes. Only a sapphire-studded chain broke the 
 simple lines and brought an added tint into the dark blue 
 eyes above. Arline's face, that night, was vividly content, 
 and her contentment was based upon the manifest admira- 
 tion of Sir Morris. Of one point, Patience assured herself 
 swiftly. There was no touch of coquetry in A rime's ab- 
 sorption in the tall young Englishman. Her forgetful 
 disregard of Amedee Leleu was as sincere as it was 
 obvious. For the hour, the Frenchman was completely 
 out of the running. 
 
 Turning her brother over to the care of Mrs. Brooke 
 Lord, Patience took advantage of the little stir which had 
 greeted their coming, to possess herself of the chair next 
 the one where Leleu had been sitting. Her intuition 
 proved to be correct. Leleu dropped down at her side, 
 with a heedless indifference which betrayed the fact that, 
 Arline elsewhere, it mattered little to him who occupied
 
 50 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 her place. Until the curtain rose, it needed all the tact 
 and determination of which Patience was mistress to lure 
 him out of his moody silence. She persevered, however, 
 for she liked Leleu and, under the critical eyes of Mrs. 
 Brooke Lord and Jimmy, she felt that it was imperative 
 for him to appear at his best. Since that summer day on 
 the Island, Patience had been wont to mount the defensive, 
 whenever Leleu's name was mentioned. It seemed to her, 
 now and then, as she thought the matter over, that it was 
 a bit unfair of Arline to insist upon introducing this alien 
 element to their lives, to force him upon the notice of her 
 family and upon their hospitality, and then leave to an- 
 other the task of speaking in his praise. Patience could 
 never fully determine whether Arline lacked the courage 
 of her convictions, or merely the convictions themselves. 
 
 The introductions over, Sir Morris had once more set- 
 tled himself at Arline's side ; and Patience, in her absorb- 
 ing interest in Leleu, scarcely vouchsafed a glance in the 
 direction of the stranger, until the rising of the curtain 
 freed her from the necessity for further talk. The atten- 
 tion of the others went directly to the actors. Patience, 
 however, had become so familiar with the quaint old 
 morality play that, at the first, it fell upon unheeding 
 ears. She merely settled back in her chair, smiled across 
 at Jimmy, glanced at the stage, at the house and then, 
 rather as an afterthought, at Sir Morris. 
 
 And yet, after all, Sir Morris Plante was well worth a 
 second glance. He was a huge blond boy with pink 
 cheeks and clean blue eyes and broad shoulders. Still in 
 the early twenties, he was as simple and direct as a child. 
 He was happy, and he showed it. He was eager and 
 enthusiastic, and he showed that, too. What he did not 
 show, however, Patience was shrewd enough to suspect: 
 that he would be hot-tempered and outspoken, but loyal 
 to the point of absolute self-annihilation. Of his sense of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 51 
 
 humour, she felt some doubt. For the rest, he was Sir 
 Morris Plante, late of London, and his haberdasher was an 
 artist of sorts. And then the grave contralto voice of 
 Everyman broke in upon her attention, and in the simple 
 tragedy, old, yet ever new, she forgot the rest. 
 
 A stir in the box aroused her, and mechanically she fol- 
 lowed the example of Mrs. Boooke Lord and rose to her 
 feet. Jimmy came forward with her cloak, while Sir 
 Morris deftly folded Arline's fur-lined wrappings about 
 her. 
 
 " Jolly little theatre you 've got here, 1 ' he observed then ; 
 " but, by Jove, I don't see what your play was driving at." 
 
 Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " It 's a bit like one of the Dean's sermons," he made 
 comment ; " takes a point we 'd all like to forget, hammers 
 it in from all sides and then clinches it so it can't get 
 away." 
 
 Stanwood Tyler drew a long breath of satisfaction. 
 
 " Morals, yes ; but the acting is superb. It is one of 
 the best things I have ever seen." 
 
 But Leleu still lingered, looking out across the empty 
 stage. The corners of his mouth drooped heavily, and 
 shadow was in his eyes. When at last he spoke, unknown 
 to himself, his words were French. 
 
 " Ah," he said ; " it is a leaf from the world-book of 
 tragedy." 
 
 And Patience, as she followed Mrs. Brooke Lord out to 
 the foyer, felt that each man's comment had revealed some- 
 what of his true nature. 
 
 Later, they gathered in an informal group about the 
 two end tables at Valiquet's, just beneath the crossed flags 
 which covered the rearmost wall. Mrs. Brooke Lord had 
 protested against this unconventional supper party, had 
 begged that it might be in her house, or at least at the 
 Chateau ; but Jimmy had held firm to his resolution. He
 
 52 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 knew Sir Morris of old ; he knew why Sir Morris had come 
 to Quebec ; he knew what Sir Morris would like. Accord- 
 ingly he had telephoned down for the two end tables to be 
 reserved for their coming, and he had taken pains that Sir 
 Morris should be seated with his back to the flags, looking 
 out across the gay bevy of dainty little French girls and 
 their escorts who supped and chattered about the other 
 tables. 
 
 The place had been full, when they entered. Arline, 
 gay, bewitching, yet imperious, had walked down the long 
 room, with a manifest disregard of the admiring glances 
 which met her from all sides. Patience had followed, 
 nodding to an acquaintance here and there, returning their 
 salutations with a gay good-humour which made Sir 
 Morris, close in the rear, register a hasty impression that, 
 after all, the American girl was the right sort, even if she 
 lacked the more dazzling charm of the sister of his old- 
 time fag. She was not much on looks, he reflected; but 
 she knew how to dress and she seemed a jolly little soul 
 that a fellow would like to talk to, when the steamer came 
 in without any home letters. Then, as he saw Arline 
 fumbling with the clasps of her cloak, he stumbled over 
 Patience's train, mumbled an apology as he edged past 
 her, and then once more forgot her presence entirely. 
 
 And, meanwhile, the groups about the other tables 
 paused in their supper and their talk, and gazed with 
 frank admiration at Arline, frank curiosity at Sir Morris, 
 frank interest at the others, the Tylers and Mrs. Brooke 
 Lord and Jimmy. Last of all in line came Leleu, his lips 
 still drooping, his eyes heavy with shadow ; and, as he 
 passed, his coming was greeted with swift raising of the 
 brows, with low- voiced wonder and question and comment. 
 It was no common thing for a man so distinctively French 
 in all his affiliations as was Leleu to be eating supper at 
 Valiquet's with a party which otherwise was wholly of the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 53 
 
 English set. From one end to the other of the French 
 set of the city, Leleu was known and liked. Accordingly, 
 his actions were sure to be subject to comment. Up to 
 that time, no one of his friends, and there were numbers 
 of them in the room, had had an inkling that Amedee 
 Leleu was ever known to mingle in the other life. He 
 knew the Tylers, of course ; but they were Americans, and 
 every one in town knew them. He had been seen on the 
 terrace and out on the Grande Alice, walking with Arline ; 
 but that might have been by chance. There was no pos- 
 sible element of chance, however, in his eating supper at 
 Valiquet's, at a table presided over by Jimmy Lord. And 
 the fact that he looked a low-spirited mute at a funeral 
 feast had no bearing on the subject whatsoever. 
 
 At length, Sir Morris pushed aside his plate, medita- 
 tively pulled at the string of his eyeglass until it came into 
 view above his immaculate linen, and fitted the glass into 
 his eye with that total lack of facial distortion which is at 
 once the jest and the admiration of all un-English peoples. 
 He took a prolonged and thoughtful survey of the room ; 
 then, lifting one eyebrow, he permitted the glass to fall 
 into his lap, as he turned to Arline. 
 
 " Ripping girls you have here, 11 he commented briefly. 
 "Who are they all? 11 
 
 Arline's lips curled slightly and she raised her own brows, 
 as she made answer, low, but loud enough for Leleu to 
 hear, 
 
 " Oh, they are all French Catholic girls, pretty, as you 
 say ; but I have no idea who they are. One never meets 
 them out anywhere, you know. 11 
 
 And in his room at the Chateau, that night, Sir Morris 
 Plante recorded his first note regarding the dominant race 
 in Canada.
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
 ACHILLE ST. JUST pulled down the top of his 
 desk, snapped the key in the lock and transferred 
 the key to his pocket. Then he looked at his watch. 
 
 " Four o'clock. I will go for a walk to make myself an 
 appetite for Mrs. Brooke Lord's dinner," he said aloud. 
 Then, with a glance about the room, he went out and 
 closed the door behind him. 
 
 Up-stairs, the presses were still pounding, for the news 
 of a railway accident in the States, coming late, had 
 rendered a second edition of the Cartier imperative. 
 Down the stairs behind him, a foreman was hurrying 
 towards the office, the long yellow galleys fluttering in his 
 hands and his intent face lined across with a smudge of 
 printer's ink. 
 
 " Monsieur ! " he called. " Monsieur St. Just ! " 
 
 But St. Just waved his hand towards the office. 
 
 " Monsieur Allard is within. Speak to him," he bade 
 the foreman. Then he passed out into the street. 
 
 In front of him, the old gray Basilica rose command- 
 ingly, its one tall spire dyed to a pinkish purple in the 
 light of the dropping sun. On the pavement just inside 
 its high iron fence, a bevy of English sparrows held con- 
 gress in shrill, insistent tones, pausing now and again to 
 cock up their heads and gaze superciliously out at the 
 passers in the street. St. Just, halting on the curb to light 
 a cigarette, shared somewhat of their superciliousness, as 
 he watched one man and then another lift his hat devoutly 
 when he came opposite the great central door leading to
 
 Hearts and Creeds 55 
 
 the nave and the high altar beyond. The first was a 
 gentleman, elderly and pompous ; the second was a man 
 from the markets, capped and clothed in shabby fustian. 
 
 "All alike!" St. Just muttered to himself. "All 
 these people are superstitious ; they have no brain nor 
 reason. They follow their priesthood as sheep follow the 
 bellwether." He shrugged his shoulders. " For me, when 
 I bow outside of any door, it will be the one on the 
 Grande Allee, or else across the way.' 1 And he glanced 
 over at the gray bulk of the City Hall which marked the 
 western boundary of the ancient market square. " It is 
 the artistic ending of the place," he added, still to him- 
 self. " Once the Jesuit Barracks looked over the market 
 place; now it is the Hotel de Ville. What would you 
 have? In the end, Church must always yield to State. 
 In France we are learning the lesson ; but here, bah ! 
 These Canadians pin their beliefs to the hem of the priestly 
 soutane and march onward, always a step in the rear of 
 their leader." Then he tossed his burnt-out cigarette into 
 the midst of the congress of sparrows, lighted another and, 
 turning up Du Fort Street, came out upon the end of the 
 terrace. 
 
 Just behind the Champlain statue, he met Leleu who, 
 tired with his long day in the Parliament Buildings, had 
 also sought the terrace for a breath of fresh air and a 
 glimpse of his kind. It had been one of the warm, mel- 
 low days that come now and then, even in the Canadian 
 October. The trees in the Ring were shorn of their leaves ; 
 but the setting sun lay yellow on the terrace and turned the 
 Beauport flats to a sheet of sapphire, the Levis heights to 
 a purplish flame. Already the lower town was in shadow, 
 save for the dome of the custom house and the square, 
 ugly bulk of the elevator near by. These, catching a glint 
 of sunshine on their lofty tops, formed the high lights of 
 a soft gray picture. In a sense, it was a bit of allegory :
 
 56 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the aged, straggling town dominated by these emblems of 
 commercial enterprise, lifting themselves from the gray 
 uncertainty of the Canadian dawn into the full sunlight 
 of its ripened day. Beyond was the basin and the St. 
 Charles, and, beyond again, the long white stripe of village 
 which stretches in an unbroken line from the beginning 
 of the Beauport flats on and on to the very foot of Cap 
 Tourmente at the end of the purple distance. 
 
 Leleu, passing along by the Chateau wall, was heedless 
 of the people about him. He returned their greetings 
 with mechanical punctiliousness; but his face failed to 
 lighten. To one watching, it was plain that his last 
 night's mood was still upon him. His day's work done, 
 he had escaped from the solitude of his office to the crowd 
 on the terrace ; but the crowd would bring him scanty 
 satisfaction. In his office and over his desk, he had 
 thought of Arline continually. On the terrace, he real- 
 ized too late, he would find no distraction in the throng, 
 save when some tall figure in the distance sent his heart 
 into his larynx, with the idea that it might be Arline. 
 In fact, although he had been unwilling to admit it, even 
 to himself, it had been the vague hope of meeting Arline 
 which had brought him out to the terrace. Instead, at the 
 back of the Champlain statue, he met Achille St. Just. 
 
 In his ordinary mood, Leleu would have felt no desire for 
 the society of St. Just. Now that society was doubly re- 
 pugnant to him. There was no escape, however. Before 
 Leleu had grasped the fact of the other man's presence, 
 St. Just had greeted him and familiarly linked his arm 
 in that of Leleu. 
 
 " What is it ?" he queried gayly, as he turned himself 
 and Leleu up the terrace which was full of idlers, loitering 
 there as if to bid farewell to the last belated bit of 
 summer. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " Leleu asked briefly.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 57 
 
 St. Just laughed. 
 
 " My dear fellow, you look as if you had buried all 
 your kin," he explained. " It is long since I have spoken 
 to you, and I was sure of a grand gossip. Instead, I 
 find you with your face all awry. Have you had bad 
 news ? " 
 
 Leleu shook his head. Then he roused himself and, 
 remembering St. Just's egotism, he sought to turn him 
 into another train of thought which should be more 
 savoury to them both. 
 
 " And you ? " he queried. " Are you prospering ? " 
 
 St. Just shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " As you will," he answered whimsically. " The Cartier 
 has gone to press, and it still continues to sell, in spite of 
 its narrow policy. Now and then I sharpen my pen and 
 add a dash of vinegar to my ink, and then it sells the 
 better. In time, perchance, I shall use a stiletto and dip 
 it in some biting acid, and then we shall see. But now it 
 is not too bad, nor yet too good. You Canadians are 
 sluggish of blood, chilled by your snows and fettered by 
 your priestly traditions." 
 
 Leleu, in turn, shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " What would you ? The tradition is good. Its power 
 is evident. Then why throw it off ? " 
 
 St. Just gave an expressive glance at the citadel above 
 his head. 
 
 "There are other traditions and other powers," he 
 observed sententiously. 
 
 For some unfathomable cause, Leleu felt irritated. 
 The words were simple. The tone was fraught with 
 meaning. 
 
 " Other, but weaker," he retorted sharply. " Look at 
 the city, the province. The rod is English ; but it is 
 wielded by French hands and, year by year, those hands 
 grow stronger."
 
 58 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 St. Just nodded a familiar greeting to an English sen- 
 ator. Then he said lightly, 
 
 " Dreams, my dear Leleu. You think of a return, per- 
 haps, to the old regime ; but it is impossible. Even in 
 Paris, we have ceased to hope it." 
 
 " And we in Canada have never wished it," Leleu 
 answered curtly. "The shadow never moves backward 
 on the dial. It is of no return to the old regime that we 
 dream ; but of a regime which shall be wholly new." 
 
 Again St. Just nodded familiarly, this time to a lawyer 
 of provincial fame. Leleu supplemented the nod with a 
 deferential bow. 
 
 " And that ? " St. Just queried, while he let go Leleu's 
 arm in order to light his third cigarette. 
 
 "And that," Leleu's voice dropped over the words ; 
 " that shall be wholly Catholic and wholly French." 
 
 St. Just tossed aside his match and snapped his fingers. 
 
 " A fig for your Catholic and a fig for your French, my 
 dear fellow ! Your new regime is upon you, and perma- 
 nent. It is wholly English and wholly Protestant. What 
 is more, it is bound to endure." 
 
 Leleu's thin lips straightened. 
 
 " We outnumber them," he said, with crisp brevity. 
 
 " And what good are your numbers ? A little local 
 legislation, perhaps ; but that is all. What have you 
 back of it ? Nothing. What have they ? An empire." 
 
 Leleu pointed to the scarlet spot above the King's 
 Bastion. 
 
 " And so had we an empire, when our army lowered its 
 colours from that very staff. Empires change ; but the 
 spirit of empire outlasts its form." 
 
 St. Just threw the end of his cigarette over the rail, 
 then felt in his pockets for box and matches. 
 
 " You are epic, my dear Leleu. Why waste your 
 breath on a smoked-out pipe ? "
 
 Hearts and Creeds 59 
 
 Leleos dark face flushed in hurt anger. He had 
 spoken earnestly, and his earnest convictions, he felt, were 
 no fit subject for ridicule. The lazy scorn in his com- 
 panion's tone cut him to the quick. 
 
 " The papal church is no exhausted power," he answered 
 a little sullenly. 
 
 St. Just laughed. 
 
 " Perhaps. It is hard to say. At least, it is exhausted 
 in France, however."" 
 
 " But not in Canada." 
 
 " Who knows ? But, even if we grant its power, and I 
 do not, you are walking in a circle and, before you 
 know it, you will be treading on my heels. Unless you 
 throw away all logic, you Canadians, you will have to 
 admit that your contest for a new regime leaves out 
 France entirely, and merely becomes a test of strength 
 between Rome and England, between Church and State. 
 Each will pull its hardest, and I "he laughed lightly ; 
 " and, in the end, I shall add my little strength to the 
 pull of the stronger." 
 
 And that," Leleu said shortly ; will be the Church." 
 
 " I doubt it. The chances are not even. England, the 
 State, has its own church ; Rome, the Church, must build 
 its state." 
 
 " And that," Leleu said shortly again ; " here in Canada 
 will be the French." 
 
 St. Just shrugged his shoulders and threw back his head. 
 
 " As you will," he answered gayly. " French or Eng- 
 lish, it matters little to me. I have put to sea in an open 
 boat, and, though rowing sharply, I have lashed my 
 rudder in order to follow the current." 
 
 A bit perversely, Leleu allowed his words to fall on a 
 silence, and the silence lasted from the statue to the 
 middle of one of the five kiosks. Then St. Just spoke 
 again.
 
 60 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "And, apropos of drifting with the current, Leleu, I 
 was at Valiquet's, last night." 
 
 This time, Leleu's flush was wholly of anger. 
 
 " What of that ? " he demanded. 
 
 St. Just laughed shortly. 
 
 " Merely that they say Brooke Lord has his eye on the 
 forestry legislation." 
 
 " What of that ? " Leleu demanded again. 
 
 " Merely that Brooke Lord can afford to buy whatever 
 it pleases him to wish." 
 
 Then Leleu's eyes blazed. 
 
 " What a devil you are, St. Just ! " he burst out angrily. 
 " Miss Lord had asked me to meet Sir Morris Plante. No 
 decent Frenchman would have a head for such beastly 
 slanders as yours." 
 
 " No decent Frenchman should be wholly an innocent," 
 St. Just retorted, with epigrammatic brevity. "Believe 
 me, Leleu, it may be the glove of Mademoiselle Lord you 
 are pressing in your eager fingers ; but it is her brother's 
 hand that is within. But, tell me, are you dining there, 
 to-night?" 
 
 " I am not." 
 
 " Strange. Sir Morris is to be there, and I hoped to 
 meet you, too. Or has Mademoiselle Lord turned way- 
 ward, perhaps ? You are going ? Not one more turn ? 
 Then au revoir, and pleasant dreams of your new regime ! " 
 And St. Just turned away down the terrace, while Leleu 
 mounted the steps and crossed the road into the Gov- 
 ernor's Garden, on his way to his room on Haldimand 
 Hill. 
 
 From the windows of the Tylers 1 library, Jimmy watched 
 him, and he felt a sudden pity for the listless droop of the 
 man's whole figure. 
 
 " Do you know, he 's not so bad a fellow," he said, with 
 thoughtful, grudging approval.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 61 
 
 Patience left her tray to care for itself and joined Jimmy 
 in the window. 
 
 " That is exuberant praise. Do you mean Mr. Leleu ? " 
 she asked, as her eyes followed Jimmy's glance. 
 
 " Yes, poor chap. He looks down on his luck." 
 
 "And, like a true Briton, you pity the under dog?" 
 she queried. " At least, I am glad of your conversion, 
 even if it is tardy." 
 
 Jimmy held up a warning hand. 
 
 " Now don't say * I told you so, 1 " he begged. " Fact 
 is, there 's no conversion. It 's not the man I hate so 
 much as it is his creed." 
 
 " But if he is sincere ? " Patience objected. 
 
 " Can't help it. I 'm Church of England," he argued. 
 
 " And I 'm Unitarian," she retorted. " You two ought 
 to join hands and leave me out. Nevertheless, I'd rather 
 be a loyal Catholic than a shaky Protestant, and " 
 
 " And ? " Jimmy queried lazily. 
 
 " And Mr. Leleu is loyal to the bottom half of his soul," 
 she concluded hotly. 
 
 At the farther side of the room, Sir Morris caught her 
 final words. 
 
 "That's another of your Americanisms," he said to 
 Arline a little plaintively. " At home we say tapped ; 
 but out here you talk about getting your boots half- 
 soled." 
 
 "I 'm no American, Sir Morris," she reminded him. 
 
 " But you live in America," he told her, with an odd 
 little accent of kindly explanation. 
 
 " In Canada," she corrected him. " Here we leave the 
 other name to the States. It seems to go with the croak- 
 ing eagle and the flapping flag." 
 
 Jimmy turned about and faced them. 
 
 " Be careful of your eagle, Arline," he warned her. 
 "You'll have him cawing next. It's only the niggers
 
 62 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 that jump Jim Crow. Miss Tyler's ancestors merely 
 plucked the tail feathers out of a bald eagle and mounted 
 them in their hats. Left bare at both extremities, no 
 wonder the poor thing shrieks a bit now and then." 
 
 But Patience interrupted him. 
 
 " You \e had too much sugar in your tea," she admon- 
 ished him pointedly. 
 
 " Do you know," Sir Morris addressed the room at 
 large ; " I can't seem to get hold of your political situa- 
 tion here." 
 
 Leleu had disappeared around the corner, and Patience 
 went back to her tray. 
 
 " That 's not peculiar to you, Sir Morris," she reassured 
 him, as she seated herself. 
 
 " You think not ? Then I ? m not such a duffer, after 
 all, perhaps," he answered a little eagerly. " Did you find 
 it bad, too, when you first came ? " 
 
 " Impossible," she said gravely. " In fact, I am only 
 beginning to grasp it now. Will you have another cup ? " 
 
 But Sir Morris, too absorbed in his subject to reply, 
 merely waved a dissenting hand. 
 
 " And what do you make of it now ? " he demanded. 
 
 A naughty light came into the eyes of Patience. 
 
 "That the Liberals talk faster and the Conservatives 
 louder," she responded, as she held out her hand for his 
 empty cup. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Tyler, what a beastly thing to say ! " Jimmy 
 remonstrated. " We Conservatives are not so noisy. We 
 just shut our teeth and do things." 
 
 " Exactly." Sir Morris spoke with sudden interest. 
 " But what is it that you do ? " 
 
 "The usual things, I suppose: commerce and labour 
 and public lands. Ask Miss Tyler. I'm no politician, 
 only a Conservative voter, you know." 
 
 Patience laughed.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 63 
 
 " I can sum it up in a word, Sir Morris, 11 she said 
 gayly. " It is Conservative to be English."" 
 
 "And what about the Liberals?" he asked, in some 
 perplexity. 
 
 " Oh, they are the other thing." 
 
 " And moreover," Jimmy added ; " they spend all their 
 days downing the very thing that we want most." 
 
 But Sir Morris harked back to Patience's explanation. 
 
 " And so," he asked ; " all the fellows I 'm meeting here 
 are Conservatives ? " 
 
 " Yes," Jimmy assented carelessly ; " or it amounts to 
 that." 
 
 Sir Moms shook his blond head. 
 
 " But, do you know, I 'd rather like to meet some of 
 the other sort," he observed. 
 
 " Mr. Leleu is a Liberal," Arline suggested quietly. 
 
 " Leleu ? The fellow with us, last night ? But he 
 does n't look oh, the other sort of thing, you know," 
 Sir Morris answered, in some surprise. 
 
 "He's not." Arline spoke with sudden decision. She 
 liked Sir Morris ; nevertheless, his accent irritated her. 
 She could see no reason that he should develop a share of 
 the general antipathy to Leleu. To her surprise, Jimmy 
 ranged himself upon her side. 
 
 " Leleu 's not a bad fellow," he said. " He is no end 
 well born and that, and they say he is a man who will bear 
 watching." 
 
 " Spoons ? " Patience interpolated, with perfect outward 
 gravity. 
 
 " No ; his career," Jimmy explained, with the literalness 
 which assailed him at times. " The only things against 
 him are his religion he's Catholic " 
 
 Sir Morris interrupted him incredulously. 
 
 " That fellow ! Believes in the Virgin, and uses a rosary, 
 and all those things ! "
 
 64 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Again Arline spoke, and her voice was sharper. 
 
 " Why not ? " she demanded. " At least, he is sincere." 
 
 Jimmy ignored the accent on the pronoun. 
 
 " No reason ; only it is a bit out of our line."" 
 
 Arline shut her hands together impatiently. 
 
 " Then the more shame to us for our narrowness." 
 
 "It's not narrowness exactly," Jiinmy argued, his hands 
 in his pockets. " It "s only that we Ye not so used to it. 
 As a rule, it does n't get into our set." 
 
 Arline rose and crossed the room to the window where 
 she paused, tapping her fingers against the pane. 
 
 " Then it is time our set broadened," she said abruptly. 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 " It 's broadening fast enough as it is. And, when you 
 come right down to the fact of it, Arline, you know you ""d 
 never care to come into close quarters with the Catholics." 
 
 His words, carelessly spoken, sent the scarlet blood into 
 his sister's cheeks. She turned to face him, and her dark 
 blue eyes were blazing angrily. 
 
 " Your assertions are too sweeping, Jimmy," she replied 
 haughtily. " As far as my own likings are concerned, it 
 makes no difference at all to me whether a man is Catho- 
 lic or Protestant." 
 
 Sir Morris opened wide his frank blue eyes. As a rule, 
 the women he had known in society were prone to have 
 their nerves under better control than this. He made a 
 ponderous effort at a joke. 
 
 " Or a Liberal ? " he asked. 
 
 She whirled about and faced him, and he felt his colour 
 come, as he met her angry eyes. Patience sought to inter- 
 vene ; but it was too late. 
 
 " Or a Liberal," Arline answered him. Then there came 
 into her voice the ring of defiant scorn, as she went on, 
 " The chief difference between the parties here, Sir Morris, 
 is this : the Conservatives work for the glorification of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 65 
 
 English society, and the Liberals toil for the real advantage 
 of the country."" She stooped to pick up her sable collar 
 which had fallen to the floor. " Come, Jimmy,"" she added 
 coldly. "It is time we were going home. I promised 
 Molly I would see about the flowers." And, with a curt 
 nod of farewell, she was gone. 
 
 Sir Morris, as he walked away to the terrace, was 
 thoughtful, and his thoughts were on Arline. At length, 
 he summed them up aloud and briefly. 
 
 " Beastly form to get red in the face over a thing like 
 that ! " he observed. And then, quite irrelevantly, he 
 wondered who would sit next to Patience at dinner, that 
 night. 
 
 And meanwhile Leleu, in his room on Haldimand Hill, 
 was sitting with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his 
 hands. For the hour, his thoughts were not of Arline, 
 nor yet of Patience. He was regretting, to the core of 
 his honest, loyal soul, the exceeding frankness with which 
 his momentary depression had led him to speak to Achille 
 St. Just. Some men are born to receive confidence ; others 
 only desire it. Of those others, St. Just was a type.
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 ABOVE the fountain in the Ring, the snow lay heaped 
 in an irregular cone. The Grande Allee was com- 
 paratively clear; but down in St. Sauveur, the packed 
 roadways were on a level with the second-story windows, 
 and the sidewalks mere narrow tunnels which rose at the 
 crossings like a species of stile whose steps were chiselled 
 in the solid ice. Across the terrace, the long toboggan 
 slide stretched down from high on the glacis ; and by 
 night its close lines of electric lamps showed a jovial, 
 albeit motley throng of humanity, so bundled in coats of 
 blanket and coon and curly black lamb that their caste 
 distinctions were wellnigh obliterated. The river was a 
 sea of floating cakes of ice, driven hither and thither by 
 the ebb and flow of the tide, now uniting in a level sheet, 
 now shattered by the bows of the plucky little ferry-boats 
 that crunched their way to and fro across its grinding sur- 
 face. The skies were cold and gray, or barred by streaks 
 of watery sunshine, and the distant Laurentides had turned 
 from blue to silver beneath their high-piled heaps of snow. 
 Christmas had come and gone, and January and mid- 
 winter were upon the land. 
 
 To Patience, accustomed to the chilly dampness of the 
 New England coast, winter seemed the crowning glory of 
 the Quebec year. Capped with a fur-bound toque, the 
 collar of her seal jacket turned up about her ears and her 
 fists plunged deep inside her muff, she revelled in cold and 
 storm, railing loudly, the while, at the local matrons who 
 either made themselves into unsightly bundles of wraps
 
 Hearts and Creeds 67 
 
 and overstockings and things they called creepers, or else 
 remained at home in the stuffy atmosphere behind their 
 double windows. No matter what was the day, Patience 
 was sure to be abroad. She walked and drove ; she defied 
 the morgue-like air of the rink until she became an expert 
 curler ; she learned to manage her own toboggan on the 
 big slide at Bureau's, and her soft white blanket suit with 
 its dashes of scarlet and black was generally to be seen 
 far towards the van of the procession, when the snowshoe 
 club went out for a run across the windy Cove Fields and 
 the Plains beyond. Trim, dainty, happy and wellnigh 
 indefatigable, she was the constant centre of a shifting 
 throng, and, in the heart of the throng, there were two 
 unshifting factors, Jimmy Lord and Sir Morris Plante. 
 
 And Patience accepted their society quite as a matter of 
 course, let them tie on her snowshoes and hand her her 
 broom and carry her toboggan up the steps, all with an 
 off-hand good-fellowship which bespoke her perfect willing- 
 ness to perform a similar service for them. Then she went 
 home and, above their chafing-dish, she talked it all over 
 with Stanwood whose professional work, that winter, left 
 him scant time for any but the more perfunctory duties of 
 his social life. 
 
 Of Arline, she saw surprisingly little. The death of an 
 ancient aunt had debarred Mrs. Brooke Lord from enter- 
 taining, that season. Patience dropped in often at the 
 house on the Grande Allee ; but, as a rule, she went 
 directly to Mrs. Brooke Lord's sitting-room, and lingered 
 there until it was time to hurry away, with only a brief 
 word to Arline in the hall below. Arline had never cared 
 for the winter sports of the place ; so, for the most part, 
 the two girls met only at some social function, or when, 
 once or twice a week, Arline dropped in at the Tylers' 
 library for a cup of tea and a welcoming word. And 
 beside the teatray, in these latter days, were always her
 
 68 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 brother Jimmy or else Sir Morris Plante, and, drawn up 
 before the blazing fire, as an invariable adjunct of the 
 scene, were the knitting work and cap and shoulder shawl 
 of Madame Hawkins-Smith whom Patience had seen fit to 
 annex of late as a sort of supernumerary chaperon. 
 
 " I can't turn the boys into the cold streets, such weather 
 as this," she had observed to Stanwood, one night. 
 " Madame Hawkins-Smith is right here in the house ; she 
 hates Jimmy, and she is a shocking gossip. All in all, I 
 think she is as formidable a bodyguard as I could have, 
 and, poor soul, she has Bat Chop tastes on a green-tea 
 income. It "s a quid pro quo on both sides, and it "s 
 worth the quo to see Jimmy's face, when he hands her 
 her cup." 
 
 Arline, that winter, was a mystery, even to herself ; and 
 the mystery concerned itself wholly with her attitude 
 towards Amedee Leleu. As a matter of sentiment, the 
 young Frenchman suited her entirely. He was courteous, 
 kindly, distinctly lovable. His tact and devotion never 
 failed him ; for long months, he had been quietly sub- 
 ordinating his every wish to the pleasure of Arline, and it 
 was impossible for any girl, however wayward and cold, to 
 disregard his steady loyalty. And Arline, however way- 
 ward, was not cold. Weigh and reason as she would, the 
 value of her preliminary calculations was usually lost by a 
 swift wave of emotion which swept her far out to sea from 
 the prudent headland where she had taken her stand, so 
 far that she could regain her former position with neither 
 dignity nor safety. One such wave had seized her, the day 
 she had assured Jimmy, in the hearing of Sir Morris, that 
 Leleu's Catholicism counted for naught in her eyes. After- 
 wards, she had been too proud to retract her statement. 
 Rather than that, she had chosen to modify her attitude 
 to Leleu into agreement with it. And then another wave 
 had come, and yet another. And always, as she emerged
 
 Hearts and Creeds 69 
 
 from them, she saw Leleu before her, smiling a little, as he 
 held out a beckoning hand. Of all her friends, that fall 
 and winter, Leleu alone had never once aroused the op- 
 position of her imperious nature. It was not that he was 
 anaemic, however ; it was merely the result of his un- 
 swerving, generous devotion, of his tact which gave him 
 the instinct to avoid all points of possible antagonism. 
 
 Now and then, however, usually when she had been at 
 some function from which the French element was con- 
 spicuously lacking, Arline's intellect asserted itself and 
 warned her of possible points of danger upon which she 
 was inevitably drifting. It assured her that Leleu, as a 
 man, was above criticism ; but that Leleu, as a Catholic 
 Frenchman, was encumbered with a fringe of corollaries. 
 As time went on, these corollaries became more insistent ; 
 their very insistence bore witness to the increasing hold 
 which Leleu was gaining upon her life. She realized this 
 to the full, and she usually set herself to work to give her 
 intellect full sway. The end of the mood was unvarying 
 and wellnigh inevitable. A chance word to Jimmy or to 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord brought up the subject of Leleu, and 
 their half-veiled antagonism to the thought of his con- 
 nection with Arline roused Arline's own antagonism to the 
 very dictates of her intellect. From her tiny childhood, 
 Arline had never yielded to opposition. It merely 
 strengthened her will to accomplish her end at any price, 
 at any sacrifice. Had Jimmy Lord but known it, he was 
 the most potent factor, just then, in determining the 
 equation of his sister's life ; and next to Jimmy in potency 
 were the occasional workings of Arline's own intellect. 
 
 Nevertheless, Arlines sense of attraction towards Leleu 
 was emotional, not passionate. Leleu was the most en- 
 joyable man upon her present horizon, not the most enjoy- 
 able man she ever had met, or ever could meet. Had he 
 been an inconspicuous member of her own social set, albeit
 
 70 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 endowed with the same personality, she would scarcely 
 have vouchsafed him a second thought. Regarded as an 
 outsider, received among them upon sufferance, she en- 
 dowed his simple, straightforward nature with all manner 
 of psychological complications, and worshipped him ac- 
 cordingly. Furthermore and beyond all else, though 
 scarcely admitted even to herself, she had stored up in 
 some remote convolution of her brain the words of Brooke 
 Lord, spoken as they had left the terrace, that moonlight 
 night in June. Brooke Lord was not a man to be en- 
 thusiastic ; but even he had phrased the belief that Amedee 
 Leleu was a man worth watching. 
 
 Since that October afternoon when Patience had inad- 
 vertently brought into prominence Leleu's politics, and so 
 betrayed Arline into a plain definition of her own social 
 tenets, Sir Morris had made an abrupt about-face turn. 
 For full twenty hours, Arline Lord had seemed to him a 
 revelation. In the twenty-first hour, she actually became 
 to him a revelation, and the second revelation was by no 
 means pleasing. From that time onward, he delighted in 
 Arline as in a beautiful picture, feared her not a little and 
 adored her not at all. Not even Jimmy, accustomed as he 
 was to the outbursts of Arline, could have imagined the 
 swift revulsion of feeling which Sir Morris was destined to 
 experience, that day. Afterwards, he realized its effect ; 
 but he attributed it less to a disappointment in Arline 
 than to a tardy discovery that Patience Tyler was a girl 
 of uncommon poise and charm. Moreover, strange to 
 say, the discovery in Jimmy's eyes added ten-fold to the 
 social value of Sir Morris Plante. After all, Jimmy was 
 observing to himself by the first weeks in January, Sir 
 Morris was not altogether the duffer he had given promise 
 to be. 
 
 Sir Morris, meanwhile, was enjoying life to the full, that 
 winter. People liked him. It was impossible to do other-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 71 
 
 wise, when one looked into his clean blue eyes and listened 
 to his deep, rumbling laugh. Sir Morris might not be a 
 genius ; but he was very much a man, and society wel- 
 comed him accordingly. As a matter of theory, Sir Morris 
 was studying certain phases of the Canadian trade rela- 
 tions ; as a matter of fact, he danced and dined and went 
 in for the sport of the hour, whether the sport accom- 
 plished itself by means of a bag of golf clubs or by a pair 
 of tawny moccasins and of scarlet-fringed snowshoes. 
 
 " What if I do come a cropper now and then ? "" Sir 
 Morris observed philosophically, the first time he was 
 hauled out of a drift in the lee of the wall of the jail. 
 " It 's the custom of the country I 'm after ; and, by Jove, 
 I'll have it in time." And, upright once more, he went 
 floundering away upon the fleet heels of Patience Tyler, 
 who had the superhuman tact to avoid both mockery and 
 pity in the welcome she accorded him. 
 
 And Jimmy, by her other side, also forbore to utter 
 derisive comment, although the spectacle of Sir Morris, 
 prostrate and with his legs agitating themselves in futile 
 circles, had been a source of spiritual refreshment to Sir 
 Morrises quondam fag. 
 
 And so the careless, merry, bracing days were speeding 
 by, and midwinter was upon the land. 
 
 Then came one brilliant Sunday afternoon, when the 
 snow-locked city lay a-dazzle in a sunlight that wrapped 
 its stern gray walls in a rosy haze and capped each church 
 and convent with a blazing cross of flame. All the world 
 was out-doors, that afternoon, and Arline, as she came 
 down the steps and turned up the Grande Allee, found 
 herself one of a long procession which stretched straight 
 from the Chateau wall past the toll gate, past Spencer 
 Wood and on to Sillery Church, mounted sentinel-wise to 
 look down upon the river flowing beneath its walls. 
 
 Arline was alone. No ordinary pressure could induce
 
 72 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord to forego her midday nap. Jimmy and 
 Sir Morris in a vast sleigh, plume-decked and heaped 
 with rugs, had driven off in the direction of the Cape, and 
 Brooke Lord admitted to a constitutional prejudice 
 against physical exercise in any form, so Arline set out 
 alone. 
 
 Leleu overtook her outside the toll gate. It occurred 
 to him, in thinking it over afterwards, that he met her 
 upon the selfsame spot where, seven months before, he had 
 first fallen into step at her side. For the time being, 
 however, he was far too much in earnest to think of such 
 slight details. His mind was fixed upon one question, 
 and that question concerned itself solely with the future 
 of Arline and of himself. 
 
 The girl glanced over her shoulder, as Leleu's voice 
 sounded in her ears. She started slightly and smiled a 
 welcome ; and it seemed a matter of course to them both 
 that Leleu should fall into step beside her. The ease 
 with which he did so betokened his frequent habit. But, 
 as was by no means habitual between them, their eyes 
 dropped apart, and then silence fell. 
 
 Arline broke the silence resolutely. Leleu's eyes were 
 glowing ; his lips, pressed close together, showed no trace 
 of his usual smile ; his hands, buried from sight in the 
 pockets of his fur-lined coat, were clinched into fists, and 
 the thumbs were shut inside the fists. Arline^s breath 
 came short. She was too much a woman not to know 
 what crisis was before her and, face to face with the crisis, 
 she was surprised to find its corollaries assuming undue 
 prominence. They even gave her a swift dislike of the 
 brown Franciscan friar who went plodding past them, his 
 girdle of knotted cords beating softly against his side with 
 every step of his bare red feet. For the moment, it 
 seemed to her not only that Leleu himself stood for that 
 and for infinitely more besides, but that he was mutely
 
 Hearts and Creeds 73 
 
 asking for her to stand for it, too. She shivered slightly 
 and quickened her pace, as she broke into voluble de- 
 scription of the matinee to which she had gone with 
 Patience, only the day before. 
 
 Quietly and without interruption, Leleu heard her 
 to the end. The end was slow in coming. It lasted to 
 the cemetery gate, and back almost to the Belvedere ; 
 but Leleu made no attempt to hasten it. Instead, he 
 allowed it to drop into a silence so profound that Arline 
 found herself paralyzed and unable to break its throbbing 
 hush. Then, at length, Leleu spoke, simply, as was his 
 wont. 
 
 " Miss Lord," he said, while, deep in his pockets, the 
 knots of his fists grew tighter ; " it is well that I have met 
 you here. I have much to say, much to ask. I per- 
 haps I can do it better in the open air and with you alone. 
 Is it that you are willing to listen and hear me ? "" 
 
 Arline hesitated, caught her breath, looked at him 
 imploringly. The crisis had come. She had known it 
 was coming, had braced herself to meet it, only to find 
 that she was no more ready to meet it than she had been, 
 months before. It involved much, she knew. Vaguely 
 she felt that it would involve still more, that upon the 
 known corollaries hung yet other corollaries of which as 
 yet she did not dream. She held herself steady, unyield- 
 ing ; but she allowed herself to meet the eyes of Leleu, and 
 instantly there flashed into her own eyes a tenderness such 
 as they rarely knew. Again she steadied herself; but, 
 without her willing it, already the crisis was past. In her 
 ears was the echo of her own voice, saying quietly, 
 
 " Yes, I am willing."" 
 
 And with her permission Leleu spoke, quietly no 
 longer, but, now that constraint was ended, with a fiery 
 passion which betrayed his strain of Gascon blood. And 
 Arline, listening, strove in vain to stem the tide of his
 
 74 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 pleading, strove, too, to quiet the beating of her own 
 wilful, turbulent heart. 
 
 At last Leleu straightened his shoulders, swept back- 
 ward his hands in a sudden wave of self-assertion, and 
 turned again to face her. 
 
 " I know what you would say, what you think,"" he said 
 rapidly. " You are English and Protestant ; I am Cath- 
 olic and French. We are of two races, two creeds. The 
 difference is there. It is idle to deny. What matter ? 
 In spite of creed, in spite of blood, our hearts are alike ; 
 each goes to seek the other. The rest is easy. What 
 matters creed or blood to those who love each other ? " 
 
 And once more Arline caught her breath ; but she 
 suffered the question to fall, unanswered, across the 
 silence. 
 
 It was not until they were passing the Franciscan con- 
 vent that Leleu spoke again. Above their heads, the bell 
 was sending down its mellow call to prayer, and his voice 
 seemed to have caught and held something of its deep- 
 toned quiet. 
 
 " It is the hour of Benediction," he said briefly. " Will 
 you, too, come inside the chapel ? " 
 
 Arline's sharp intake of the breath showed her relief. 
 Her silence had been of baffled argument, not of consent. 
 The interval spent in the chapel would give her time to 
 collect anew her forces. It would be hard to lose Leleu 
 as a lover ; it would be wellnigh impossible to accept him 
 as a husband. If only he had been a Protestant, or even 
 an avowed agnostic like St. Just! And yet, as he had 
 said, what matter? She followed him up the aisle and 
 into a pew where, kneeling, she bowed her head until the 
 soft fur of her muff had shut out sight and sound, and 
 forced her back upon the fight that raged within her. 
 
 It was long before she was able to take any account of 
 the thoughts which rushed through and through her brain
 
 Hearts and Creeds 75 
 
 so swiftly that, as one apart from herself, she longed to 
 thrust a stick among the jarring wheels of her conscious- 
 ness and force them out of their relentless whirring. Then, 
 of a sudden, she opened her eyes and sat erect. The whirring 
 was ended ; the spiritual dizziness had gone. She merely 
 sat there, quiet, waiting, still as one apart from herself, to 
 see what would happen next. And, by her side, Leleu 
 still knelt, motionless save for the quivering of the slim, 
 dark hands that hid his face from Arline's sight. 
 
 Up in the gallery above her head, the organ was sob- 
 bing softly. Through the low door at the left of the 
 chancel, the white-robed nuns came gliding in, two by 
 two, two by two, their heads bent and their hands clasped 
 beneath their filmy veils. For one short instant, they 
 paused to kneel and kiss the floor before the altar where 
 knelt the two still figures in perpetual adoration ; then 
 they flitted away to their seats in the dim chancel, and 
 more came after them, and yet more. 
 
 The sermon, preached by chance by the same burly 
 friar she had met outside, fell upon unheeding ears. Me- 
 chanically, Arline was taking account of all the artistic 
 detail of the place : of the tall white pillars lightened here 
 and there with slender columns of pink and green, of the 
 deep red hangings, of the tiny dots of light tipping the 
 candles clustered at the shrines, of the yellow globes of 
 the altar lamps, of the kind, grave face of Saint Anthony, 
 cuddling the Baby Jesus on his arm, and of the brown- 
 frocked friar whose face and robes stood out in rugged 
 austerity from among the dainty little nuns who filled the 
 chancel. And all these were the corollaries. 
 
 Abruptly she returned to conscious thought. The ser- 
 mon was ended. The preacher had left the chancel only 
 to return, his coarse brown frock exchanged for glisten- 
 ing white robes, stiff 7 with threads of gold and silver. 
 Reverently he drew near the altar, bowing in prayerful
 
 76 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 homage before its shadowy whiteness. Then of a sudden 
 the high white chapel was flooded with a blaze of light, 
 glaring down from the arches above, glowing out through 
 the translucent altar until the whole place was gleaming 
 like the heart of a gigantic opal. And, meanwhile, down 
 from behind the low white screen before the organ there 
 floated the thin, sweet voices of the nuns, 
 
 OA, Salutaris Hostia, 
 Quae coeli pandis ostium. 
 
 The silence dropped again, and Arline felt her breath 
 come short. 
 
 It came shorter yet and shorter, as the priest slowly 
 mounted the steps before the altar, lifted the sacred mon- 
 strance and held it above the kneeling congregation. Only 
 the solemn note of the bell and the faint clashing of the 
 chains of the censer broke a stillness which, to Arline, 
 seemed to have been ordained aforetime for the mere sake 
 of letting her count the throbbings of her heart. Then, 
 in the stillness, she felt Leleu's fingers close about her 
 hand, as it lay on the rail before her. For an instant, her 
 own fingers lay rigid in his clasp. Then they relaxed, and 
 yielded to the pressure.
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 , the devil! 1 ' Jimmy observed to his razor, next 
 morning. " It 's all set up, ready to go to press, 
 as soon as they can get a dispensation from the Pope. 
 Dispensation ! Arline ! As if the fellow did her a favour 
 to marry her, and had to get permission for it ! Man pro- 
 poses, and then the Pope dispenses ; and she 11 be mar- 
 ried in the back kitchen of the Basilica by a priest in a 
 black smock frock without any white lace overskirt. Oh, 
 damn ! " And he cast aside his razor and sought cold 
 water and a towel. 
 
 It had been late, the night before, when Arline had left 
 her room and come down to the library where the Brooke 
 Lords and Jimmy sat talking before the fire. Brief as 
 was her announcement that she had promised to marry 
 Amedee Leleu, nevertheless it had aroused a storm of 
 opposition. Contrary to her custom, however, Arline 
 passed through the storm without sharing in its fury. 
 Cold and pale and very quiet, she waited for its ceasing. 
 Then she merely reiterated her determination, rose and 
 went away again up the stairs and into her own room. 
 The fire of her emotion seemed to have burnt itself out to 
 ashes, and the ashes had whitened past the possibility of 
 being stirred once more to a glow. The struggle had 
 come earlier, out on the Grande Allee, in the Franciscan 
 chapel, on the twilight walk towards home when Leleu's 
 fervent words had branded themselves on her mind and 
 seemed to seal her once and forever as his own. She had 
 yielded herself wholly to the fire of his love ; like a tired
 
 78 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 child, she was glad to turn away from the struggle and 
 its corollaries, and rest in the strength of his devotion, 
 secure in his loyalty and happy in his happiness. And 
 then, just as they were parting at the door, he had spoken 
 other words, strange words to Arline, and fraught with 
 sinister suggestion. Dispensation had been one of them, 
 and it had sent Arline away to her room, to begin her 
 struggle all anew. 
 
 The outcome of it was inevitable, however. The past 
 was over; it had left her weary and apathetic. The 
 present was intoxicating, and, under its spell, the future 
 grew dim before her eyes. The dispensation was a mere 
 detail of form. It was enough that Leleu was Leleu, and 
 loved her, and that the whole gentler side of her nature 
 triumphed in the possession of his love. She bathed her 
 eyes, rearranged her disorded hair and went down to the 
 library to brave the inevitable storm. 
 
 " It 's not Leleu himself that I mind," Jimmy said to 
 Patience, the next afternoon. " He 's a good fellow and a 
 gentleman. I'm not too sure he 's not fully good enough 
 for Arline. Molly makes a row because he 's French. 
 It's not quite that with me, either. Of course, I like the 
 English better ; but I strongly suspect that Leleu's family 
 tree is black oak, when mine is nothing but scrub." 
 
 Patience nodded. 
 
 " I 've always liked Mr. Leleu," she said. 
 
 Jimmy laughed shortly. 
 
 "A long way better than you have Arline," he sug- 
 gested. 
 
 "N no." Patience fibbed bravely, for she saw the 
 trouble in Jimmy's eyes, and she knew that it was by no 
 means the first time the trouble had come there by reason 
 of Arline. " I do like your sister ; it is only that I am 
 not like her." 
 
 Again Jimmy laughed shortly.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 79 
 
 " Thank heaven for that ! " he interrupted and, for the 
 first time in their acquaintance, Patience heard a ring of 
 real bitterness in his honest voice. 
 
 " But, after all," Patience queried, after a pause ; " what 
 is your objection to Mr. Leleu ? " 
 
 " His religion," Jimmy made answer, with morose 
 brevity. 
 
 " But why ? " Patience asked him. " Of course, he is 
 a Catholic ; but he is so honest and sincere about it all. 
 What difference does it really make ? " 
 
 But Jimmy answered with a question. 
 
 "Miss Tyler, have you ever lived much in a Catholic 
 country ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "No; only here. But I can see that it makes all the 
 difference in the world ; you have so many here." 
 
 " Yes," Jimmy echoed gravely ; " it does make all the 
 difference in the world. We, who are born facing it, 
 know the difference, too, for what it's worth." 
 
 Patience drew her warm finger-tip across the frosted 
 window pane, then watched the frosty crystals creep up 
 and cover the gash. 
 
 " It amounts to that ! " she said then. 
 
 But Jimmy tore his time card straight across. 
 
 " No," he said ; " it amounts to this, when it comes into 
 the life of a Protestant woman. She remains a Protestant ; 
 but she is wedded by the Catholic church and welded into 
 it. She is torn across and across, and taken away from the 
 roots of her old life and grafted upon a new. Sometimes 
 she takes root there and grows and blossoms. Sometimes 
 she just withers and dries away, and then it is an end of 
 everything. Are you ready ? Come." And he rose to 
 his feet. 
 
 The vivid sunshine of the day before had been followed 
 by gray, cold clouds. The city walls, in the dun-coloured
 
 80 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 light, were dark and sinister and dreary. Out in the 
 country, the snow-clad fields and the ice-locked river 
 stretched away like polished sheets of steel, and, to the 
 northward, the mountains rose in a dark blue line that 
 heralded a coming storm. Rarely did the clutching 
 hand of winter hold the place in a ruder grasp. For 
 the hour, the physical cold was as nothing in comparison 
 with the chill depression wrought by the forbidding, 
 sunless sky. 
 
 Jimmy's mood, that day, matched the sky. Neverthe- 
 less, he had fulfilled his engagement to take Patience out 
 to the Falls for an afternoon of sliding. There would be 
 a certain relief in the physical exercise ; there would be an 
 even greater relief in the society of Patience, in talking 
 things over with her and in viewing them with her sane 
 and steady gaze. 
 
 The morning had been an endless one to Jimmy. For 
 the first time in his life, he had found Molly in a fractious 
 mood, when he had met her at the breakfast table. 
 Arline had been heavy-eyed and listless, and Brooke had 
 bolted his food and fled away to his office, eager to escape 
 the surcharged atmosphere. Once and for all and ex- 
 plicitly he had said his say, the night before. Brooke 
 Lord might be prosy and ponderous ; but at least he 
 lacked the vice of useless iteration. 
 
 While Jimmy and Arline yet lingered at the table, Mrs. 
 Brooke Lord had excused herself on the plea of giving 
 needful orders to her cook. Left to themselves, the 
 brother and sister had faced an awkward pause. Then 
 Jimmy had suddenly bent forward and laid his hand upon 
 Arline's, as he said, with the tenderness only a large man 
 can ever show, 
 
 " Arline, old girl, you know I care no end about you and 
 all that, that I 'd give my ears for the sake of helping you 
 on. I 'm deuced sorry for you, sorry about it all ; but
 
 Hearts and Creeds 81 
 
 I like Leleu, you know ; he 's a good little fellow but, 
 after all, do you think it 's quite worth while ? " 
 
 He felt the answering clutch of Arline's cold fingers. 
 Then she drew away from him and buried her face in her 
 hands. 
 
 " Oh, if I only knew ! " she answered brokenly. " It is 
 all so tangled together, and I Jimmy, it 's no use. I 
 love him, and I Ve given my word." 
 
 And with the pitiful, wailing note still sounding in his 
 ears. Jimmy pushed back his chair, rose and laid one hand 
 on her hair. 
 
 " Arline," he said slowly ; " this is no light matter. You 
 know all that it implies. I want you to do the right thing 
 and to be happy, want it for your sake and for the sake of 
 the dear old pater. But, back of it all, the matter rests 
 between Leleu and you. If you love him the way you 
 should, the way he deserves to be loved, the rest won't 
 make any difference. If you don't, and are going into 
 this thing with your eyes wide open, then heaven help you ! 
 Once for all, make up your mind just where you stand. 
 Then, wherever it is, so long as you 're honest, I '11 stand 
 beside you." 
 
 The hush was broken only by Arline's long, sobbing 
 breaths. Then even that sound ceased and all was quiet. 
 Jimmy waited a little longer, his hand still resting on her 
 hair. At length he turned away and shut the door behind 
 him. 
 
 Those of Jimmy's friends who met him abroad, that 
 morning, wondered at his absorption in himself, at the 
 absence of his usual jovial smile. At nightfall, when his 
 poise had been somewhat restored by his long afternoon 
 with Patience in the open air, he smiled grimly to himself 
 as he recalled the many miles of pavement he had covered 
 in his restless, aimless wandering. Towards noon, crossing 
 from Fabrique Street to Buade, he yielded to some sudden
 
 82 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 impulse and, entering the Basilica, he sat down in one of 
 the middle pews and gave himself over to wondering how 
 it would feel to be an integral part of the congregation 
 who gathered there to share its pompous ritual. In the 
 dull winter midday, the arches draped themselves in sombre 
 shadow, and the chancel, lighted only by the undying lamp 
 of the inner sanctuary, was wrapped in a gloom as heavy as 
 that which wrapped his mood. Dimly through the gloom, 
 he could make out the figure of a priest moving to and fro 
 before the high altar. Once the clatter of a falling book 
 echoed across the silence. Then the silence dropped 
 heavily over the heavy gloom, and Jimmy rose and hastily 
 sought the door. The silence and the gloom and the sweet, 
 faint odour of incense stifled him and made him afraid. 
 
 And his father, dying, had called Jimmy to the side of 
 his bed and bidden him be brave and take good care of 
 little Arline. His steps rang sharply upon the icy pave- 
 ment, as he rounded the corner by the post office and came 
 out upon the terrace. 
 
 From the window of his room where he sat reading his 
 home letters, Sir Morris spied Jimmy, leaning on the rail, 
 his shoulders shrugged together and his chin on his fists. 
 Bending forward, Sir Morris watched him intently for a 
 moment. Every line of Jimmy's figure told of trouble and 
 dejection. Sir Morris laid down his letters, cast a regret- 
 ful glance about his warm, luxurious room, gave a quick 
 little shiver as he looked out at the dun gray sky and then 
 rose and picked up his fur-lined coat. A moment later, 
 his cheery voice broke in on Jimmy's reverie. 
 
 " What's the row, old man ?" he demanded. 
 
 Jimmy never raised his eyes from the river. 
 
 " Oh, it 's you,"" he said ungraciously. 
 
 Notwithstanding his pity, a twinkle came into the 
 depths of Sir Morris's blue eyes. Not so, as a rule, were 
 people wont to receive his friendly sympathy.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 83 
 
 " Yes, it 's I. But what 's the row ? " he repeated. 
 
 Still Jimmy's heavy eyes rested upon the swift, dark 
 river, upon the shifting, grinding cakes of ice. 
 
 "Row enough," he blurted out desperately. "Arline 
 has announced her engagement to Leleu." 
 
 " Oh ! The ! Devil ! " Sir Morris spoke in three de- 
 tached sentences. 
 
 " Exactly so." Jimmy's answer was curt ; but his tone 
 showed that he gained a certain comfort out of his friend's 
 consternation. 
 
 " But the fellow is a Catholic ! " Sir Moms exploded. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " And, next thing, they '11 go and have some Catholic 
 children ! " Sir Morris announced, in a second explosion. 
 
 Jimmy turned up his sable collar about his ears. 
 
 " You 've hit it to a T," he said. " Come. Shall we 
 walk up the terrace ? " 
 
 The wind, sweeping down the river, cut their faces 
 sharply ; but both men were too absorbed in their subject 
 to heed its impact. Sir Morris was the next to speak. 
 
 " What has come over the girl ? " he asked. 
 
 Jimmy's laugh grated, even on his own ears. 
 
 "Leleu has." Then he relented. "No; that's not 
 fair," he added. " I like Leleu. He 's an all-round good 
 fellow. He can't help his Catholicism ; it 's congenital and 
 hereditary and all the rest of it. For all practical pur- 
 poses, it does n't matter in the least. But when it comes 
 to having your sister marry him " 
 
 Sir Morris broke in upon the pause into which Jimmy 
 had projected his sentence. 
 
 " But I never thought she was particularly keen about 
 him," he said slowly. 
 
 " That 's the worst of Arline," Jimmy answered. " You 
 can never tell. She is a bundle of nerves and a snarl of* 
 emotions, and she never stops to straighten out the snarl.
 
 84 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 She may love Leleu to distraction ; she may be going into 
 it just because " He pulled himself together sharply. 
 " I beg your pardon, old man. I Ve no business to be 
 talking over my sister with you. I suspect this thing has 
 gone on my nerves more than you 'd think it might."" 
 
 Sir Morris nodded in kindly comprehension. He waited 
 until Jimmy had swallowed once or twice. Then he took 
 out a leather case. 
 
 " Smoke ? " he asked laconically. 
 
 "Thanks," Jimmy replied quite as laconically. 
 
 And they tramped on again without speaking. 
 
 When Jimmy broke the silence, his tone was quieter, 
 his accent had lost somewhat of its nervous haste. 
 
 " Leleu will make her a good husband," he said then. 
 " I Ve not the least doubt of that. He is a gentleman 
 and, what counts for more than that in managing Arline, 
 he 's steady and patient. From what I Ve been hearing 
 I Ve been hearing things at the club, you see in character 
 the fellow is a veritable Galahad. If a French fellow gets 
 that reputation at an English club, you can depend upon it 
 that there 's something back of the reputation. As a race, 
 here in Quebec, we are n't prone to endow our Gallic friends 
 with any imaginary virtues. It 's much more likely to be 
 the other thing we give them." 
 
 " And, after all," Sir Morris suggested, with a palpable 
 attempt at consolation ; " the fellow's Catholicism may not 
 count." 
 
 But Jimmy demurred. 
 
 " It 's meat and drink and the breath of life to him, old 
 man. What's more, I can't help a sneaking sort of ad- 
 miration for the way he takes it. He never obtrudes it, 
 never takes it out and shoves it under our eyes ; but he 
 never fails, somehow or other, to make us feel that it's 
 there. He 's Catholic French to the core of his soul, and 
 it 's a mighty good soul, too. I wish mine were as good.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 85 
 
 But Arline is English, and her religion, as far as she 
 has any, is Protestant. Just now she thinks it does n't 
 matter ; but she 's bound to find out that it does."" 
 
 " But suppose she really loves the chap ? " Sir Morris 
 queried. 
 
 "Then she can be baptized into the church, to-morrow, 
 for all I care. I don't care what she does, so long as she 
 is in earnest and ready to stick to her position when it 
 gets under fire. And yet," Jimmy relapsed into gloom 
 again ; " the fire is bound to be heavy. Her set won't 
 take him up, not past the outer layers ; she '11 have to be 
 taken into his. She will go to French functions, and shout 
 with the Liberals and, in the fulness of time, she '11 be the 
 mother of a family t of youngsters who jabber French at 
 breakfast and keep a pink china dish of holy water nailed 
 to the wall above their beds. It 's all right ; it 's in- 
 evitable; but it 's bound to make some mighty inconvenient 
 complications now and then." 
 
 Sir Morris tossed away the end of his cigar. 
 
 " When are they going to be married ? " he asked. 
 
 "Nobody seems to know. There'll have to be some 
 sort of a dispensation, you see." 
 
 Sir Morris's blue eyes widened to show their encircling 
 whites. 
 
 " Dispensation ! " he echoed. 
 
 " Yes, dispensation," Jimmy iterated, with a grim satis- 
 faction in the word. " A Catholic can't marry a Protestant, 
 without. The Pope does them, and sends over a batch to 
 every diocese. As fast as people demand them, they 're 
 given out. Sometimes the demand gets ahead of the 
 supply, and the marriage must wait till some more dispen- 
 sations can be sent out from Rome. Leleu will probably 
 get right about it. Meanwhile, there are the settlements : 
 the dowry, you know, and the agreement about the chil- 
 dren. That's the worst of the whole. At this point of
 
 86 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 proceedings, it seems safe enough to promise that they 
 shall be brought up Catholic. When they appear and 
 begin to know things, it 's another story. Fancy me, you 
 know, going out to one of the convents to hear my future 
 nevvy be quizzed in his catechism ! I don't mean to be a 
 bigot, old man ; but, hang it ! Catholicism is n't the only 
 thing that 's congenital, not by a long ways." 
 
 That night, Jimmy dined at the Garrison Club. The 
 domestic atmosphere was still overcast, and he had angled 
 in vain for a bidding to dine with Patience and her 
 brother. Failing that, he telephoned to Sir Morris to 
 meet him at the club and, later, to go with him to the 
 theatre. Underneath the remainder of his motives lay 
 one, strong, but yet only half formulated. Just once more, 
 he had a longing to be in the old place and on the old 
 terms. As soon as the news of Arline's engagement 
 should spread abroad, Jimmy was well aware he would 
 be doomed to walk, a marked man and the cynosure of 
 curious eyes that watched him askance in order to see 
 how he took it. 
 
 As he left the low stone building and came out into 
 Louis Street, the snow was falling softly. Jimmy fastened 
 his coat, shivered a little and glanced regretfully back at 
 the scarlet warmth of the curtains which opened here and 
 there, to give tempting vistas of the brilliant room within. 
 Then suddenly he straightened his shoulders, and his head 
 lifted itself proudly. 
 
 " Good evening, Lord ! " St. Just was saying, as he 
 halted in Jimmy's pathway. " I hope I may not be too 
 early in sending my good wishes to your sister ; but I 
 have just been talking with Leleu. Permit me," his voice 
 took on an edge as of keenest steel ; " permit me to con- 
 gratulate you upon your future brother-in-law who, as you 
 know, is a most good Catholic." 
 
 And Jimmy braced himself until, by sheer force of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 87 
 
 indomitable will, his voice rang out in its wonted hearty 
 tone, 
 
 " Hang the Catholicism, St. Just ! It 's Leleu himself 
 that we count." 
 
 Then, with his hand shut tight on the sleeve of Sir 
 Morris, he turned and crossed to the Esplanade.
 
 CHAPTER NINE 
 
 "/CHANGE the name and not the letter, 11 Patience 
 
 \^J observed sententiously. 
 
 Stanwood helped himself to more bacon. The Tylers 
 gave themselves the luxury of having their landlady serve 
 their breakfast in their own apartment. From her child- 
 hood, Patience had always stoutly maintained that the 
 beginning of the day should be kept free from invasion. 
 The early hours were the hours of family life. 
 
 Stanwood glanced up from his bacon. 
 
 " You get a double dose, this time, 11 he suggested. 
 " Two negatives make one affirmative. 11 
 
 " Generally ; not always. But this is a positive state- 
 ment and doubles its force. 11 
 
 Stanwood laughed. 
 
 " But just think how it simplifies the problem of decid- 
 ing how to mark the silver ! " he reminded her. " A plain 
 A. L. will do for any emergency, even "" he glanced up 
 again, his grave eyes lighting with whimsical fun; "even 
 in case of a second marriage. 11 
 
 " Stanwood ! " 
 
 " Well, why not ? " he queried placidly. " You know 
 we neither one of us regard this as a satisfactory solution 
 of the problem. In school, when my problems would n^ 
 come, I rubbed them out and started fresh. 11 
 
 " Washed them out with your tears ? " Patience 
 inquired. 
 
 " No ; with a rub of my fist. Time may come when I 
 shall advise Leleu to trv the same method."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 89 
 
 "You're not fair to Arline," Patience said in dutiful 
 rebuke ; but her voice, as she spoke, lacked all conviction. 
 
 With grave eyes, Stanwood stared down at the bit of 
 bacon which he was absent-mindedly stabbing with his 
 fork. 
 
 " Yes, I am fair to her," he said slowly. " I don't like 
 her, Pat; but that's a part of the fairness. They're 
 both of them taking tremendous risks in going into this 
 thing. The chances break about even on her being un- 
 happy in the end ; but it 's ten to one that she completely 
 wrecks his life." 
 
 Patience pushed aside her plate and sat looking at the 
 tablecloth with eyes which reflected somewhat of her 
 brother's gravity. 
 
 " If only something would break it off! " she sighed. 
 
 Stanwood shook his head. 
 
 " It 's too late for that, Pat. They 've broken their 
 bread, and now they must eat it. It's bound to be 
 bitter now and then ; it remains to be seen whether or 
 not it will be poisonous. What time does the wedding 
 come off? " 
 
 " At nine o'clock." 
 
 Stanwood rose from his seat. 
 
 " Heathenish hour ! " he observed. " What's the use ? " 
 
 " Local custom. Deference to the mass which they 
 can't have." Patience drummed on the table, and clat- 
 tered the coffee things noisily. Then impetuously she 
 sprang to her feet. " Oh, Stanwood, it 's horrible ! All 
 her life long, the poor girl has been used to a chief seat 
 in the Cathedral, and now she is n't worthy to have a wed- 
 ding in the Basilica." 
 
 " Saves no end of fuss, though," Stanwood commented 
 practically. " For the rest, she should have thought of 
 it before." 
 
 " She did n't know."
 
 90 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "Even the sin of ignorance gets punished, Patsy," 
 Stanwood replied laconically. 
 
 " But how could she know it ? " Patience urged. 
 
 " Living here, how could she help it ? " 
 
 " I suppose it never occurred to her to ask." 
 
 " How did she find out ? " 
 
 " Mr. Leleu told her." 
 
 Stanwood whistled. 
 
 " Poor Leleu ! " he said. 
 
 "Yes, it must have been hard," Patience assented. 
 " We women don't like to give up what you call the fuss : 
 the wedding march and the lights and the palms. It 
 must have been hard for Mr. Leleu to have to tell her 
 that she must lose it all." 
 
 Stanwood took up his hat. 
 
 " I wonder if he also told her what he was losing," he 
 said. " Knowing Leleu, I doubt it." 
 
 " What is he losing ? " Patience demanded hotly. " The 
 man never cares about those things." 
 
 Stanwood was already in the doorway. He paused, 
 with his hand upon the knob. 
 
 " No," he answered ; " not for those things ; but for 
 others. To a man like Leleu, it's no light thing to feel 
 himself under the ban of his church, to know that his 
 marriage is a direct violation of its law. For my part, 
 even if I am no Catholic, I should hate it to have my 
 wife classed as a Prohibitory Impediment." 
 
 " But if he loves her ? " Patience argued weakly. 
 
 " Leleu also loves his church, Pat. For Arline's sake, 
 he is giving up a good deal more than the Lohengrin 
 march and a whole dress parade of palms ; and, instead 
 of bewailing her loss, it would be a bit decent for her to 
 remember his." 
 
 Arline, however, had given no thought to that phase 
 of the situation.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 91 
 
 If avoidable ignorance be sin, then Arline had sinned 
 grievously. Born and educated in a city where eleven 
 twelfths of the population were Catholic and where mixed 
 marriages were frequent, it had never once occurred to 
 the girl to inform herself regarding the conditions of such 
 a marriage. She had a vague idea that certain especial 
 arrangements were necessary; she had no idea at all in 
 regard to the nature of such arrangements. Even after 
 she had drifted little by little into a species of intimacy 
 with Leleu, even after she realized that that intimacy 
 could have but the one inevitable end, she had yet taken 
 no steps towards her own enlightenment. It had re- 
 mained for Leleu, then, to enlighten her. 
 
 Gently and with infinite tact, he had approached the 
 matter, upon the eve of the signing of the marriage 
 settlements. Arline had given but a careless attention 
 to his words. Then she had brushed them aside entirely. 
 
 " Yes, yes ; but don't look so worried, Amedee. Brooke 
 will see to all that. But how did you get this horrid 
 cold ? You are hoarse as a crow. I wish you could learn 
 to be careful. I am half tempted not to marry such a 
 reckless boy." 
 
 In answer to her tone, a smile chased the anxiety from 
 his dark eyes. 
 
 " It is worth while to have a cold, for the sake of having 
 your pity," he declared. 
 
 But Arline flushed. Then she frowned. 
 
 " Of course I pity you," she said ; " but I blame you 
 more. There's the Laurie reception, to-morrow night, 
 and just think what a spectacle you'll be, with your nose 
 all pink and your eyes like saucers ! " Then, as she saw 
 Leleu's dark cheeks redden, she added, with the gentler 
 note that came into her voice at times, " You poor old 
 boy, you ought to be in bed. Come and sit by the 
 library fire and talk to me. What if you did have an
 
 92 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 engagement ? You are mine, you know ; and I forbid 
 your going out into this storm." 
 
 And Leleu, as he listened to the cadence of her voice, 
 wholly caressing and womanly and winning, cast to one 
 side the doubts which had assailed him, whenever he had 
 thought of the settlements to be signed upon the morrow. 
 
 The doubts came back to him, however, while he watched 
 the growing frown on Arline's face, as she listened to the 
 voice of the lawyer reading out the formal clauses ot the 
 marriage settlement. The most of it she heard in scowl- 
 ing silence : the rights ot her dower, the solemn pledge 
 that in no way should she oppose Leleu in the ftill exer- 
 cise of all the forms of his religion. Her eyes blazed 
 with a sombre fire and she shut her teeth, while her mind 
 rushed swiftly to and fro over the Catholic ritual in so far 
 as she knew its laws ; but, in the end, she gave a frigid 
 assent. Then the fire leaped up again at the second 
 clause. 
 
 " The children, Amedee ? All the children ? " she de- 
 manded, and her flaming cheeks were not alone from 
 the modesty of maidenhood. 
 
 " It is the law," he told her. 
 
 " But only the sons. Not all ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 She turned upon him fiercely. 
 
 " I '11 not consent. It is not right, nor just, nor honour- 
 able. You never told me, never warned me."" 
 
 Leleu's face went white. 
 
 " I tried to tell you." 
 
 " When ? " 
 
 "Again and again. Last night." 
 
 Regardless of the cold, curious eyes of the lawyer, of the 
 obvious annoyance of Brooke Lord, she made a hasty step 
 forward and laid an imperious hand over the papers 
 spread out upon the table.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 93 
 
 " I will never consent in the world," she burst out. " It 
 is unfair and fraudulent. I should have been told." 
 
 " But I did tell you, Arline," Leleu urged gently. 
 
 " You did not. At least, I did not understand." 
 
 " I tried my best." 
 
 "You should have insisted. You have no right to 
 force me, unprepared, to assent to things like this." Then 
 her tone softened. " Think of it, Amedee ! You ask me 
 to give it all, to give it for your sake. You are resign- 
 ing nothing. I am called to sign away my children into 
 religious slavery. There should be some division, some 
 opportunity for choice." 
 
 But again Leleu said, steadily, albeit with shaking 
 lips, 
 
 " It is the law of the church, Arline." 
 
 " Whose church ? " she demanded fiercely. 
 
 Even in the light of her angry eyes, Leleu dropped his 
 head devoutly, and he spoke with the simplicity of a child. 
 
 " Of mine," he answered. " Of the Catholic Church of 
 Christ." 
 
 A hush followed his brief words. Then Arline walked 
 across to the window and stood looking out into the 
 street. 
 
 " Well, if I must," she said, with harsh impatience. 
 " Very well. I agree to the condition." 
 
 But Leleu, as he went away to his room, looked wan, as 
 a man stricken with mortal disease. 
 
 The mood passed off, however, and, on her side, Arline 
 sought to make amends by her increased gentleness for 
 the wounds she had been reckless in inflicting. The scars 
 were there ; it was impossible for her not to see their 
 mark. Seeing, she spoke no word of regret ; but she 
 poured out upon them the balm of tender, pitying care. 
 
 Twice more, however, there had been a similar stormy 
 scene. The second had been the natural result of the
 
 94 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 first. Arline, angered to learn that she could not be 
 married beneath the tattered flags in the old Cathedral 
 chancel, had suggested that, by way of excluding society 
 from a conspicuously simple wedding, they be married in 
 Lent and offer the holy season and Molly's recent mourn- 
 ing as excuse for their avoidance of the sumptuous wedding 
 of which she had always dreamed. To her angry surprise, 
 Jimmy had come to the support of Leleu in his refusal to 
 be married in Lent. Her angry surprise, however, had 
 been as nothing in comparison with the storm of emotion 
 which shook her, when she found that the ceremony could 
 not even be held in the Basilica, but must be relegated, 
 bannless, prayerless, massless, to the chill simplicity of the 
 sacristy in the rear. 
 
 / 
 
 That night, Leleu walked his room and tried not to 
 think of the future, nor yet of Arline. The gray dawn 
 found him still on his feet, haggard, but quiet, while he 
 sought to plan some fashion in which he could piece 
 together the fragments of his shattered life. Arline, 
 gentle and rather pale, took her breakfast in leisurely 
 calm, before she went to the telephone. Ten minutes 
 later, Leleu was on the steps, his lips unsteady, but his 
 eyes alight. 
 
 And so, between happiness and gloom, between sun and 
 storm, the weeks had come and gone, and June was in the 
 land. 
 
 Arline had chosen the day for their wedding, and she 
 had chosen it upon the rounded year since the night 
 when the evening gun had boomed its solemn call across 
 Leleu's introduction to her who was now to become his 
 wife. In the early morning of their wedding day, Leleu 
 came up the steps and rang the bell. Early as it was, 
 Arline was fully dressed, and she met him in the hall. 
 Accustomed though he was to her radiant beauty, Leleu, 
 as he looked upon her, yet bit his lip to conceal its quiv-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 95 
 
 ering pride. Regardless of Molly's strictures concerning 
 the proper dress for so quiet a ceremony, Arline's imperi- 
 ous will had carried the day. It was enough to lose the 
 wedding march and the throng of guests ; she would not 
 be deprived of the wedding gown as well. And Leleu, as 
 his dazzled eyes rested upon his bride-elect, felt that she 
 had chosen wisely and with consummate skill. Dressed 
 from neck to heel in shimmering lines of white, her head 
 rose proudly and her eyes, from between her parted veil, 
 glowed like two violets wet with the fresh morning dew. 
 One hand caught back the floating folds of lace ; the other 
 clutched at a huge sheaf of greenish-white bride roses 
 whose wide-open heads drooped heavily from their long 
 green stalks. 
 
 Leleu drew one deep, full breath. Then, 
 
 " Arline ? "" he said, and he held out his arms. 
 
 And, as she came softly forward to meet him, a single 
 petal fell and lay on the floor at his feet. 
 
 Later, a little group gathered in the plain, oak-ceiled 
 sacristy : Brooke Lord and his wife, Jimmy, the Tylers 
 and Sir Morris Plante; and on the other side of the 
 room, apart, yet of the company, stood the friends and 
 kinsmen of Amedee Leleu. Then, while the hush was 
 breathless, there came the venerable Pere Leleu, his hands 
 clasped reverently, his white head rising nobly from above 
 his plain black soutane ; and after him there came 
 Amedee Leleu and Arline Lord. And, as they came 
 slowly forward to the centre of the waiting group, a 
 second petal detached itself and fell to the floor at their 
 feet. 
 
 The sacristy was very still, and, across the stillness, the 
 sonorous voice of the priest echoed with ten-fold solemn 
 import, as he read the service, brief and bereft of all but 
 the simplest, most needful words. And, after him, Leleu, 
 grave and earnest, repeated his vow,
 
 96 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " I, Amedee, take thee, Arline, for my lawful wife." 
 
 Then came the turn of Arline. Try as she would to 
 hold herself steady, the words were wellnigh inaudible and, 
 while she made her vow, the roses in her hands shook 
 until a few more petals loosed themselves and dropped, 
 one after one, upon the floor. Suddenly the girl lifted 
 her eyes and stared straight, as though spellbound, into 
 the face of the priest. 
 
 " By the authority committed to me," he was saying ; 
 " I pronounce you united in the bonds of matrimony. 11 
 
 Her head erect, she gave no heed to the petals that 
 now were sifting down in a steady shower. Her face had 
 lighted with the look for which Leleu had learned to long ; 
 and she received the ring with sweet humility. In the 
 hush that followed, the Brooke Lords bowed their heads, 
 and the friends of Leleu crossed themselves devoutly. 
 Then, as Amedee Leleu and Arline Lord, man and wife 
 for better for worse, turned to go out of the sacristy, they 
 left behind them a mass of bruised white petals lying on 
 the self-same spot where they had plighted their troth.
 
 CHAPTER TEN 
 
 UT we don't know anybody in that neighbourhood," 
 Arline said petulantly. 
 
 " Dr. Chacot is next door." 
 
 Arline raised her brows. 
 
 " Who is he ? I never heard of him. 1 ' 
 
 " He is one of the oldest friends of my father." 
 
 She smiled a little insolently. 
 
 " Perhaps. Still, that does not signify that I know 
 him." 
 
 " Ah, but you will," Leleu said eagerly. " He is a good 
 man and intelligent, and his wife also." 
 
 " His wife a good man ? " Arline queried, for a perverse 
 mood was upon her. 
 
 Leleu reddened. He was sensitive about his English, 
 which was pure, but not colloquial. It was only in 
 moments of excitement or anxiety, however, that he was 
 betrayed into inaccuracies. Now he spoke with sudden 
 dignity. 
 
 " I think you intend to misunderstand me, Arline. 
 Madame Chacot " 
 
 Restlessly she had been tapping upon the window pane. 
 Now she turned about abruptly to face him. 
 
 " No matter about your Madame Chacot, Ame'dee. 
 She may be an angel of light, for all I care ; but that is 
 no reason I should be called upon to know her. As for 
 burying ourselves down there, I '11 not consent to it, 
 never." 
 
 " But the house " 
 
 7
 
 98 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 She interrupted him. 
 
 " If the house were a palace, I would n't live there. We 
 should be buried there, buried, I tell you." 
 
 " You would make friends,"" he urged. 
 
 " I have all the friends now that I want," she answered 
 tartly. 
 
 " One can never have too many." 
 
 She never raised her eyes from the street beneath her 
 window ; but her voice, cold and low-toned, came dis- 
 tinctly across the quiet room. 
 
 " It depends something upon the sort." 
 
 A white ring leaped into view about Leleu's lips. 
 
 " My God, Arline ! Do you realize what you are say- 
 ing ? " he said sharply. Then he controlled himself and, 
 crossing the room, rested his hand upon her shoulder with 
 a gentle, caressing gesture which was infinitely pathetic. 
 "Arline, we shall say things to regret, I fear," he said. 
 " It is late, and we both are tired. Shall we leave the 
 matter until the morning ? " 
 
 As if in spite of herself, Arline yielded to the pressure 
 of his hand and turned to face him. Meeting his eyes, 
 her own eyes lost their angry gleam, and, far back in their 
 blue depths, there came a little, wavering light of love. 
 Then she said, with quiet decision, 
 
 " No, Amedee. I think we M best talk this thing out, 
 before we try to sleep." 
 
 " But you are so tired, Arline : the journey, and the 
 coming home to your brother's house, and all the rest. 
 The house can wait. There is no hurry." 
 
 "Yes," she assented. "The house can wait. Our 
 understanding about it can not." 
 
 With a little weary gesture, he let his hand fall back to 
 his side. Then he drew forward a chair to the blazing 
 hearth. 
 
 " As you will ; only sit down by the fire," he said slowly.
 
 99 
 
 " You will gain nothing to weary yourself, and the talk 
 may be long. Now, 11 he added, as Arline dropped into 
 the chair and stretched out her slippered feet to the blaze ; 
 " what is it, Arline, that you so dislike ? " 
 
 Rather imperiously she waved him to a seat at the 
 opposite end of the rug. She was strategist enough to 
 know that a woman, seated, is at a disadvantage in an 
 argument with a man on his legs ; she was woman enough 
 to be certain that she was at a disadvantage with her will, 
 whenever she came within reach of Leleu's quieting, caress- 
 ing touch. When he too was seated, 
 
 " I dislike the house and the location," she said, with 
 steady, steely decision. 
 
 "But why?" 
 
 " It is too far from all my friends."" 
 
 He smiled, and the smile was warm with loving pride. 
 
 " But you so easily make new ones. 1 " 
 
 This time, she chose her words with care. 
 
 " Perhaps. Perhaps not so easily as you think, Amedee. 
 But, in any case, the old friends are the best." 
 
 "Surely. And these are my old friends," he urged. 
 " It is my dream to have you know them, Arline." 
 
 " I have more friends now than I can keep up with," 
 she demurred. 
 
 " And to have them know you," he added. 
 
 The words were quite devoid of flattery ; they were only 
 the simple statement of his attitude towards her. Again 
 into the depths of her eyes there flashed the gentler light ; 
 but she only answered carelessly, 
 
 " But I dare say they would not get on with me at all. 
 I think, all things considered, it is best for me to keep to 
 the old set that I have known ever since I was born. It 
 is home to me, you know. This other would be like a 
 foreign city." 
 
 " But home to me," he reminded her.
 
 100 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Yes ; but, after all, it 's not quite the same for a man. 
 He has his profession, his club. His social life is n't every- 
 thing to him. He shares it with his wife, and meets her 
 
 O 
 
 friends there. His other friends, the friends she does n't 
 know, he can see in his office, can meet at his club. 
 He " 
 
 " But I want you to know my friends, Arline," Leleu 
 interposed. 
 
 "Yes, in a way," she assented absently; "but still, 
 there's not much use. They are absorbed in things 
 I don't know anything about, about which I care even 
 less." 
 
 Again he reddened. 
 
 " And yet they are the very things that go to make up 
 my life," he answered. 
 
 Her tone was still careless. 
 
 " Yours, yes ; but not mine." 
 
 He faced her in surprise. 
 
 " Surely they are one." 
 
 She laughed lightly. 
 
 " Amedee, you sentimental boy ! But, now that our 
 honeymoon is over, we must face the fact that we each of 
 us have our individual interests." 
 
 " That we share with each other," he added. 
 
 She laughed again. 
 
 " Time will tell. Some of them, of course, we shall put 
 together into a common fund. Some will have to remain 
 apart. I don't expect you to help choose my frocks, any 
 more than you expect me to take a hand in your politics." 
 
 Leleu's face fell. In his young, loving optimism, he had 
 expected exactly that. 
 
 " Then," he said slowly ; " do I understand, Arline, that 
 you do not care to know my friends ? " 
 
 Not even her ears could be deaf to the lingering note of 
 patient regret in his voice.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 101 
 
 " Know them, yes ; but I shall not be intimate with 
 them, I suppose."" 
 
 " But they would be so glad to have you, 11 he persisted. 
 
 " One can never tell. But I am sure of my own friends." 
 
 " Then, if you are sure of them, why not come to live 
 among mine ? Yours will come there after you." 
 
 But Arline shook her head. 
 
 " You have your social alphabet yet to learn, Amedee," 
 she admonished him a little patronizingly. " If I were to 
 live among your friends, my friends would drop me utterly. 
 They would suppose, quite naturally, that I had chosen 
 to bury myself in the French set." 
 
 " But why not be in both ? " 
 
 " Impossible," she answered, with a yawn. " One never 
 could manage that. Instead, we will keep to the old 
 way " 
 
 " Mine, or yours ? " he asked quietly. 
 
 " Mine, ours, the way we have known for the last year. 
 Molly is omnipotent. She will see to it that our friends 
 take you up. That is much better than for me to drop 
 into your set, and it is bound to be one thing or the other. 1 ' 
 
 He winced at her words ; but her eyes once more were 
 on the fire, and she went on quite placidly, 
 
 " Of course, you have some friends, political ones, that 
 you can^ afford to lose. If their wives call on me, I shall 
 do all I can to keep up my side of the acquaintance. That 
 will involve some entertaining and all that. A part of it, 
 though, you can do at your club. Still, I shall try to be 
 nice to the women, when we meet." She yawned again. 
 Then she rose and stood beside him. " There, Amedee, 
 you see we have talked it all over and come to a perfect 
 understanding. It 's much better than as if we 'd gone to 
 bed, with our tempers all criscross. And about the house, 
 dear, let 's let the matter drop, for the present. If we 
 decide in a hurry, we shall be sure to make a mistake."
 
 102 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " And you would remain here ? " he asked doubtfully. 
 
 She laughed across at his anxious eyes. 
 
 "Goodness, no! Molly would die of it. We never 
 could get on together, even before I was married. Now it 
 would be even worse. Besides, Jimmy is coming home, 
 next week."" 
 
 " But what of that ? " 
 
 Not even Arline, careless as she was of his feelings, could 
 bring herself to hint that she shrank from watching the 
 daily contrast between Jimmy's big- bodied, jovial habits 
 and his own more delicate reserve. Instead, she answered 
 evasively, 
 
 " Oh, Jimmy fills all space. We should be perpetually 
 colliding with him." 
 
 " Then where would you go ? " Leleu queried, while he 
 stirred the ashes to a glowing heap, then stood staring at 
 them with thoughtful eyes and lips that lacked their little 
 smile. In his secret heart, he was telling himself that he 
 was weak and foolish to have been so hurt by Airline's 
 words ; but the past half-hour had left him smarting in 
 every fibre of his mind and nerve. 
 
 Arline crossed the room and, halting before the dressing 
 table, unclasped the jewelled chain that hung about her 
 throat. The jewels matched her eyes. Her long, plain 
 gown, sweeping the carpet at her feet, reflected the creamy 
 tones of her skin and brought into vivid contrast the piles 
 of her pale brown hair. Under the fierce blaze of the 
 electric globes above her head, her beauty defied all criti- 
 cism ; yet, for the moment, she was too intent upon gain- 
 ing her point to heed even the masterful power of her own 
 beauty. 
 
 With elaborate care, she fitted the chain into its leather 
 case and shut the case with a snap. Then she turned to 
 Leleu with a smile and laid her hand softly on his arm. 
 
 " We must make a compromise," she said. " I '11 tell
 
 Hearts and Creeds 103 
 
 you what we '11 do. We will take an apartment at the 
 Clarendon for the winter. Then we shall be on neutral 
 ground, not in either set exactly, but within reach of them 
 both." 
 
 Leleu smiled ; but his accent was wishful. 
 
 " And not have a home of our own ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, in all but the name of it," she assured him. 
 " We shall have our own rooms, and can be as quiet, or as 
 hospitable, as we choose. The only difference will be in 
 the table, and there you will gain, for you know I have 
 always told you I was wretchedly ignorant about a house. 
 Really, it will be rather an ideal arrangement. Don't 
 you think so ? " 
 
 He forced himself to meet her smile, gay, caressing, 
 winning. 
 
 " Yes," he assented ; " only I had hoped " 
 
 But she interrupted him in the midst of a phrase. 
 
 " We will do it, next year, if you like, Amedee. But 
 now " 
 
 In turn, he interrupted her, and his interruption was 
 pitiful in its brief sincerity. 
 
 " But it was now that I wished a home, Arline. I would 
 have you all for myself." 
 
 Her eyes drooped before the intense yearning of his 
 eyes, of his whole face. For an instant, she bit her lip. 
 Then she lifted her eyes once more. 
 
 " Thank you, Amedee," she said gently. " It is good to 
 hear you say that. I wish I deserved it better. I I "d 
 like to be a good wife to you, if I only knew just how." 
 
 Reverently he laid his hand upon her cheek. 
 
 " We shall learn the lesson in time, Arline," he an- 
 swered. " We both shall make mistakes ; we both shall 
 need to be patient. However, if we both are patient, the 
 time will come when the mistakes will cease. That is the 
 only possible ending to a love like ours." Then, still
 
 104 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 more reverently, he gathered her into his arms and, draw- 
 ing her head against his shoulder, pressed his lips upon her 
 brows once and yet again. 
 
 Less than a week later and just on the eve of Jimmy 
 Lord's return, the Leleus took up their abode at the 
 Clarendon. Not even Leleu was able to cavil at their 
 drawing-room, bright with its two wide windows and cosy 
 with their own belongings. Upon one point of sentiment, 
 Arline had been as adamant. None of the hotel furnish- 
 ings should have place in the rooms where she was to spend 
 her bridehood. Everything about them should be asso- 
 ciated with the choice of herself and Leleu, or of the 
 countless friends who had heaped their gifts upon them. 
 The room was rich with quaint pottery, the floor soft with 
 ancient rugs, and the walls filled with prints and tiny gems 
 of colour. And, amid it all and more beautiful than all, 
 Arline dominated the place and filled it with eager, throb- 
 bing life. 
 
 And Leleu, that first morning, as, his hands in his 
 pockets, he paced to and fro between the windows, the 
 one looking down through the leafless trees into the gray 
 Cathedral close, the other facing northward towards the 
 distant Laurentides, felt himself supremely content. 
 After all and in spite of all his misgivings, this room was 
 a fair semblance of home. His eyes had their old lumi- 
 nous sparkle, his lips their old happy curve, their old 
 foreshadowing of a smile. Then the door opened and 
 Arline came in, fresh and dainty and crisp as the frosty 
 October morn outside the windows. Leleu heard her step, 
 tunied to face her and, in that instant, found out for true 
 what he had only suspected before : that his contentment 
 of a moment earlier had been but partial ; that, hencefor- 
 ward, fulness of content for him could lie only in the 
 presence of his wife, Arline. 
 
 It was less than a week later that St. Just came to call.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 105 
 
 Leleu was still busy at the Parliament Buildings, and 
 Arline received him alone. His dress was even more care- 
 ful than of yore, his step more alert, his manner more gay 
 and debonnair. And Arline met him cordially. It had 
 been a dull day, and she had spent it for the most part 
 alone. Under such conditions, any guest whatsoever would 
 have been a pleasant diversion. Her welcome, though 
 cordial, was wholly impersonal ; but St. Just failed to 
 recognize its impersonality. 
 
 " Your husband is back at his old post ? " he asked, 
 after they had gone over the usual preliminaries of greeting 
 and inquiry. 
 
 " Yes, and very busy," Arline assented. 
 
 " The approaching elections, I suppose ? " St. Just 
 suggested. 
 
 "So he says. I can't see what he has to do with it, 
 though. Monsieur Aucune is only a provincial minister. 11 
 
 St. Just laughed. 
 
 *' The provincial ministers also have a work to do, my dear 
 Madame Leleu." 
 
 Arline frowned. She felt no especial liking for her guest, 
 and she was totally at a loss to see why he should preface 
 her name with the adjective. 
 
 " I don't know what," she answered rather curtly. 
 
 St. Just laughed again. After the political knowledge 
 he had found stowed away in the' heads of certain pretty 
 little French women of the city, he found Arline's statuesque 
 indifference to her own ignorance vastly amusing. 
 
 " They are the ones whose duty it is to shift the lime- 
 lights which follow the hero about the stage," he told her. 
 M In your elections which are referred back to your com- 
 mon people, it is far less a question of what sort is your 
 prime minister than of what sort of words your lesser 
 politicians speak of him. Monsieur Aucune is a busy man 
 just now. He speaks the addresses here and there in the
 
 106 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 province, and it is the open secret that Leleu writes the 
 addresses which he speaks." 
 
 Over the last words, he dropped his voice in a fashion 
 which added ten -fold to their force. If he had expected 
 Arline to manifest any pique at the tidings, however, he 
 was doomed to disappointment. She lifted her eyes from 
 the rug and spoke with complete indifference. 
 
 " How tiresome ! Really, it sounds a bit unfair ; but 
 then, I know nothing at all about it. 1 ' 
 
 St. Just leaned forward in his chair. 
 
 " Not now, perhaps ; but Madame will learn. 1 * 
 
 " I scarcely think so. 11 Arline's tone was even yet more 
 indifferent. 
 
 St. Just laid two fingers of his right hand into the hollow 
 of his left. 
 
 " You cannot be too sure, 11 he said impressively. " Your 
 position is a rare one. 11 
 
 Arline laughed idly. 
 
 " In what way, Monsieur St. Just ? " 
 
 He edged still farther forward in his chair. 
 
 " For a salon. You have here all the ideal elements for 
 it : a charming place of meeting, a yet more charming 
 but now, I shall not say it, unless you grant me the per- 
 mission and, attracted by both, you could have as your 
 guests the coming men of both parties. 11 He watched her 
 narrowly, as he spoke. "Were you to wish it, within a 
 short time these walls would be hearing the best of the 
 political talk of the city. 11 
 
 Arline laughed again. Nevertheless, her eyes had 
 brightened, and they rested no longer on the floor at her 
 feet. They looked at St. Just ; but they saw far into 
 the future, and that future was rosy with ambitious 
 dreams. 
 
 " But politicians do not talk in the presence of a woman, 
 Monsieur St. Just, 11 she reminded him.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 107 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " That is as may be. Not everywhere, perhaps ; but 
 here. Why not ? The clubs are of one party. It is 
 idle work to be ever whetting the knives for which you 
 have no use. Here they would meet and cross their 
 weapons." 
 
 " You choose to make a bloody picture," Arline said 
 
 Once more St. Just's shoulders rose, this time ever so 
 slightly. 
 
 " Perhaps. But for sharp and direct thrusts, no weapons 
 carry home so well as words, nor yet for secret thrusts in 
 the dark. Best of all, words leave no outward trace. We 
 may speak with cutting scorn of the policy of a friend, yet 
 leave the surface of the friendship all unscarred." 
 
 Arline dropped her eyes to the floor. 
 
 " But who would come ? " she asked, while she tried in 
 vain to hold her voice to the old languid, indifferent key. 
 
 St. Just bowed with precise formality. 
 
 " Those to whom it pleased you to give an invitation." 
 
 "I am not so sure. I know so few who care for 
 politics." 
 
 " Your husband will arrange all that," St. Just replied 
 quietly. " Urge him to bring his friends. Grant me the 
 same privilege. For your share, invite the elderly men 
 who strut about the rooms of Mrs. Brooke Lord and bay 
 the young Liberals as the fat old hound bays the fox, 
 without seeking to rise for the chase. Then," St. Just 
 knew the value of the suspensive pause. He suffered it to 
 lengthen and then rose to his feet, before he added ; " then 
 there will be a salon such as the new world has never 
 seen." 
 
 And, bowing, he left his hostess to ponder upon his 
 words.
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN 
 
 A KLINE'S face clouded, as she met Stanwood Tyler 
 at the foot of the steps. At heart, she had no like- 
 ing for the big, silent American who had so obviously held 
 himself aloof from the charm of her personality. Never- 
 theless, he was her brother's own right arm, and she forced 
 herself to smile, as he took his pipe from his teeth and 
 stood aside to let her pass before him. 
 
 " Unless you were looking for Pat," he suggested. " I 
 met her, just now, on her way to the terrace." 
 
 " Thank you. I was looking for her. Was she alone ? " 
 
 "She was. There's no telling, though, how long it 
 will last, unless you can prove an alibi for your brother."" 
 
 " Or Sir Morris," she added lightly. "I had thought, 
 this fall, that poor old Jimmy was out of the running." 
 
 Stanwood chuckled. He liked Jimmy Lord absolutely. 
 
 " If he is, he 's only stopping to pull on his seven-league 
 boots. But you will find Patience out there now." 
 
 " Then I will go after her. Perhaps she will come for a 
 walk. It is a perfect day, and I I need the exercise." 
 
 Stanwood glanced keenly into her flushed face and heavy 
 eyes. 
 
 " I 'd take it," he said kindly. " You 're looking tired, 
 to-day, Mrs. Leleu, tired and a bit worried. Go and play 
 with Patience." 
 
 And Arline followed his bidding, hastily, because she 
 was unwilling that he should see the water rushing to her 
 eyes, at his curt, kindly words.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 109 
 
 She overtook Patience at the southern end of the terrace 
 and, to her infinite relief, the girl was quite alone. For 
 the hour, Arline felt an imperative need of the self-reliant 
 poise of Patience, of her brisk optimism. 
 
 " Yes," Patience said, as they turned about and faced 
 down the terrace once more ; " it is an ideal day, and I 
 shall be glad to walk. Every one else is busy, and I really 
 have nothing to do." 
 
 " How I envy you your freedom ! " Arline said, and 
 there was a dropping cadence to the words. 
 
 Patience laughed, and the laugh was not wholly sym- 
 pathetic. At times, she liked Arline. Always she liked 
 to walk. Nevertheless, on this brisk October day, when 
 the whole world was glittering with yellow sunlight, it 
 was a bit depressing to be forcibly annexed by a comrade 
 in the dumps. 
 
 " There "s not much to choose between us," she reminded 
 Arline a little curtly. "We both of us are boarding, and 
 we support the same sewing woman for the same number 
 of hours a week." 
 
 Arline bit her lip. 
 
 " Yes," she answered. " But there 's Amedee." 
 
 " And there is also Stanwood," Patience added quietly. 
 
 " Yes," Arline answered again. " But there 's the 
 difference." 
 
 " I fail to see where," Patience replied rather hotly. 
 " Of course, one is a husband, and the other a brother ; 
 but, after all, the conditions are very like." 
 
 " Except that your brother leaves you free as air." 
 
 Patience faced her, her brown eyes flashing. 
 
 " No more than your husband." 
 
 Arline's laugh was not good to hear. 
 
 " Free ! " she echoed. " I am fettered at every turn." 
 
 Pausing by the rail, Patience looked at her companion 
 from head to heel. Then she spoke with curving lips.
 
 110 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Fettered ? How ?" she asked in quiet scorn. 
 
 Arline let go the curb she had placed upon herself. 
 
 "Fettered by prejudices older than the ages. Fettered 
 by all the narrow tyranny of a race of tyrants. Fet- 
 tered 11 
 
 But Patience interrupted. 
 
 "Arline, be still!"" she said imperiously. Then she 
 led the way from the end of the terrace, past the group of 
 workmen levelling the new square in front of the post office 
 and, crossing the street, came into the shadow of the Sem- 
 inary wall. " Now," she added, as they entered the de- 
 serted stretch of road which runs along the Grand Battery 
 and around the Ramparts ; " if you can talk like a sane 
 woman, Arline, please tell me what 's the matter. " 
 
 " Nothing is the matter,"" Arline made curt response. 
 
 " Then what are you wailing for ? "" Patience demanded 
 a little too sharply for complete courtesy. 
 
 " I needed a little sympathy. 11 
 
 " But how can I sympathize, if nothing is wrong ? 11 
 Patience demanded again. " I must say, Arline, you 
 don't look as if you were summoning me to give my 
 congratulations."" 
 
 Swiftly Arline dropped her momentary hauteur. 
 
 " How cold you are ! " she burst out. " Cold and unsym- 
 pathetic ! But how can I expect you to be anything else ? 
 You don't know what it is to have thrown away your 
 freedom. 11 
 
 "No; I do not. Neither do I know,"" the hot blood 
 rolled up across the girl's face. Then bravely she finished 
 her phrase ; " know what it is to have won the love of a 
 loyal, high-minded man. 11 
 
 Arline swept her hands behind her, with her old, im- 
 perious gesture. 
 
 " Loyal ? Yes, to all his old ways and traditions. 
 High-minded ? Yes ; but infinitely narrow. He expects
 
 Hearts and Creeds 111 
 
 me to give up everything, to yield at every point, to shape 
 my life into the grooves his life has worn. 11 
 
 " Certainly," Patience assented fearlessly. " That is 
 what you promised to do, when you married him. 11 
 
 " Promised ! I was forced into the service against my 
 will. 11 
 
 " But not into the marriage," Patience reminded her. 
 
 Arline faced her angrily. 
 
 " And so Jimmy has been talking me over," she sneered. 
 
 " Jimmy, as you call him, is too much a gentleman to 
 be given to discussing his own family concerns," Patience 
 replied imperturbably. 
 
 Arline reddened at the obvious rebuke. 
 
 " No matter now," she said shortly. " The marriage is 
 made. We each of us have given a promise, and the 
 promise was the same for us both. As long as that is 
 true, I can^ see why it should be my place to yield at 
 every point, when Amedee goes his way, unyielding." 
 
 " But what have you had to yield, Arline ? " 
 
 " Everything." 
 
 Patience laughed, as she glanced at the imperious figure 
 at her side. 
 
 " I doubt it. But, for example, what ? " 
 
 " My home. My friends. My social preferences." 
 
 " And Mr. Leleu ? " 
 
 " He has tried to force his own upon me." 
 
 Patience raised her brows. 
 
 " Have you taken them ? " she asked demurely. 
 
 " Don't be foolish, Patience. Of course not." 
 
 A mocking smile crept about Patience's scarlet lips. 
 
 " Then it strikes me that Mr. Leleu has given up fully 
 as much as you have," she remarked. 
 
 " Yes, he has ; but it is only because he has been obliged 
 to. He has argued and argued ; but of course I could not 
 give up everything. It is wearing me out, day after day
 
 112 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the same old thing, neither of us advancing a step from 
 the point where we started. It is as monotonous as that, 
 and just about as progressive."" 
 
 With a sudden sweep of her arm, she pointed upward 
 to a latticed gallery high above the street, where a quar- 
 tette of white-robed Carmelites paced back and forth, 
 forth and back in a ceaseless, measured march which ended 
 only with the coming of a new quartette to take their 
 places. Turning her back to the parapet of the ancient 
 wall, Patience stared up at them in sudden wonder. The 
 bastion above Dambourges Hill was familiar ground to 
 her. Again and again she had loitered there, gazing out 
 across the Beauport flats, or down into the huddle of roofs 
 at her feet ; but never before had she noticed that latticed 
 gallery, nor yet those white-robed, bearded figures whose 
 ceaseless, measured tramp, barren substitute for virile ex- 
 ercise, seemed to her to have lasted from remote ages 
 only to last into remoter ages yet to come. And always, 
 as in some ancient dance, while one pair advanced, the other 
 pair fell back. Play and counter play. In that one 
 latticed gallery lay in epitome the life of the two-raced 
 city, lay in epitome the life of Arline and Amedee Leleu. 
 Patience caught her breath sharply, as she found herself 
 wondering where the march would end. 
 
 Suddenly she turned about and faced Arline. 
 
 " Arline," she said directly ; " you have been squabbling 
 with your husband. What is it all about ? " 
 
 The very directness of the question took Arline off her 
 guard, and she answered no less directly. 
 
 " The Aucune reception, to-morrow night." 
 
 "What of it?" 
 
 " He wants me to go." Arline threw out the words as 
 she would have thrown down a gauntlet. 
 
 " Of course he does," Patience responded, with a total 
 lack of sympathy. " You can't well help going."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 113 
 
 " But I won't," Arline protested mutinously. 
 
 Why not ? " 
 
 " I don't know the people. 11 
 
 Patience suddenly lost the saving grace whose name she 
 bore. 
 
 " You need n't say it in that nippy tone," she observed 
 calmly. " Madame Aucune is charming ; you '11 meet the 
 best people in town in her parlours. I went to one of her 
 receptions, last year. Stanwood and I were asked, this 
 time, and Stan has," she smiled a little, as she aimed her 
 thrust ; " has tried his best to get out of his engagement 
 with your brother, so that we could go again." She 
 paused. Then, as she rested her elbow on the parapet, 
 she went on, with cool decision, "Besides, Arline, it's not 
 for you to choose in a matter like this. You had your 
 own way in going to the Clarendon ; you have your own 
 way in sending Mr. Leleu off to church alone. You can't 
 have your own way, though, when your social prejudice 
 tries to block his political career. Everybody says you 
 have married one of the coming men of the city. 
 His career is in your hands, and you have no right to 
 tear it to pieces, just because it gets between you and 
 your whims." 
 
 Breathless, flushed, she paused and looked at Arline. 
 Then she held out her hand, with a swift, free gesture as 
 of an impetuous boy. 
 
 " Forgive me," she said. " I had no right to speak so. 
 Somebody had to, though, and I knew none of the others 
 would, or dared." 
 
 Arline ignored the hand; but her voice suddenly 
 lowered, her eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Perhaps you are right," she answered. " At all events, 
 I will go." 
 
 And Patience went home, contented with her victory. 
 Arline was not bad, she told herself; it was only that she
 
 114 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 lacked reason. Once brought to see reason, however, she 
 was ready to carry it out. Only The girl sighed 
 wearily. Even her young strength was tired with the 
 effort of showing Arline the reason. It was as well for 
 Patience Tyler, perhaps, that she could not foresee all the 
 consequences of Arline's consent to go to the Aucune 
 reception. 
 
 Even Arline, however, was ready to confess, the next 
 night, that the evening had been an entire success. The 
 friends of Leleu whom she had met, had received his bride 
 with a cordiality which had lacked little of being deferen- 
 tial. It had been a gracious, friendly gathering. Arline, 
 meeting there men and women whose lineage stretched far 
 back into the old regime, whose social training had been 
 in the best of continental schools, whose English out- 
 classed her own in delicate precision, nevertheless had 
 been accepted among them as a potential leader. The 
 cause for a part of this lay in her queenly beauty and in 
 her shimmering gown, the work of no provincial hand ; a 
 part of it lay in the innate graciousness of the French 
 character. But by far the largest part, and the part 
 which Arline saw fit to ignore entirely, lay in the position 
 held among them by Leleu himself. 
 
 With the long lines of her gown wrapping in graceful 
 curves about her feet, with one rounded arm thrown up 
 across the back of her tall chair, Arline sat thinking the 
 evening over. For the moment, the imperious look had 
 left her face, to be replaced by the softer curves of con- 
 tented ambition. Her lids drooped over her blue eyes, 
 and her lips curved into a smile as peaceful as the smile of 
 a happy child. Leleu, meanwhile, had remained outside 
 to speak to the driver. Then an acquaintance had 
 accosted him as he had passed through the office, and it 
 was not until several minutes had gone by that he could 
 free himself and follow Arline up-stairs. He opened the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 115 
 
 door softly. Arline might well be tired ; she might 
 already be asleep, and it would be thoughtless to disturb 
 her. 
 
 He entered the room so quietly that Arline, lost in her 
 own thoughts, neither heard nor heeded his coming. 
 And Leleu, entering, halted on the threshold to stare at 
 the picture before him. He drew a short, sharp breath, 
 for happiness can stab, as well as misery, and this was his, 
 all his. 
 
 " Arline," he said gently, as he moved forward and laid 
 his hand upon her hair. 
 
 With an almost imperceptible gesture, she nestled to 
 the touch of his fingers. 
 
 "It was a charming evening, Amedee," she said 
 dreamily. 
 
 Instantly the. light sprang into his eyes. 
 
 " You enjoyed it ? You liked them ? " he questioned 
 eagerly. " I am so happy to hear it, Arline." 
 
 She swept her gown aside and beckoned him to the 
 broad arm of her chair. 
 
 " Sit down here. Yes, it was charming. Your friends 
 were very good to me, Amedee." 
 
 " Of course. How could they help it ? " he asked, 
 with quaint directness. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " Easily. I was a stranger to them all ; but they con- 
 trived to make me forget it. Tell me who they all were, 
 Amedee. I want to know about them." 
 
 Her lids, still drooping heavily, shut out the sparkle of 
 animation now kindling in her eyes, and Leleu saw no 
 need to question the motive at the back of her words. 
 
 " It is good to know that you cared for them, Arline," 
 he repeated happily. " They are my old-time friends, 
 my political mates, many of them my kinsmen. Here in 
 the city, Monsieur Aucune has been like a father to me,
 
 116 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Madame like the mother I have never known. They are 
 loyal to me, these people, and now they are glad to wel- 
 come you among themselves, for your own sake as well 
 as for mine. 11 
 
 Still with her head framed loosely in her encircling arm, 
 she turned slightly and looked up at him. Some hitherto 
 torpid nerve within her wakened into life and throbbed 
 with pride, as she watched him sitting there, his thin, 
 high-bred face alight with his content. Lowering her 
 arm, she rested it upon his shoulder and gazed, the while, 
 straight into his level, loving eyes. Then she dropped 
 her arm by her side, and her own eyes vanished behind 
 their shielding lids, as she urged, 
 
 " But tell me about them, Amedee. I want to know 
 who they all were : the stout, dark man with the order in 
 his buttonhole, the little bald one who appeared to know 
 everybody, the one who talked so long in the corner with 
 you and the other men. He seemed so much excited 
 about something. What did he really want ? " 
 
 Leleu reddened slightly ; but he shrugged his shoulders 
 with affected carelessness. 
 
 " Mere politics, Arline. The elections come, next week, 
 you know." 
 
 " Do they ? I had forgotten it was so soon. But what 
 was he saying, Amedee? He talked so fast I couldn't 
 understand him at all." 
 
 "But I thought you had no trouble with Madame 
 Aucune, 11 he suggested. 
 
 She disdained the obvious digression. 
 
 " I have been in Paris, you know. But the man ? 
 What was he saying? 11 
 
 Leleu laughed. In spite of himself, he was pleased at 
 Arline's persistency. To his mind, it indicated a break 
 in her previous apathy upon all points regarding his pro- 
 fessional career. As yet, he had no notion how great a
 
 Hearts and Creeds 117 
 
 share ambition played in shaping the course of Airline's 
 life. 
 
 "It was only the usual election talk," he answered. 
 "The fellow is an enthusiast, and he will harangue, when- 
 ever he can get the floor." 
 
 " Does it ever do any good ? " she asked idly. 
 
 Leleu's reply was epigrammatic. 
 
 " It is better to drill than to pound." 
 
 She nodded in swift comprehension. 
 
 " So it seems to me. But there is so much pounding 
 done, and it generally ends by breaking the point of the 
 nail. Really, though, do you think there is any question 
 about the election ? " 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 " None at all." 
 
 " And then ? " she questioned still more idly than 
 before. 
 
 " Then we shall simply continue the policy of the last 
 few years." 
 
 Her lids drooped still lower. 
 
 " And the Conservatives ? " she asked. 
 
 Mockingly he shrugged his shoulders, and answered 
 with the careless phrase so dear to the habitant tongue, 
 
 " "Sals pas" 
 
 " Oh, but I am a Conservative," she rebuked him, with 
 a smile ; " and Brooke says this election means pennies 
 or dollars to him, according to the way it goes." 
 
 " I am sorry." Leleu spoke with sudden gravity. " It 
 is so with many of them, I fear. I should be sorry to 
 have your brother suffer in his business ; but it is not 
 possible that the business interests of one class should 
 stand against the real good of the country." 
 
 Again she lifted her eyes to his. 
 
 " Is it true, then, what that man was saying," she 
 asked slowly ; " that, if the Liberals win in the general
 
 118 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 election, they will have a dissolution here and a provincial 
 election ? " 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " Did I not tell you the fellow is an enthusiast, 1 ' he 
 parried. Nevertheless, he reddened once more, and Arline 
 saw that her question had been no random shot. 
 
 " What would it be for ? " she queried. " I see no good 
 in that. I asked Monsieur St. Just about it, and he said 
 it would be merely to strengthen the Liberal hand." 
 
 Leleu caught at the side issue. 
 
 " St. Just ? Was he there ? " 
 
 A mocking smile lighted Arline's face. 
 
 " Brave boy ! And is this the way you watch your 
 bride ? Monsieur St. Just was not only there ; but I 
 talked with him for a long, long time." 
 
 "When was that?" 
 
 She glanced up into his frowning face. Then she drew 
 his hand towards her and fell to playing with its slim, 
 dark fingers. 
 
 "When you were demagoguing with the man in the 
 corner, and leaving me to shift for myself," she replied, 
 with a merry audacity which, at another time, Leleu 
 would have found indescribably winning. " He was very 
 polite to me, and explained ever so many things that I 
 had heard you talking about, things I had n't been able to 
 understand." Then, letting his hand slip from her lap, she 
 rose, yawning slightly. " You know, Amedee," she added ; 
 " you have never liked Monsieur St. Just ; I really think 
 you have never been quite fair to him. But I am sleepy. 
 Good night." 
 
 Leleu closed the door behind her; then, facing about, 
 he took one or two swift turns up and down the room. 
 Like St. Just ! It was only during the past nine months 
 that he had gained his first real inkling of the measure 
 of liking which rightly should be dealt out to this man
 
 Hearts and Creeds 119 
 
 who now was professing to explain to Arline the tenets 
 of her own husband's political creed. Like him ! The 
 blood rolled up across Leleu's swarthy cheek. Even now, 
 nine months afterward, the affair was still branded on his 
 mind in red-hot lines. 
 
 Less than a week after his engagement to Arline had 
 been announced, he had met St. Just in the Ring, one 
 night. St. Just had spoken flippantly; then he had 
 flushed under Leleu's curt rebuke. However, he had gone 
 on his way, leaving the rebuke unanswered. The next 
 afternoon, Leleu, abandoning his desk on the ground floor 
 of the Parliament Buildings, had sauntered up the stairs 
 and taken his stand in the open doorway of the assembly 
 chamber. A dull debate was in progress, and the mem- 
 bers, reading, writing and lounging in their seats, were 
 wholly regardless of the discussion. Leleu had loitered 
 there for a moment, his eyes wandering idly over the famil- 
 iar details : the dark green hangings above the Speaker's 
 chair, the messenger boys half-reclining on the curved steps 
 of the dais, the gowned figures beside the table in the 
 middle of the floor and the careless, inattentive faces of 
 the members. Then, just as he had been about to turn 
 away, his own attention had been caught by the tiniest of 
 the messengers, a mere scrap of humanity in Tuxedo coat 
 and shining linen, who pushed under his elbow in the 
 doorway, took a running slide up the aisle and laid a fresh 
 copy of the Cartier upon the desk of the Chief of the 
 Opposition. The Cartier, picked up with listless fingers, 
 was suddenly gripped in two nervous fists, turned, turned 
 back again. The debate droned on ; but, for some reason, 
 Leleu's eyes were fixed upon the frowning face which bent 
 above the Cartier, and the last phrases of the debate fell 
 upon unhearing ears. Then the debate had ended, and 
 the Chief of the Opposition had arisen and had caught 
 the Speaker's eye.
 
 120 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 For weeks afterward, the city had buzzed with the re- 
 ports of the speech which followed. It exhumed all the 
 long-buried race antagonisms, it warned the members to 
 be on their guard against possible bad faith upon the 
 part of the Liberals, and it took its text in a trenchant 
 phrase, caught from the paper in the Chiefs hand, A 
 Dream of the New Regime. 
 
 And Amedee Leleu, standing there to listen to the 
 blame which was cast upon his race and party, to the 
 predictions of its faithlessness and its ultimate and con- 
 sequent disruption, had gone white to the lips and turned 
 his eyes away, as he had met the mirthful eyes and the 
 malicious little smile of Achille St. Just who was looking 
 steadily at him from a corner of the press gallery. That 
 night, Leleu had telephoned to Arline that an unexpected 
 engagement prevented his seeing her. Instead, he had 
 walked to Sillery and back, through the wind and the fast 
 deepening snow. 
 
 He had known that St. Just was noxious. Up to that 
 hour, however, Leleu had never regarded him as dangerous. 
 Now he had begun to doubt. 
 
 And now Arline had gone away, leaving him to ponder 
 upon her last words, barbed as they were with the charge 
 of unfairness. For an instant, he turned to the door, 
 meaning to follow her and tell her the reason for his dis- 
 like of the man. Then he shrugged his shoulders and 
 dropped into a chair, as once and for all he abandoned 
 that idea. It was his place to guard his wife. It would 
 be a direct acknowledgment of his own inability, could he 
 only accomplish that end by blackening her mind and his 
 own tongue with outspoken charges, however grounded, 
 against another man. Nevertheless, in that instant of 
 hesitation and subsequent decision, there was summed up 
 a determining chapter in the history of Amedee Leleu. 
 Had the tradition of his race unbent to the point of allow-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 121 
 
 ing him to speak out to Arline and tell her why he believed 
 St. Just untrustworthy, he might have broken off at its 
 thinnest edge the wedge of trouble which in time would 
 threaten to tear asunder the fabric of their home. 
 
 Alone in her dressing-room, meanwhile, Arline dropped 
 
 into a chair, and the satisfied smile came back to her lips. 
 
 The smile was not for Leleu, however, but rather for St. 
 
 Just whose low parting words were still treading through 
 
 her brain. 
 
 " You see it is as I have told you, Madame Leleu. The 
 chance is open to you, and it is a rare one. I thought it 
 before. To-night, I am sure. The election is near, and 
 it is certain in its outcome. After the election, there may 
 be stirring events in the province, and it would be a won- 
 derful time to establish a salon where the men of both 
 parties could meet and talk, freely and without rancour, 
 of the events of the hour. Perhaps we each should gain, 
 by knowing more of the plans of the other. You see how 
 it is here, to-night : Liberals everywhere, save for me 
 who am taken on sufferance and because I am a friend of 
 Madame Aucune's Parisian cousins. Even as it is, you see 
 they talk of matters of import. Picture to yourself what 
 it would be, were there men here who could speak with 
 authority upon the other side. Who could accomplish 
 that so easily as Madame Leleu ? " And, rising, he left 
 her to her approaching host. 
 
 The Tylers, that same evening, were watching Twelfth 
 Night at the Auditorium, and, between the acts, talking 
 with the eagerness that long years of constant intercourse 
 had been powerless to abate. Suddenly the talk shifted to 
 the Leleus. 
 
 "It is the old race war, done small," Stanwood said 
 gravely, at length. 
 
 Patience folded her programme into a neat square, then 
 converted the square into a paper boat and balanced the
 
 122 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 boat in the palm of her hand ; but it was plain that her 
 thoughts were not upon the fragile dory, nor yet upon the 
 spotless glove beneath its keel. 
 
 " Then you think it exists ? " she asked. 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " What will be the end of it ? " 
 
 Stanwood's grave face lighted with a whimsical smile, as 
 he had recourse to the careless phrase which Leleu, an hour 
 later, was to use. 
 
 " "Saw pas? 
 
 " But it is awful,"" Patience persisted ; " that is, if it 
 really does exist. For my part, I think it is only election 
 talk, and will disappear as soon as the election is over. 
 It 's no more sincere than Arline's fuss because she has to 
 make all the concessions with Mr. Leleu." 
 
 But her brother's gravity had dropped back upon him. 
 
 " No more sincere," he echoed ; " but no less." And, 
 with the words, there came the soft clash of the prompter's 
 bell, and the curtain rose upon the final act. 
 
 The inevitable explanation and reconciliation followed, 
 and a smiling Viola bowed her thanks for the patter of 
 applause. The curtain slid down again, and the orchestra, 
 coming to prompt attention, swung into their conventional 
 finale of God Save the King. Then of a sudden Patience 
 started and her fingers shut on the little boat with a 
 nervous vigour which crushed it to a shapeless bit of 
 crumpled paper. 
 
 From a burly, red-faced Frenchman at her right, there 
 had come a low, but unmistakable hiss.
 
 NOT even the most ardent politician, on the morning 
 of the day set aside for the general elections, could 
 fail to feel his enthusiasm ebbing a little, as he looked out 
 of doors. It ebbed faster still, when he stepped out into 
 the raw drizzle of the November rain. The past few days 
 had been full of a hot excitement. All the old race an- 
 tagonisms had been taken out and aired, all the old party 
 grievances and abuses had been inspected with the minut- 
 est care. Knots of Frenchmen had been heard singing 
 La Marseillaise in the streets ; knots of Englishmen had 
 held impromptu caucuses on the terrace, in the Chateau 
 corridors, on the post office steps. It was as if the parties 
 had been on a strife to see which could blow the larger 
 bubble of excitement. And then, with the first pattering 
 raindrop on election morning, the bubble had burst, and 
 the citizens went quietly plodding away under their um- 
 brellas, in search of the nearest polling place. The excite- 
 ment had vanished with the gray dawn ; but there remained 
 a certain tension of waiting to see what the day would 
 bring forth. And, to an outsider watching the arena, the 
 whole antagonism could have been summed up in two brief 
 phrases : Canada for the English, or Canada for the Cana- 
 dians. But the Canadians were what ? 
 
 St. Just was busy on election day, unduly busy. He 
 had marked out for himself in advance a day of loitering 
 about the streets, of dropping in at certain offices, of shar- 
 ing and heeding an infinite number of discussions as 
 to the probable result of the day's elections. St. Just was
 
 124 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 open to conviction. He was quite as ready to hear to an 
 end the views of a Liberal senator as of a Conservative. 
 Moreover, he was convinced that, on the Liberal side, the 
 provincial plan of action was by no means ended with that 
 election day. He was as yet unable to fathom the limit 
 of that plan, although from occasional hints he had gath- 
 ered, he was sure that he knew its trend. However, 
 though he admired the vigour of the contemplated action, 
 he forced himself to remember that, for the present, at 
 least, he was a Conservative. Accordingly, he had set his 
 wits to work to plan a mate to oppose the check of the 
 Liberal party. Nothing as yet had occurred to him. He 
 had hoped to pick it up, bit by bit, out of the pavements, 
 that day. 
 
 St. Just hated rain. The gray skies and the chilly wind 
 went to his marrow, and he gave a little shiver of discom- 
 fort and disgust, as he ran up the steps leading to his 
 office, for a word with his chief before setting off for his 
 day's wandering. Instead of the chief, however, an office 
 boy awaited him, and the boy was the bearer of fateful 
 tidings. The chief had been taken ill, suddenly and seri- 
 ously. Even at so critical a time as that, he must not 
 leave his bed. St. Just must take his place, that day, 
 remain in the office and see that the paper maintained its 
 clean-cut line of policy. 
 
 St. Just's face fell. Then he gritted his teeth, glanced 
 out at the cold, wet pavements, at the procession of um- 
 brellas moving towards St. John Street, and swore softly 
 to himself. That done, he took off his coat, kicked his 
 goloshes into a corner and seated himself at his desk. In 
 his disappointment, he took no heed of the fact that, as 
 a rule, the best plan of action shapes itself, not in the 
 crowded street, but in the familiar quiet of one's own daily 
 working place. St. Just, clear-eyed and resolute, was hum- 
 ming to himself a song of the boulevards, when he locked
 
 Hearts and Creeds 125 
 
 his desk, late that afternoon. Inside the desk and in a 
 secret drawer were the rough drafts of two editorials, ready, 
 one or other of them, to be put into type on the instant 
 that the Liberals should declare their policy. St. Just's 
 activity, that day, had not been limited wholly to re- 
 ceiving and making comment upon the election rumours 
 which were flying about the streets. 
 
 Towards noon, Sir Morris, coated from chin to heel, 
 jovial and dripping, appeared in the Tylers' library. 
 
 " No news yet," he averred. " No ; don't touch the 
 coat, Miss Tyler ; it 's beastly wet. Can't I put it out on 
 the landing somewhere ? " 
 
 Patience nodded her assent, as she poked the fire into a 
 glow and drew up a chair to the blaze. Sir Morris, mean- 
 while, heaped his dripping coat and umbrella on the floor 
 outside, and came striding back into the room. 
 
 "That 's a ripping fire," he commented. " One appre- 
 ciates it, after spending the morning in the streets, 
 trying to chase up a little excitement. This is no sort 
 of an election day. At home, a country poorhouse 
 could get up a better show of enthusiasm. Have you 
 been out ? " 
 
 Patience smiled. 
 
 "I had an errand at Paquet's," she said demurely. 
 
 Sir Morris laughed. 
 
 " I thought as much. In fact, I looked in under every 
 umbrella I met, on the chance of finding you there. What 
 did you think of it ? " 
 
 " That they let off their powder too soon," she responded 
 promptly. " It 's all fizz and no crack." 
 
 " Bravo, Patsy ! " Stanwood's voice observed from the 
 threshold. "Your sentiment does you proud, though 
 I 've not the least notion what it means. How 's the 
 weather, Sir Morris ? " 
 
 " Wet. I left a sample outside the door."
 
 126 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Stanwood came forward to rest one foot on the low 
 fender beside his sister's chair. 
 
 " I found it, all right. I 'm not sure that your umbrella 
 will open again, though. Have you heard any news ? " 
 
 " Nothing yet. I met Leleu, just now, and he said it 
 would be impossible to tell until to-night." 
 
 " So close as that ? " Stanwood lifted his brows. " I 
 supposed it was a foregone conclusion." 
 
 "I fancy it is, only they don't wish to rejoice prema- 
 turely. The winning crew always talks off, on the eve of 
 a race." 
 
 "What time will the returns be in?"" Patience asked 
 restlessly. 
 
 " Not too early, though the western ones won't count 
 for much, and they '11 be the last. The East is the danger 
 point. But that reminds me, Pat, Brooke Lord has put 
 in a private wire, and he wants us to come up there, to- 
 night. He said he had telephoned to you, Sir Morris." 
 
 " Yes, he has. But what makes him so keen about it ? " 
 Sir Morris queried, as he crossed his long legs and stuck 
 one foot towards the blaze. "He's no politician." 
 
 " No ; but he has a good deal at stake. He is anxious 
 for a new scheme of supervision of the forestry lands. He 
 thinks the wood is going into American hands and the 
 money into the wrong pocket," Stanwood answered, while 
 he drew up a chair and settled himself in a position akin 
 to that of Sir Morris. 
 
 " Oh, I see," Sir Morris observed. " Then this election 
 really has been an expensive time to him." 
 
 Stanwood Tyler's foot dropped with a crash to the floor, 
 and he sat forward in his chair. 
 
 " Who has been talking that rot in your ears ? " he 
 demanded sharply. 
 
 Sir Morris searched the deep places of his mind. 
 
 " Why, really, I don't know, Tyler. Perhaps it was
 
 Hearts and Creeds 127 
 
 yes, I remember now, St. Just was the one who spoke of 
 it first." 
 
 " Who else ? " 
 
 " Nobody of any account. I heard one or two fellows 
 speak of it at supper, one night ; but I fancy they had 
 been talking to St. Just. In fact, I know one of them 
 had." 
 
 " And they said ? " Stanwood demanded for a third time. 
 
 Sir Morris reddened. Then he glanced appealingly at 
 Patience. Then he answered honestly, 
 
 " That Brooke Lord might have to retrench a little, un- 
 less the election went his way ; that he was going into it 
 on no shilling basis ; that " Sir Morris reddened again ; 
 " that Brooke Lord was far-seeing, when he let his sister 
 marry Leleu." 
 
 " What ! " Patience burst out indignantly. " He op- 
 posed it with all his might and main. What would he 
 gain by the marriage ? " 
 
 " They say Monsieur Aucune rules the forestry legisla- 
 tion," Sir Morris reminded her. 
 
 Stanwood dropped his folded hands between his knees 
 and looked up at his sister resignedly. 
 
 " Patsy," he said ; " would you just as soon go into the 
 other room, while I swear ? " Then he started to his feet 
 and pushed aside his chair impatiently. "The whole 
 thing is a blasted lie," he said then, with a quiet vehe- 
 mence which added infinitely to the weight of his as- 
 sertion. " St. Just knows it is a lie, though it started 
 from him and was spread by him. I know Brooke Lord. 
 I understand his business. I have, as you might say, 
 audited his accounts. Not one cent of money and not one 
 shred of unlawful influence has gone into this election. 
 Brooke Lord may not be great ; but he is honest to the 
 core of his soul, and his hands are clean. I am willing to 
 stake on his honour my own citizenship in America."
 
 128 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Sir Moms looked up at him with shining eyes. 
 
 " You Ye a good fellow, Tyler, and I believe you,"" was 
 his terse comment. 
 
 But Patience, after the fashion of woman, broke in upon 
 the strain. 
 
 " Meanwhile,"" she said gayly ; " here are we, three inde- 
 pendent and impartial aliens in a city racked by party 
 strife. We all are horribly out of the running, and we need 
 each other's moral support. Stanwood, while you convince 
 Sir Morris that he must stay to lunch with us, I '11 go 
 down to arrange for his place at table." 
 
 A little pause followed her going. Then Sir Morris 
 asked, 
 
 " Tyler, what about St. Just, anyhow ? " 
 
 Stanwood Tyler turned curtly on his heel. 
 
 " Achille St. Just is the prince of devils," he answered, 
 with terse brevity. " There 's no more clever workman in 
 the city of Quebec, to-day. All he needs now is the right 
 kind of a tool, and then no one knows the mischief he 
 can do." 
 
 Sir Morris pondered. 
 
 " Do you has it ever seemed to you " 
 
 But Stanwood cut in, directly as was his wont. 
 
 " That he is in the way to find his tool ? Yes. It has." 
 
 Sir Morris sighed. 
 
 " Poor Leleu ! " he said. 
 
 Jimmy was the last one to appear at dinner, that night. 
 Even Mrs. Brooke Lord's loyal patience for him was wear- 
 ing thin, when he came striding into the room, hilarious 
 and wholly unrepentant. 
 
 " You fellows would best take to the woods, Leleu," he 
 said to his brother-in-law over his shoulder, as he paused 
 to shake hands with Patience. " Your hour has struck. 
 I'm just in from the club, and they say there that the 
 Conservatives are winning all along the line."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 129 
 
 Leleu laughed carelessly. 
 
 " So Arline has been telling me," he answered. 
 
 Jimmy raised his brows. 
 
 " Arline ! What does she know about politics ? " 
 
 " She is learning," Leleu responded, with a little accent 
 of pride. "Your sister is taking great interest in the 
 elections." 
 
 " The deuce she is ! Which side is she on ? " 
 
 "She hasn't stepped down yet," Patience interposed 
 saucily. " You must wait till to-morrow for that. To- 
 day, she is torn between sisterly sympathy and wifely 
 devotion." 
 
 Jimmy looked at her keenly for an instant. 
 
 " Are all women made like that ? " he asked her then. 
 
 And Patience, heedless of her own rising colour, made 
 answer with laughing assurance, 
 
 " Yes, all." 
 
 The answer had been intended solely for Jimmy Lord. 
 Nevertheless, as Patience lifted her eyes, she became con- 
 scious of Leleu's eyes fixed upon her with an eager question 
 which, at her trivial words, relaxed into a look of absolute 
 relief. 
 
 After dinner, a half-dozen other guests dropped in, Con- 
 servatives all of them and among them a senator or two, 
 for politics is more or less a matter of heredity, and Mrs. 
 Brooke Lord's father had been one of the strong men of 
 Sir John MacDonald's day. His daughter, albeit her 
 husband was, as Stanwodd Tyler had said, no politician, 
 nevertheless held true to the old tradition, and her draw- 
 ing-rooms were familiar ground to many of the leaders of 
 her father's party. Even the Tylers and Sir Morris felt 
 themselves outsiders, that night ; and Leleu, the only 
 avowed Liberal of them all, was plainly ill at ease among 
 them. Jimmy's early report had proved to be quite un- 
 founded, and, as the evening lengthened, the faces of the
 
 130 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Conservatives lengthened with it. Then, when the eastern 
 provinces sent in their returns of the Liberal gain, Leleu, 
 jubilant, excited, felt that no longer could he hold himself 
 down into outward harmony with the prevailing gloom. 
 He turned to Arline for sympathy ; but Arline, quite at 
 the other end of the room, was wholly absorbed in a 
 prominent senator, occasionally speaking a few words, but 
 for the most part listening with an eager little smile to the 
 sentences which flowed from his lips. 
 
 Leleu waited until he had caught her eye. Then, lifting 
 his brows and nodding towards the door, he sent her a 
 swift glance of question. She looked back at him calmly, 
 smiled a little and then resumed her interrupted sentence. 
 There was no haste in her manner, no pretext that she had 
 failed to understand. She had merely yielded to him the 
 attention she would have given to a fretful child, and 
 Leleu could only turn away, just as the child would have 
 done. His eyes alone showed how keen had been his pain. 
 
 From the other side of the room, Jimmy was watching. 
 In fact, in these latter days, it often happened that Jimmy 
 was watching. He had come to care much for Leleu ; 
 caring, he could not be wholly unconscious of Arline's too 
 frequent disregard of her husband. As yet, however, he 
 had said no word. He had an instinctive feeling that the 
 time would come when he would speak, freely and with 
 force. In the meantime, he would hold his peace, and 
 merely seek to lighten Leleu's occasional black hours as 
 best he could. 
 
 Now, when he saw Arline"s quiet disdain of her husband^s 
 manifest wish, Jimmy felt a sudden longing to smite her, 
 as he had now and then smitten her in the days of their 
 remote childhood. She was so calm, so beautiful, so in- 
 solently regardless of all but what concerned her own 
 pleasure. Under the admiring eyes of her senile com- 
 panion, she could sit and listen to his inane talk, heedless
 
 Hearts and Creeds 131 
 
 of the fact that her husband was tacitly begging her to 
 come away with him into some place where he could re- 
 joice over the overpowering victory of his own friends. 
 Leleu's eyes had been alight, his smile radiant, as he had 
 waited to meet the eye of his wife. Only Jimmy Lord had 
 seen the light go out, the radiance dim, as he had turned 
 away. And Jimmy Lord was not one to hesitate. He 
 cast one glance into the corner where Sir Morris and 
 Patience were talking gayly. Then he went striding across 
 the room to Leleu's side. 
 
 "Oh, I say," he observed jovially ; "this place is noth- 
 ing but a vale of tears. If this keeps on, they 11 call a 
 chaplain and set him to reading prayers for the dead 
 Conservative party. I 'm a Conservative ; but even I get 
 tired of too much woe. Let's go over to the Drill 
 Hall and see them riot properly."" And, with a word 
 to Mrs. Brooke Lord, he went away and took Leleu with 
 him. 
 
 " How did you happen to go there in the first place ? " 
 he asked, an hour later, as they went tramping out the 
 Grande Alice under the ink-black midnight sky. 
 
 They had found the Drill Hall crowded with a noisy, 
 hilarious, alcoholic throng. The smoke-laden air was torn 
 with cheers, as, one after one, the returns had been flashed 
 upon the screen. Up in the gallery, a fringe of small boys 
 tootled and blared upon tin horns at each new Liberal 
 victory, or gave forth lusty groans, when some Ontario 
 district sent in its tale of a Conservative majority. One 
 or two turns of the floor had sufficed both for Jimmy and 
 for Leleu. They had halted at a telephone long enough 
 for the Frenchman to send his congratulations to his 
 chief; then, coming out again into the clean, chill night 
 air, as if by mutual consent, they turned and walked west- 
 ward out the Grande Allee. 
 
 It had been snowing fast, when they entered the Drill
 
 132 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Hall. The snow had stopped falling by now, however; 
 but it lay, soft and white, over the roadways and clung to 
 the branches of the trees like a filmy blanket of unspun 
 wool. Over their heads, the starless, cloudless sky hung 
 like a black velvet pall above the electric lights. Far 
 away to the westward, the clouds lay heaped together, 
 white and soft as the snow that was heaped in the trees ; 
 and up and up from the white cloud-heaps stretched long 
 banners of white mist, striping the velvet pall with lines of 
 silver lace. 
 
 Leleu paused for an instant, before he answered Jimmy's 
 question. 
 
 " Because Arline wished it," he answered simply then. 
 
 " But this was your function, 11 Jimmy said, with some 
 impatience. " You might have known, Leleu, that Molly's 
 house would be a hotbed of Conservatism, on a night like 
 this. 11 
 
 " I had no thought of intruding, 11 Leleu replied a little 
 curtly. 
 
 " Hang it, man ! That 's not what I mean. You are 
 one of the family now ; you can't well be an intruder. But 
 the whole affair was bound to get on your nerves. You 
 must have had other invitations. 11 
 
 Leleu tramped forward steadily, his eyes on the great 
 white bank of cloud. 
 
 " How did it happen that Monsieur Aucune did n't ask 
 you there ? " Jimmy persisted, after a pause. 
 
 " He did. 11 
 
 " Then why the deuce did n't you go ?" Jimmy asked 
 tartly. " We were glad to have you with us, of course ; 
 but you were sure to be on the rack in any case. A night 
 like this, a fellow is best off with his kind. 11 
 
 Leleu, still with his eyes fixed on the cloud bank, answered 
 briefly, 
 
 " A fellow is always best off with his wife. 11
 
 Hearts and Creeds 133 
 
 Jimmy did not stop to argue the position. 
 
 " Take her with you," he said, with equal brevity. 
 
 There came a little silence. Then Leleu's words dropped 
 heavily across the silence. 
 
 " I tried." 
 
 The silence came again. Jimmy broke it. 
 
 "Leleu," he said, as he rested his hand on the French- 
 man's shoulder ; " you are a good fellow. I hope I am 
 one, too. Anyhow, I don't want to interfere. Still, if 
 the time ever comes that I can be of use, you can count on 
 it that I 'm ready to stand by you." 
 
 The next night, a species of bedlam reigned in the 
 Chateau courtyard. The windows were full of faces, the 
 walls were black with people, the yard itself was edged 
 with carriages drawn up in a hollow square about the 
 citadel band in the middle. There were waving torches, 
 jets of red fire and, over them all, the cold white electric 
 light shone calmly down, reducing all the rest to the 
 tawdry glitter of display. Now and then a wave of cheer- 
 ing swept the crowd, or the band burst into the rhythmic 
 beat of a martial air. Then the clamour died away again, 
 until the buzz of talk could be plainly heard, only to be 
 drowned out once more, as some fresh movement around 
 the doorway aroused the throng to new enthusiasm. All 
 election day and all the next day, the victorious candidate 
 had remained invisible in his rooms at the Chateau. That 
 night had been fixed for his departure, and Quebec had 
 gathered there to make of his departure a royal ovation. 
 
 At last the crowd, pressing forward to the very steps, 
 parted slightly and fell backward, as a tall, slim form came 
 to the doorway, looked out, then halted for one brief in- 
 stant at the top of the short flight of steps. That one 
 instant was enough. The brown Chateau walls rocked to 
 the applause which drowned even the crash of the band. 
 Then, slowly and with infinite, but kindly dignity, the
 
 134 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 tall figure came down the steps, through the ranks of 
 cheering lips, between the rows of curious eyes, stepped 
 into his carriage and, with one last bow, was driven slowly 
 out of the court and out of sight, a figure of steady, 
 kindly dignity, facing forward to the new duties that 
 awaited him. 
 
 Brooke Lord had halted in the cloistered entrance of 
 the courtyard, and stood looking thoughtfully after the 
 carriage and the escorting mob which thronged about its 
 wheels. Then he turned to Leleu who stood at his 
 elbow. 
 
 " It is impossible not to admire the man," he said idly. 
 " And yet they say that every man has his price. What 
 do you suppose, Leleu, your leaders price would be ? " 
 
 And neither Brooke Lord, as he spoke, nor Leleu, as he 
 made laughing answer, paid any heed to the fact that, be- 
 hind them, Achille St. Just had halted just long enough 
 to catch the final phrase.
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
 
 , come now ! " Jimmy Lord expostulated, half in 
 surprise, half in admiration. 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord looked up from her letters. 
 
 " What is it, Jimmy ? " 
 
 As if startled at the question, Jimmy lowered his paper 
 and stared at his sister-in-law. 
 
 " Beg pardon, Molly. You were saying ? " 
 
 " Nothing. I was waiting to hear you say it. What 
 called forth your exclamation, Jimmy ? " 
 
 Jimmy laughed a bit shamefacedly. 
 
 " Did I talk out loud ? Sorry. But my astonishment 
 got the better of me. Have you looked at the paper, 
 this morning ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 "No. I was late, and only had time to give Brooke 
 his coffee. What is it ? " 
 
 Jimmy stirred his own coffee reflectively. 
 
 "It's a trick, 1 " 1 he said; " a flagrant trick ; but it's a 
 mighty clever one. Of course, all the Conservatives are 
 furious over this provincial dissolution, following as it 
 does on the heels of the election. It does look funny : no 
 warning, no split, nothing to give reason for it. 1 ' 
 
 " I suppose they say it is to strengthen their hand, 
 while they can," Mrs. Brooke Lord observed. 
 
 " Precisely. Still, it 's a bit like a man who tries to 
 show five aces, when four have been honestly dealt him. 
 Well, last night's Cartier called on the Conservatives to 
 manifest their disapproval by refusing to put up any 
 candidate at all for the elections,"
 
 136 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord shook her head again. 
 
 ** I really can't see what good that will do." 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 " Where 's your famous scent for politics, Molly ? 
 Nominally, it will register their belief that the dissolution 
 is illegal. Really " 
 
 " Well ? " she jogged him. 
 
 Jimmy laughed once more. 
 
 " In reality, it will reduce the party to the state of the 
 cats of Kilkenny. Being politicians, they must fight ; 
 they are bound to do so. Lacking an outside enemy, they 
 will fall on each other and, inside of a month, the political 
 fur will begin to fly. Hullo ! What 's this ? " 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord's eyes rested on his thin, close-shut 
 lips, and she waited. She had lived long enough in the 
 house with Jimmy Lord to know that he would speak 
 when he was ready, and not till then. At length Jimmy 
 looked up. 
 
 " Funny thing, that," he said carelessly. " This quotes 
 the Cartier as saying that a certain well-known Liberal has 
 given out that there may be a marked change soon in the 
 leadership of their own party. The Cartier has been 
 guessing." But a cloud was in his eyes, as he rose and 
 left the table. 
 
 Just outside the door, he met Patience. Furred to her 
 chin and her cheeks bright with the morning wind, the 
 girl was tramping westward at a great pace. Under her 
 feet, bits of snow still clung to the pavement, where they 
 crackled sharply beneath her tread. The distant hills 
 were white, and the sky above them shone with the light 
 of a deep-toned sapphire. 
 
 " Whither ? " Jimmy demanded, as he lifted his hat, 
 then dropped into her long, swinging step. 
 
 " Anywhere, so long as there is air and sunshine," she 
 replied alertly. "These last gray days have been so
 
 Hearts and Creeds 137 
 
 dreary that I rushed out, this morning, to make the most 
 of the clear weather. How is Molly ? " 
 
 " Beating her brows over the latest vagaries of your 
 party, Miss Liberal."" 
 
 " What about the latest game of yours, Mr. Conserva- 
 tive ? " she retorted. 
 
 " You 've read the papers, then ? " 
 
 " Of course. Stanwood was so excited that he forgot 
 his second cup of coffee. What do you think will be the 
 result ? " 
 
 Jimmy summed up the situation tersely. 
 
 " No end of a row ; no end of men downed ; some 
 scandal, and a few men left to clamber up into the chief 
 seats." 
 
 " A few good men," she suggested. 
 
 " A few good fighters," he corrected her. 
 
 Dauntlessly she shook her head. 
 
 " In time the best man wins." 
 
 " In eternity, you mean," Jimmy observed, with some 
 pessimism. "In any case, it's a jolly row, and no great 
 credit to the province. The only good I can see in it 
 is that Leleu may get his chance. I hear Aucune has 
 advised him to stand for Tete Joli." 
 
 " Really ? He is bound to get it, 1 ' Patience said alertly. 
 " He is clever enough, and I suppose he has any amount 
 of influence. By the way, leaving politics, were you at 
 your sister's, last night ? " 
 
 Jimmy shook his head. 
 
 " I was," he said gloomily ; " but it was n't leaving 
 politics in the least." 
 
 " What do you mean ?" 
 
 " That the place was a veritable caucus. I was the 
 only noncombatant there. She 'd pulled together all of 
 Leleu's cronies and all of Molly's venerables, and packed 
 them solid into a twelve by fifteen room. The punch was
 
 138 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 good, and they liked it. By the time they had had a 
 second glass, every man of them all had mounted his hobby, 
 and they galloped round and round in a circle, with Arline 
 in the middle for ring master and St. Just beside her as 
 clown."" Jimmy ended in a swift climax of disgust. 
 
 " Monsieur St. Just ! " Patience said quickly. " I wish 
 Arline did n't like that man."" 
 
 " Arline does n't care for him," Jimmy answered care- 
 lessly. " He is an old friend of Leleu ; that 's all." 
 
 "Friend! He's a perfect Trojan horse," Patience 
 said, with unexpected viciousness. " He is a hollow 
 mockery and a whitewashed sepulchre, and Arline ought 
 to turn him out of her house. 1 ' 
 
 " How can she ?" Jimmy queried. 
 
 " The way I did," Patience replied vehemently. 
 " There ! I had no business to tell of it, But I wish you 
 could make Arline snub him a bit. He is as dangerous as 
 a small-pox epidemic, and as deadly." 
 
 Jimmy eyed her askance. 
 
 " You don't like St. Just ? " he inquired placidly. 
 
 " No ; I don't. But tell me about Arline. Was she 
 lovely? And who else was there? And is it a fact that 
 she is going to receive, every Monday night ? Stanwood 
 and I wanted to go ; but we had promised Sir Morris that 
 we 'd dine with him at the Falls, and we were late about 
 getting home." 
 
 " Oh." Jimmy's cadence was a falling one. " So that 
 was where you all were ? " 
 
 " Yes. It was the last chance to sit out on the gallery, 
 this year ; it is growing cold so fast. Sir Morris said he 
 should have asked you, only he knew you would have to 
 be at the Leleus'." 
 
 " He might have given me the chance to refuse," Jimmy 
 said bluntly. Then he added, with equal bluntness, " Oh, 
 I say, I went to church with Leleu, Sunday."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 139 
 
 " How queer ! " Patience commented, with rather ex- 
 cessive frankness. 
 
 Jimmy frowned thoughtfully. 
 
 "Yes, it was queer, mighty queer. I can smell the 
 incense yet. I'd not been to the Basilica since I was a 
 youngster ; I Ve no idea what it was all about, but it was 
 no end impressive, and it was good to see Leleu's face, 
 while he went in for it all." 
 
 Patience nodded, in swift comprehension. Then she 
 added, 
 
 " But how did you happen to go ? " 
 
 " Gave myself to Moloch, or Juggernaut, or some of 
 those fellows. I dropped in there early, and I happened 
 to find Arline on her nerves." 
 
 " What is the matter now ? " Patience demanded sharply. 
 
 Jimmy eyed her bright face with a brotherly benignity. 
 
 " Now," he echoed. " Well, I fancy you Ve just about 
 hit it, Miss Tyler. It generally is now. Of course, Arline 
 is my sister, and I must n't tell tales ; but you are there 
 so often that it's not necessary. Leleu is a Catholic. 
 Arline says that he 's a bigot ; but the poor chap is n't 
 always in a bed of roses. This time, it 's the Vice Royalty 
 racket. Leleu is asked to the Laval function, you see. 
 His uncle looks out for that. Arline was none too sure 
 that she approved of that, in the first place ; she was a 
 good deal less sure, when she heard that Molly had been 
 asked to Spencer Wood to meet them. By the time she 
 had discovered that Sir Morris has been able to get us a 
 snug corner for Thursday night, she was absolutely certain 
 that she disapproved the whole affair entirely. I tried 
 to convince her that Brooke was out of it, too. Leleu 
 tried to make her understand that, as a rule, wives weren't 
 asked to Laval. Then we came off together, and Leleu 
 looked so down on his luck that I asked him to take me 
 to church with him."
 
 140 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "And he did?" 
 
 " Yes, even me," Jimmy answered whimsically. " Still, 
 do you know," he added, with sudden gravity ; " I Ve a 
 notion he did n't mind having one of the family with him. 
 So far as I know, Arline has never once been there with 
 him, and and it must be a bit galling to his pride." 
 
 Jimmy had spoken truthfully and with unerring insight. 
 The attitude of Arline had been galling to Leleu's pride, 
 very galling. Never for one instant had he hoped, or 
 even wished, to convert his wife to the tenets of his own 
 church. Nevertheless, it had hurt him sorely that she, 
 knowing how dear to him was his church, had never failed 
 to ignore the claims of that church, or to treat them with 
 open disdain. 
 
 Week after week, Arline watched him set out to the 
 Basilica alone, watched him return without a word of 
 interest or question. His days of fasting she treated with 
 unspoken scorn ; his books of devotion and his chaplet 
 were relegated to an inconspicuous corner behind a closet 
 door. Petty as it all was, it yet amounted to a species 
 of domestic torture. Leleu, too proud, too hurt in his 
 pride, to stoop to notice it, could only shut up within the 
 hiding-places of his life both the hurt and the undying 
 love of his church, and hold his peace and make no sign. 
 And Arline, beautiful, unrelenting, watched it all with 
 her hard, imperious smile and, reading her husband like 
 an open book, told herself that the time would come 
 when, by sheer force of will, she would divorce him from 
 the Church of Rome and bend him to the more plastic 
 sway of her own episcopacy. Her aim in this, however, 
 was not Leleu's spiritual redemption, but merely adherence 
 to the convention of her own race and class. Leleu, on 
 his side, was not slow to read her motive. To his mind, 
 it only increased the difficulty of his position. Beneath 
 his dark skin the tides of his being ran hot and swift. It
 
 Hearts and Creeds 141 
 
 was not always easy to keep his devotions quiet and free 
 from petulance, under conditions such as these. 
 
 By degrees, as the time went on, he formed the habit 
 of dropping in for early mass at the Seminary chapel. 
 Arline was always late on Sunday morning; she never 
 stopped to inquire where he spent his time between rising 
 and breakfast. For that hour, his devotions could be 
 quite unquestioned. And so, morning after morning, he 
 entered the familiar gateway, opened the heavy doors at 
 the left and came into the rich-coloured shadow of the 
 little chapel where he had so often knelt as a boy. Kneel- 
 ing there again in the shade of one of the dark-veined 
 pillars, he buried his face in his hands and prayed with a 
 fervour to which his boyhood had been a stranger, prayed 
 that the day might come when his wedded life, freed from 
 the pricking opposition, might at last be all and more 
 than that of which he yet dreamed. For Leleu, in spite 
 of all and perhaps because of all, loved his wife with a 
 loyalty that lacked but little of adoration. If only he 
 could be all in all to her, as she was all in all to him ! 
 Even now, she had moments, hours, when she showed her- 
 self gentle and loving. With him and with him alone it 
 rested to make those hours unbroken. But how ? He 
 bowed his head yet lower. Then he rose, and went for- 
 ward to the altar rail. 
 
 The question came back upon him, a week later, as he 
 sat in the Hall of Promotions, listening to the farewell 
 compliments exchanged between the university and Vice 
 Royalty. High above all the heads and from opposite 
 ends of the wall, the compliments repeated themselves. 
 The Vice Royal arms, surmounted by the flags of England, 
 France and America, faced down the hall towards the 
 arms of Laval mounted on the tricolour and topped with 
 the English flag. Education was extending to statecraft 
 a welcoming hand; but education in Laval was firmly
 
 142 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 based upon the three broad stripes of blue and white and 
 red. The audience assembled beneath the flags showed 
 somewhat of the same distinction. Gathered on the dais 
 was the knot of officials, French and English, dressed in 
 their most formal array. Here an order, there a uniform 
 broke the dark monotony of frock coats, and the half- 
 dozen women of the group added their touch of dainty 
 colour to the scene. Facing them from the floor sat long 
 ranks of clergy, some with simple soutane and beretta, 
 some clad in robes of richest silk, ermine-faced and hooded 
 with green and blue and purple and scarlet. Everywhere 
 were the tonsured heads and the lean, ascetic faces of the 
 French priesthood, standing out in sharp relief against 
 the more pompous luxury of the group of statesmen 
 above. 
 
 From his seat in the gallery, Leleu's keen eye swept 
 over it all, resting here and there upon a well-known face, 
 contrasting it all with the day, seven years before, when 
 he, frock-coated and green-sashed, had stood by the outer 
 door, watching those same ranks of clergy file in to do 
 honour to the highest dignitary whom Rome could send 
 them. Then, eager, resolute, he had counted upon the 
 day when all things should be in his grasp. Now, bidden 
 to the inner circle of things, his grasp growing stronger 
 upon all that he had then dreamed of wishing, he yet was 
 missing his hold upon the greatest thing of all. That 
 was Arline. 
 
 Quite without reference to the bland compliments which 
 Vice Royalty was lavishing upon his university, his dark 
 brows gathered into a frown.' No wonder Arline had 
 been annoyed. Accustomed to the ways of English and 
 American universities, she found it hard to realize the 
 purely masculine nature of the functions of Laval. And, 
 quite naturally, it was galling to her pride to have Molly, 
 by reason of her ancestry, and Patience, by reason of Sir
 
 Hearts and Creeds 143 
 
 Morris, bidden to a higher seat at the civil function, that 
 night, than he had commanded for her. Perhaps he could 
 have commanded it, had he been more strenuous in regard to 
 the matter ; but it had never once occurred to him that 
 Arline would care so much. He had been absent at Tete 
 Joli, when the preliminary plans had been announced. 
 The first days of his return had been days of mad haste, of 
 endless interviews with his chief, of plan and counter-plan 
 how best to carry his county against the old Conservative 
 so long in power. Now he reproached himself for his 
 self-absorption. Women cared for pomp and ceremony 
 and Vice Royal farewells. Arline was very much a 
 woman ; she was not, however, the woman to submit to 
 being left in an inconspicuous corner. Rather than that, 
 she would remain at home. 
 
 In fact, had it not been for Jimmy, she would have 
 adhered to her resolution to remain at home, that night. 
 By some mistake, Leleu's cards had been late in coming, 
 and Arline had iterated her determination not to go 
 near the city hall in any case. In vain Leleu had coaxed 
 and pleaded ; in vain he had sought to use a gentle force. 
 Arline had resisted, resisted by turns with cold dignity 
 and childish petulance, and Leleu at length had given up 
 the fight and prepared to go alone. Then, that morning, 
 Jimmy had dropped in upon them while they were still at 
 breakfast. He had been as jovial and apparently as care- 
 less as ever ; but there had been a steely glint in his eyes. 
 Leleu had excused himself and gone away to his office, 
 leaving the brother and sister alone together, apparently 
 engrossed in random gossip. An hour later, he had been 
 called to the telephone. A husky voice, which he had 
 been slow to recognize as that of his wife, had briefly 
 informed him that she had decided to go to the reception, 
 that night. 
 
 At lunch, Arline's eyes were heavy, her smile forced;
 
 144 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 but her whole manner to him was marked with a gentle 
 deference to which of late it had been a stranger. Later, 
 as he was dressing for the afternoon, she knocked at his 
 door. 
 
 " I wanted to make sure that your things were right," 
 she said, as she crossed the room and halted at his side 
 before the mirror. " You must look your best, to-day." 
 
 He smiled, not at her, but at her face in the mirror. 
 For a long moment their eyes met by way of the glass, 
 met and hung together. Then, turning suddenly, he took 
 her in his arms. 
 
 " Arline," he asked ; " do you really care ? " 
 
 He felt the pressure of her round cheek against his 
 shoulder. Then she lifted her head. 
 
 " Amedee," she said abruptly ; " I wish it could be, 
 always and always, like this." 
 
 He made no effort to evade her meaning. Instead, he 
 asked quietly, 
 
 " Is there any reason that it can not ? " 
 
 She broke away from him and faced him. 
 
 " Yes, there is." 
 
 The colour left his face. 
 
 " What then ? " he asked slowly, the words catching in 
 his throat. 
 
 " Myself. Wait ! " She lifted her hand imperiously. 
 " Don't deny it. We both of us know it, so why deny ? 
 Now and then, I am like two different people. One of 
 them loves you, Amedee, loves you really. The other " 
 
 " Well ? " he urged her. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " I don't know," she answered sadly. " It is all so cold. 
 It loves nothing very much, except bare living, and even 
 that must be lived in a given way. Don't blame me, 
 Amedee. We women none of us are always just alike. 
 Always we all want love ; but sometimes it satisfies us,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 145 
 
 sometimes it seems to leave us empty, and we turn away 
 to other things.' 1 
 
 He stood silent for long minutes, his dark eyes fixed 
 upon the carpet at his feet. Then slowly he raised his 
 eyes and faced her. 
 
 " Arline," he said ; " I would give up all things outside, 
 for the sake of holding your love." 
 
 She lifted her eyes to his ; but she spoke no word. 
 
 " I mean it, dear," he urged. " Gladly, more gladly 
 than I can say, I would turn away from it all, my career, 
 my election. I would give it all up, if, by the giving, I 
 could draw you closer to me." 
 
 Suddenly her lip curled, and she spoke sharply. 
 
 " Amedee, no man living could win a woman's love in 
 r ; ny such a way as that. Renunciation is no part for a 
 man to play. It warms our pity ; but it chills our love." 
 
 His face clouded again, and he took a swift turn up and 
 down the room. Then he came back to the window and 
 stood for long looking down into the gray Cathedral close. 
 When he spoke at last, his accent was indescribably sad 
 and pleading. 
 
 " What is it then, Arline ? " he asked. " Something is 
 drawing us apart. Is it that I demand too much of you ? " 
 
 She faced him. 
 
 " No," she said, with a sort of breathless vehemence. 
 " No ; not half enough." Then, turning abruptly, she 
 left him standing there alone. 
 
 10
 
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
 
 " T HAVE come on a mission, 11 Jimmy observed, as he 
 took off his coat and flung it over a chair. 
 
 Without stirring otherwise, Stanwood Tyler took his 
 pipe from between his teeth. 
 
 " Good Lord ! You ! " 
 
 "Change the accent, and it will sound more compli- 
 mentary, 11 Jimmy admonished him. " Your tone is melo- 
 dious, Tyler." 
 
 " Yes, I Ve a sort of a cold," Stanwood admitted grudg- 
 ingly, though his voice suggested the first frog of the 
 springtime. 
 
 " So your sister said. Therein lies the mission, and you 
 are the heathen IVe come to visit. Suppose this seat 
 will bear ? " And Jimmy lowered his long figure into a 
 fragile chair of gilded wood and straw, then, alarmed at 
 its creaking, he rose hastily and pushed it to one side. 
 " Infernal things, those ! " he said blandly. u Why will a 
 woman always have one round in the way ? No fellow can 
 talk coherently, when he expects the next minute to land 
 him sprawling on the rug." 
 
 His host laughed unfeelingly. 
 
 " Missionaries are expected to put up with a bad time 
 of it. Did you say Patience sent you ? " 
 
 Abolishing the flimsy seat to a corner, Jimmy rolled 
 up a substantial oaken chair and settled himself before 
 the fire. 
 
 " Not exactly sent me, you know," he responded, when he 
 was arranged to his liking. "She merely implied that you
 
 Hearts and Creeds 147 
 
 would be glad to see me. Said she was going sliding with 
 Sir Morris, out at the Falls, and that you were shut up 
 with a cold and needed entertainment. I suggested that 
 Sir Morris was better at entertaining than I am, and that 
 anybody could steer a sled ; but she stood to her first 
 arrangement. 1 " 
 
 Stanwood Tyler lifted his hand protestingly. 
 
 " Save my feelings, Jimmy," he begged. 
 
 Jimmy laughed. Then he fell to prodding the fire. 
 
 " Hang your feelings, Tyler, and save your sister ! " he 
 retorted. " I am willing to bet that that fellow can't steer 
 a toboggan, much less a sled. Hell probably upset her 
 and break her arm and skin his own nose. Meanwhile, 
 let's gossip."" 
 
 " What about ? " 
 
 " Oh, anything you say : Molly, Arline, Leleu's election, 
 St. Just's getting his grip on the editorial pen, the stam- 
 peding Vice Royalty " 
 
 " What was that ? " Stanwood queried, as he refilled his 
 pipe from the curved palm of his left hand. 
 
 "Weren't you there? It was just as they came into 
 Du Fort Street. Some Johnny threw a lighted squib 
 in among the horses of the Vice Royal equipage. They 
 tried to climb a telephone pole and, while they were climb- 
 ing, another squib reminded the horses of some of the 
 guard that it was etiquette for them to assist. Result : 
 broken straps, broken second commandment, and general 
 chaos." 
 
 Stanwood looked up from above his matchsafe. 
 
 " Political manoeuvre ? " he inquired tersely. 
 
 " Not this time ; only mere alcoholic merrymaking. It 
 came near being something worse, though. What did you 
 think ? A new Guy Fawkes?" 
 
 His companion shook his head. 
 
 " No ; only the old St. Just."
 
 148 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "Oh, I say!" Jimmy remonstrated. "That's slander. 
 I merely proposed to gossip." 
 
 Between his stertorious puffings, Stanwood spoke with 
 obvious effort for epigram. 
 
 " Slander presupposes some increment of villainy." 
 
 " Good words, only they don't mean anything," Jimmy 
 commented. " Who increments, you or St. Just ? " 
 
 " He could n't," Stanwood responded briefly. 
 
 " Don't be too sure. He 's young yet. But what do you 
 suppose was his game in helping on Leleu's election ? 
 Even Aucune says Leleu never could have made it, with- 
 out the help of the Cartier? 
 
 Stanwood wrinkled his brows. 
 
 " The motive was bound to be there. The only trouble 
 is that we can't find it. St. Just never acts on impulse." 
 
 " Still," Jimmy suggested ; " you know he was a friend 
 of Leleu in Paris." 
 
 " Nor on sentiment," Stanwood growled, without troub- 
 ling himself to open his teeth. 
 
 " Then you think ? " Jimmy said interrogatively. 
 
 For a moment, Stanwood chewed savagely at the stem 
 of his pipe. Then he took the bowl of his pipe in the 
 hollow of his hand and used the stem to point his words. 
 
 " To use the phraseology of our national game of cards," 
 he remarked thoughtfully ; " St. Just is filling his hand to 
 a knave high. He may get four of a kind ; he may end 
 up with a bobtail flush. In any case, he is going to bluff 
 till the last minute and avoid a showdown if he can. He 's 
 playing a shrewd game and a careful one ; but it may all 
 go up in smoke." 
 
 Jimmy pondered. 
 
 " Perhaps. He is getting some strong cards, though. 
 It's not the weakest of them, his having control of the 
 paper just now." 
 
 "It's not the weakest of them, these charges against
 
 Hearts and Creeds 149 
 
 the government," Stanwood Tyler retorted. " Those two 
 senators have played straight into St. Just's hand. With- 
 out some sort of a crisis, the paper would have been of no 
 use to him. Its line of policy has never swerved. Under 
 any ordinary conditions, St. Just is too sane a man to 
 tamper with it. As it is, no past policy can hold good in 
 this present crisis. He is bound to take some sort of a 
 new ground in this matter, and he stands or falls, accord- 
 ing to the side on which he chooses his ground." 
 
 Then, of a sudden, Jimmy had recourse to the vernacular 
 of his schoolboy days. 
 
 " Unless he straddles," he suggested tersely. 
 
 And, meanwhile, the subject of their talk was seated 
 beside the tea table of Mrs. Brooke Lord. 
 
 " You were going out ? " he had questioned, as she came 
 into the room to greet him. 
 
 " Not until later," she reassured him. 
 
 With swift dexterity, he drew forward a chair for her, 
 divining as by instinct which was her favourite seat, which 
 the warmest corner of the hearth. Mrs. Brooke Lord 
 smiled a little, however, as she noted the anxious care he 
 bestowed upon placing the chair with its back to the 
 light. Thirty-five and with a sprinkling of premature 
 gray in her dark hair, she yet saw no need of seeking to 
 disguise the ravages of time. 
 
 " I knew it was not your day at home," St. Just said, 
 when they were both seated. " However, I ventured to 
 come, this afternoon. My time is not wholly my own 
 now." 
 
 Jimmy, had he been there, would have been swift to 
 challenge the statement. Never, to his mind, had St. 
 Just's time been more absolutely his own than since his 
 chief had been ordered south. And not only his time was 
 his own, but his paper as well. Mrs. Brooke Lord, how- 
 ever, inclined to a more sympathetic view of things.
 
 150 Heart* and Creeds 
 
 " I know,"" she assented. " You must be very busy, es- 
 pecially at a time like this, when everything is in such tur- 
 moil. This new year is beginning a most exciting chapter." 
 
 St. Just looked up alertly. 
 
 " Ah ! Then you follow it, too ? " 
 
 " Why not ? I am a Conservative, you know, and now- 
 adays we Conservatives have nothing to do but to follow 
 it up." 
 
 " But I too am a Conservative," he reminded her ; " and 
 I have much to do." 
 
 " For your paper ? Yes. But what do you think will 
 be the outcome of it all ? " 
 
 St. Just shrugged his shoulders. He had no intention 
 of wasting his powder on a random shot. 
 
 " I think with your husband and with the other men of 
 our party." 
 
 The powder was not wasted. 
 
 " That there must be a change of leader, if the Liberals 
 are to stay in power ? " Mrs. Brooke Lord asked. 
 
 St. Just lowered his eyes, lest they betray his satisfac- 
 tion. For a month, now, he had been too busy in watching 
 the manoeuvring of the Liberal party to pay any great 
 heed to the comments of the other faction. There were 
 those, indeed, even among the Liberals, who declared that 
 St. Just's part in the manoeuvres was not entirely limited 
 to that of mere spectator. In the meantime, however, he 
 had rather lost touch with his avowed constituency. 
 Arline's weekly gatherings still continued ; but he was 
 shrewd enough to see that the Liberal faction was steadily 
 gaining ground among her guests and that it was only a 
 question of weeks before the few Conservatives vanished 
 altogether. That done, it would be an open question 
 how long Arline's ambition would serve to maintain her 
 interest in her attempted salon. In the meantime, Arline 
 had been of untold assistance to him.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 151 
 
 Urged on by her apparent interest in his widening 
 political career, Leleu had seen to it that their rooms, 
 each Monday night, were filled with the best of the 
 younger men of his own party. Under the influence of 
 their gracious, smiling hostess and of the refreshment 
 which she gave them, each man not only told his creed, 
 but he told it well. Arline's ambition was greedy ; but 
 she was no dunce. She was quick to learn that these men, 
 men whose words were quoted in office corridors and on 
 the corners of streets, were giving her of their intellectual 
 best. She also was quick to learn that their intellectual 
 best, albeit set forth in Gallic phrase, was in no way second 
 to the talk she had been wont to hear over the teacups of 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord. And Mrs. Brooke Lord's gift was a 
 mere inheritance ; her own she herself had won. Of course, 
 Leleu had helped her at the start ; but he would have 
 been powerless to go on alone. And St. Just himself had 
 helped her ; but Arline preferred not to think of that. 
 Neither did she care to think of some of St. Just's recent 
 editorials, forecasting the future of the provincial parties. 
 Thinking of them, it would have been impossible for her 
 to have disregarded the sources of his inspiration. Rather 
 than that, she chose to dwell upon the obvious social 
 success of her brilliant little receptions. 
 
 And now, while St. Just, with infinite tact, was leading 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord into a discussion in which her talk could 
 not fail to reflect the colour of talk about her tea table, 
 Patience and Sir Morris were spending a golden January 
 afternoon on the big slide at Bureau's. 
 
 For a week, Sir Morris had been in training for the 
 event. All the previous winter, he had confined himself 
 solely to the toboggan ; this year, he had developed aspira- 
 tions towards one of the wide, clumsy sleds, infinitely less 
 picturesque, infinitely more dangerous in the hands of the 
 novice. On one memorable day, he had suffered himself
 
 152 Hearts and Creed* 
 
 to be taken down the slide on the sled of a burly habitant 
 hireling. Till the end of time, he would hold the recollec- 
 tion of the dizzy moment when he balanced, rocking slightly, 
 at the top of that almost perpendicular wall of ice, of the 
 sinking at the pit of his stomach, as he went over the edge, 
 of the breathless sweep downwards, of the smug satisfaction 
 of spinning along, quite uninjured, over the level ice at 
 the foot of the slide. On a toboggan, Sir Morris had felt 
 safe enough. The six inches he was raised above the level 
 of the ice had seemed to multiply to infinity the chances 
 of disaster. Terrified to the core of his big, boyish soul, 
 Sir 4 Morris yet did not funk. The sensation was new. He 
 would proceed to assimilate it. 
 
 , Morning after morning, he journeyed out to Bureau's. 
 Morning after morning, he was promoted until, from being 
 a mere bit of immovable freight, he had become past mas- 
 ter in the art of steering. The terror departed ; but the 
 charm remained. Then, when the habitant hireling could 
 teach him nothing more, Sir Morris went in search of 
 Patience. 
 
 The train to the Falls was full, that afternoon ; but Sir 
 Morris and Patience were quite unaware of the attention 
 of which they were the object. Sir Morris was wholly 
 absorbed in his companion ; Patience was like a happy 
 child off for a holiday. For three days, she had been 
 standing guard over a wholly restless semi-invalid. She 
 liked Sir Morris ; and, besides, the afternoon was all golden 
 and azure and white, and dazzling withal. She was con- 
 scious of a perfect contentment, as she stood with Sir 
 Morris in the rear of the elevator, looking down over the 
 dark mill roofs, out upon the shining, ice-bound river where 
 the long train of sledges, like great black ants in the dis- 
 tance, crawled slowly across the ice-bridge to the Island. 
 
 From the seat above and behind them, kindly eyes 
 stared down upon the unconscious pair. All the world
 
 Hearts and Creeds 153 
 
 may love a lover ; but the love is never so obvious as when 
 the lover is young and comely and hall-marked with 
 prosperity. Sir Morris, that day, was especially good to 
 look upon. Big and blond and ruddy, he wore the white 
 blanket suit of the snowshoe club, the black-striped scarlet 
 tuque and trunks and mittens, and his brand-new yellow 
 moccasins were marvels of gaudy embroidery. Beside his 
 vivid colour, Patience, in her sealskin coat and hat, looked 
 modest as a soft brown sparrow, save for her glowing face 
 and for the bright scarlet kerchief that showed at the 
 open neck of her coat. And no sparrow, however deceit- 
 fully modest of mien, was ever more alert and perky of 
 mood than was Patience Tyler on that January day. 
 
 At the suggestion of Sir Morris, they had brought 
 their snowshoes with them. Halting at the top of the 
 elevator just long enough to lash the thongs about their 
 ankles, they had rounded the low white cottage with its 
 flanking guns, crossed the spruce-covered tunnel of the 
 road, crossed the bridge, crossed a field or two, and then 
 turned sharply to the north. On the left was the forest- 
 bordered river ; before them and on their right, the open 
 fields stretched away and up into the heart of the shining 
 mountains ; beneath their feet, the glistening surface of 
 the snow was scarred by no track. The spirit of the 
 Canadian winter, silent, impressive and beautiful, was all 
 about them and, awed by its impressive beauty, they too, 
 aliens both, fell silent in their turn. 
 
 For a long while, they kept on steadily, feeling their 
 footing as by instinct, loath as they were to lower their 
 eyes from the picture that encircled them. Then Sir 
 Morris, still without a word, turned westward towards 
 the river, came under the shadow of a grove of sugar 
 maples and, halting there, held up a warning hand. As 
 by magic, the stillness had vanished, and they were sur- 
 rounded with the busy murmur of the winter forest :
 
 1 54 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the sighing of the trees, the crackling of the branches in 
 the still, cold air, the faint, distant note of an occasional 
 bird. Then, with a rustle and a rush, a fox shot past 
 them and, with Patience's exclamation, the spell was 
 broken. Laughing and chattering like a pair of merry 
 children, they made the round of the maple grove, pried 
 and peered in at the sugar house, sat down to rest on a 
 snow-heaped log, raced up a steep incline and then, turn- 
 ing, struck into their former trail and went plodding back 
 again to the head of the falls. 
 
 They talked much on the way : of the summer, of Sir 
 Morris's cousin in the Police, of Stanwood and Arline 
 and even of Jimmy. Now and then, the replies of Sir 
 Morris came a bit at random ; but his clean blue eyes 
 never wavered from Patience's eager face. For the hour, 
 he was weighing the girl as never before, weighing her 
 in the generations-old scales of his race and kin, of his 
 training and tradition, weighing her and in no one 
 essential finding her wanting. And Patience, wholly 
 unconscious of it all, chattered on in blithe content. 
 Her content was for the present hour and for her 
 present companion. With the future it concerned itself 
 not at all. 
 
 At the back door of Bureau's, they untied their snow- 
 shoes and shook off the snow which, dust-dry, powdered 
 their clothing to their shoulders. Sir Morris provided 
 himself with a sled and, side by side, they climbed to the 
 top of the nearer slide. Patience was still chattering 
 gayly ; but Sir Morris had grown suddenly still. Around 
 them, the chatter and shouts of the other sliders cut 
 through and through the frosty air ; but in utter silence 
 Sir Morris awaited his turn, swung his heavy sled into 
 position at the top of the slide and settled Patience 
 firmly on the front of the sled. Then he took his place 
 behind her, half reclining, his right arm grasping the sled
 
 Hearts and Creeds 155 
 
 far forward at her side, and his head stuck through the 
 curve of her encircling left arm. 
 
 " Ready ? " he asked tersely. 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 The next instant, they were holding their breath, as the 
 sled dropped over the face of the slide, went tearing down 
 the dazzling ice-wall and then glided smoothly away 
 towards the foot of the distant opposite slide. 
 
 Sir Morris never spoke, until the sled was slowing down 
 to an almost imperceptible pace. Then he gave a sigh of 
 absolute relief. 
 
 " Oh, I say, 11 he blurted out abruptly ; " don't you wish 
 we could always go on like this, through life, I mean ? " 
 
 And Patience, although she realized all the repressed 
 fervour of his words, nevertheless could not refrain from 
 glancing down at her own huddled figure, at her short 
 skirt blown aside from her shabby yellow moccasins, and 
 at the head of Sir Morris with its scarlet cheeks and wind- 
 ruffled, hair, sticking out from the encircling curve of her 
 throttling arm. She looked, and then, quite involuntarily 
 and to her own everlasting remorse, she burst into a peal 
 of laughter.
 
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
 
 Leleu glanced up at his wife with the little smile 
 which so rarely failed to answer to her voice. 
 
 " You wish ? " he queried. 
 
 Above her rich sable collar, her face was bright and 
 winning, an indescribable cajolery was in her tone. 
 
 " Is it granted ? " she asked banteringly. 
 
 Leleu's smile broke into a laugh. 
 
 " As soon as asked, 1 ' he responded. 
 
 " Truly ? " she urged, as her golden-brown brows went 
 upward and the eyes beneath them showed a little gleam 
 in their dark blue depths. 
 
 Regardless of the little crowd on the terrace, Leleu 
 turned and swept her from head to heel with his loving, 
 eager gaze. 
 
 " Do I ever refuse you, when you speak in that voice ? " 
 he asked her then. 
 
 " Not often. Not as often as you should.*" The caress- 
 ing cadence was still there. "It is good to be spoiled, 
 Amedee. And now " 
 
 " Now I spoil you ? " he inquired, in affectionate mock- 
 ery. " Well, why not, since we both enjoy it ? " 
 
 She laughed again, as she drew a bit closer to his side. 
 After all, there was a certain pleasure in a Sunday noon 
 stroll on the sunshiny terrace, even though her husband's 
 coat still carried in its folds a faint, sweet smell of incense, 
 left there during the Sunday morning mass in the gray old 
 Basilica whither she never once had followed him. Arline,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 157 
 
 herself, as if to prove that her Catholic marriage had 
 changed no whit of her own attitude to things spiritual, was 
 scrupulously careful and regular in her seat on the middle 
 aisle of the Cathedral. Leleu was always awaiting her 
 outside the door, when her service was ended. In the early 
 days of their married life, Arline had met him with a cer- 
 tain constraint. Later, a slight flavour of patronage had 
 mingled itself with the constraint ; but, during the past 
 few weeks, both patronage and constraint had vanished. 
 In their place had sprung up a little sense of gratified 
 ambition, as she watched the growing cordiality of the 
 salutes vouchsafed to her husband. Leleu's election at 
 Tete Joli had won out by a narrow majority, and it was 
 open talk that only by the support of a strong Conserva- 
 tive influence such as that of the Cartier, could he have 
 won out at all. Nevertheless, in the light of the hitherto 
 unchanging Conservatism of the Tete Joli electors, even 
 his small majority and his Cartier support had been ac- 
 cepted as proof of the general theory that Amedee Leleu 
 was a man worth watching. Whatever the cause, how- 
 ever, the fact remained that Leleu was to take his seat on 
 the Liberal side of the house, in early February, and that, 
 meanwhile, Arline was finding an added pleasure in her 
 Sunday noon walk on the terrace at his side, even though 
 his Sunday coat did bear evidences of having been worn 
 inside the doors of the Basilica. 
 
 "If you wish to know the theological tenets of any 
 woman here, just sniff at her furs,"" Patience had said, at 
 the end of her first winter, and Patience's method would 
 not have led her too far amiss. 
 
 Arline, however, went one point beyond. As a rule, 
 she saw to it that Leleu should leave his fur-lined coat 
 behind him, when he went to church on Sunday morning. 
 
 He had put it on again, that noon, however, when he 
 had started for the terrace, and Arline, as she had met
 
 158 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 him outside the Cathedral door, had been conscious of a 
 certain satisfaction in the fact that, quite obviously, her 
 husband was the most attractive man of the groups lined 
 up at either end of the steps. The long, straight lines of 
 his coat added apparent inches to his height ; the silvery 
 sheen of the unplucked otter lining, rolling back over a 
 wide collar, showed the healthy tint of his dark cheeks and 
 gave a deeper lustre to his eyes. Handsome he was not ; 
 but, what counts far more than beauty in a man, he was 
 alert, ascetic and well-bred. His lips shut closely and 
 were thin. His ears had distinct lobes. 
 
 At Leleu's last words, Arline's face flushed with pleas- 
 ure, as she drew a step nearer to his side. 
 
 " Why not spoil me ? " she echoed. " And yet, I am 
 not sure how good it is for me. Some day, you may re- 
 pent it."" Then, without pausing in her walk, she faced 
 him suddenly. " Amedee, are you glad ? " she asked. 
 
 He needed no explanation of her words. 
 
 " Very." 
 
 " Always ? " she persisted. 
 
 The blood rolled up across his cheeks ; but his eyes 
 never wavered. 
 
 " Yes, so long as I know you are happy ." 
 
 For a moment, her eyes rested on him thoughtfully. 
 Then they dropped to the Levis shore. 
 
 " Amedee," she said slowly ; " I think I am as happy as 
 I ever could be. The best of me is happy now ; the worst 
 of me can never know what happiness is. I told you so 
 once before, told you I seemed to myself like two different 
 women, at war with each other and one of them at war 
 with all the world. And yet " 
 
 " You too are glad ? " he questioned eagerly. 
 
 '* Yes," she answered thoughtfully. " Yes. Of course, 
 we both are conscious of certain barriers between us." 
 
 " But they will fall in time," he urged.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 159 
 
 However, she faced him steadily. 
 
 " Never," she said, with unwonted gravity. " Rather, 
 they will rise still higher as the years go on." 
 
 Anxiously his eyes searched her face. 
 
 " I do not see why ; but perhaps I do not fully under- 
 stand your point of view," he said, and his accent was 
 hesitating. 
 
 She glanced up for an instant at the scarlet spot flutter- 
 ing over the round gray bastion above their heads. Then, 
 turning sharply, she looked out through the narrow gorge 
 of Des Carrieres Street to the gray Basilica which blocked 
 the sky-line at the end. Her reply came a bit drearily. 
 
 " No, Amedee ; I am afraid that you do not." Then 
 she moved back again down the terrace and into the 
 heart of the throng. 
 
 For a time, they both were busy, answering to the 
 greetings which met them on every hand. The crowd 
 was thickening, for it was one of the soft, still days which 
 come now and then, even in the heart of winter, to remind 
 us that the sun has not entirely forsaken its ice-locked 
 planet. Above the King's Bastion, the flag fluttered 
 bravely ; but, down on the terrace, scarcely a breath of 
 wind cut across the sunshiny air. The snow rang crisply 
 beneath their feet ; but the terrace and the leafless gar- 
 dens and the old gray citadel above were warm with the 
 golden light of the winter noonday. 
 
 Throughout the length of the terrace, Arline made no 
 effort to resume her talk with her husband. At the lower 
 end, however, they halted for a moment to look out over 
 the Laval spires to the glistening stretches of country 
 beyond. Then Leleu asked, 
 
 " Shall we take one more turn, Arline ? " 
 
 " Yes, we Ve time enough. Besides, I want to talk to 
 you. My question is not asked yet ; your promise is n't 
 given."
 
 160 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " But promised," he reminded her. 
 
 " Perhaps. Still, it 's not the same thing. A promised 
 promise leaves two margins for doubt. 1 ' 
 
 The smile left his lips, and he looked at her with some 
 uneasiness. It was plain that she was only parrying, in 
 order to gain time; and his experience of Arline had 
 taught him that, with her, such a course was not of goodly 
 omen. Upon her own side, Arline had learned some 
 lessons during the past seven months. One of the lessons 
 was that Leleu's strongholds could rarely be taken by 
 direct assault. Her husband's temperament, together 
 with the nature of her own desires, was fast turning Arline 
 Leleu into a strategist of no mean skill. 
 
 "But what is the question?" he inquired, after a 
 pause. 
 
 Arline's right hand, muff and all, dropped to her side. 
 Her left hand, stealing through the curve of his arm, 
 buried itself in the thick, soft fur of his deep cuff. 
 
 " You know this dinner of Molly's ? " she asked, stifling 
 a little yawn, as if the very mention of her sister-in-law's 
 hospitality rendered her drowsy. 
 
 Inasmuch as they were due there inside of an hour, 
 Leleu did know it. He merely nodded. Then, 
 
 "What of it? "he asked. 
 
 Arline laughed. 
 
 " Poor dear old Molly ! She has such a courageous 
 way of doing up these family functions. No matter how 
 the last one drags, she is always bound to try it again. 
 I wonder why it is that Sunday noon should be sacred to 
 the god of domestic boredom." 
 
 " But the others will be there, to-day."" 
 
 Arline made a little grimace. 
 
 " Yes ; but Stanwood is so heavy. I believe that 
 Americans, when they are dull, are the most ponderous 
 nation in the world. They lack the touch, the verve of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 161 
 
 the French." She laughed again. "Tell me, Amedee, 
 did you ever expect to hear me speak a good word for 
 your nation ? " 
 
 Gently he brushed aside her trivial jest. 
 
 " Yes, when you came to know us better," he answered, 
 with a gravity for which he himself was quite at a loss to 
 account. 
 
 For an instant, a group of vertical wrinkles gathered 
 between her brows. Then she laughed once more ; but 
 into the laugh there came the edge he dreaded. 
 
 " How seriously you take my little compliment, Amedee ! 
 Really, you are almost as bad as Stanwood Tyler. Sir 
 Morris is to be there, too, and Monsieur St. Just. It is 
 quite a family reunion." 
 
 " St. Just is not of the family," Leleu objected swiftly. 
 
 " Not really. Still, you were old friends in Paris." 
 
 " Acquaintances, and long years ago," he replied, with 
 crisp brevity. 
 
 " And acquaintances now. After all, it is rather nice 
 of Molly to include him for you." 
 
 " Mrs. Brooke Lord need not have troubled herself." 
 
 " But I suppose Molly felt that it would be pleasant 
 for you to have another man of your own race," Arline 
 reminded him. 
 
 " He is not of my race." 
 
 " You both are French." 
 
 "He is of Paris, I of Canada. The wide ocean lolls 
 between," Leleu made terse answer. 
 
 Arline smiled. 
 
 " But you both have crossed the ocean," she said, with 
 the more plastic speech she had learned during even her 
 one winter of association with the race whose diction out- 
 ranks the whole rest of the world. 
 
 " Only for our own passing gain." 
 
 Arline recurred to her former ground. 
 
 11
 
 162 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " But Monsieur St. Just often tells me of jour being 
 together in Paris." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And you see him often here." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And yet you dislike him." 
 
 Gravely he shook his head. 
 
 " I fear him more." 
 
 For an instant, her tone rang hard and cold as the 
 ice beneath her heel. 
 
 " Fear ? You, Amedee ? " 
 
 " Yes," he made deliberate answer ; " as I fear the snake 
 that strikes in the dark." 
 
 Arline drew in her breath and opened her lips to reply. 
 Then she had the consummate tact to leave the question 
 unargued. Instead, she nestled her gloved fingers still 
 deeper into the long, silver-tipped fur of his cuff. 
 
 " What is it that you French say ? " she asked gayly. 
 " * Let us go back to our muttons ' ? How appropriate 
 that is, for one always has roast lamb at a family dinner 
 on Sunday noon ! But about the dinner, Amedee, those 
 men are bound to talk politics." 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; only you are the only Liberal." 
 
 " What then ? " he repeated. 
 
 "They will be sure to ask which side you mean to 
 take." 
 
 Purposely he misunderstood her meaning. 
 
 " But they know that I am of the Liberals." 
 
 " Yes, of course. But in this party split." 
 
 " Split ? I do not understand." 
 
 " This division," she urged. 
 
 " But there is no division." 
 
 " But there is. Everyone says so." 
 
 " Who then ? " he asked.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 163 
 
 " Monsieur St. Just, for one." 
 
 " St. Just would make a division where none exists." 
 
 " But all the papers say so. I read them all," she 
 insisted. 
 
 And Leleu made quiet answer, 
 
 " And I, I know the men." 
 
 Letting go his cuff, she clasped her hands together in 
 the middle of her muff; but her lips were still smiling. 
 
 " So be it, Amedee. I must be convinced, I suppose. 
 But, if there were a split, where should you take your 
 stand?" 
 
 He looked at her gravely, as if considering his words. 
 
 " Upon the side of the Government," he said then. 
 
 This time, her petulance refused to be repressed. 
 
 " Oh, Amedee, how foolish ! No. You 'd never cling 
 to that worn-out faction ! It is an open target for every 
 sort of slander." 
 
 "What matter, so long as it is only slander?" he 
 asked her. 
 
 " But how do you know it is ? " 
 
 " I know nothing. I merely think. Much remains to 
 be proved. In the meantime, the support of the govern- 
 ment at Ottawa counts for much ; and " 
 
 " And ?" she echoed impatiently. 
 
 " And my county counts for more." 
 
 " I don't see what you mean," she said, with increased 
 impatience. 
 
 Leleu bit his lip. Then, of a sudden, his mobile face 
 grew stern, and new lines shaped themselves about his 
 brows. 
 
 "This, and this only, Arline," he answered steadily. 
 "I stood for Tete Joli, to represent it in the name of 
 the Liberal Government. That Government then was a 
 matter of no question. My election was then, not now. 
 Whatever the question now, my duty is to keep the faith
 
 164 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 in which I was elected. So long as I am not recalled to 
 receive other instructions, no other course is open to me." 
 
 " Oh, Amedee ! " Then she controlled herself. " Then 
 you cling to a worn-out issue, a doubtful leader ? " 
 
 "I do." 
 
 " You admit that it is worn-out ? " she demanded hotly, 
 for the quiet steadiness of his tone was breaking down her 
 resolve to hold herself calm. 
 
 " I admit nothing. It is a question for proof." 
 
 " I should think it was," she sneered. 
 
 But Leleu checked her with a glance. 
 
 "One rarely stops to accuse a petty man," he said 
 quietly. 
 
 "But greatness doesn't always imply virtue," she re- 
 torted. " Still, whatever the outcome, you will find that 
 the best men of your party will reorganize on a new basis." 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " And you should be among them," she urged more 
 gently, for her cooling anger showed her that his will 
 was as adamant. Shatter it she could not ; she could only 
 hope to undermine. " Think of it, Amedee ! You are 
 just at the beginning of your whole political career ; 
 things are stormy, the waves are getting higher." Pur- 
 posely she was throwing herself into the metaphors in 
 which he took such keen delight. " If you choose your 
 wave with care, as you launch, it can wash you high and 
 higher into lasting safety. Many say that your ship is 
 unfit for the sea ; even you admit the doubt. Then why 
 cling to it, when you run the risk of being dragged down 
 in its wake." 
 
 His answer was short. 
 
 " Because I have given my allegiance to the captain." 
 
 "But even the rats leave a sinking ship," she urged 
 again. 
 
 Far back at the corners of Leleu's lips, there came the
 
 Hearts and Creeds 165 
 
 beginnings of his little smile; but the smile showed no 
 hint of mirth, and his dark eyes, fixed upon the Levis 
 heights, were intent as the eyes of a seer, as he made 
 reply, 
 
 " The rats, yes. But the mate stands by his captain 
 on the bridge.' 1 Then, turning abruptly, he pointed to 
 the gray shaft, rising among the leafless trees in the Gov- 
 ernor's Garden. " Not all the honour is contained in the 
 victory," he added. " But come, Arline, it is time we 
 were at your sister's." 
 
 Arline sat next St. Just at dinner, and again and again 
 St. Just rallied her upon her absent mood. The fact was 
 that her encounter with her husband had left her thought- 
 ful. Regret his decision as she would and did, she yet could 
 not fail to see that it arose from an innate loyalty to the 
 tenets of the party which had put him into his seat. He 
 had been elected, not to attack the existing Government, 
 but to support it. His conscience was wholly logical, 
 rather admirable. Nevertheless, she objected entirely to 
 its logical outcome. Under the specious arguments of St. 
 Just, she had reached the belief that the present crack 
 in the Liberal ranks, a crack which soon would doubtless 
 widen into an impassable breach, would in time lead to 
 a union of the dissenting Liberals with the more progres- 
 sive spirits of the old Conservative party. All that was 
 needed to assure this end was a tireless, fearless leader, and 
 St. Just himself had suggested to Arline the fitness of Leleu 
 to usurp that leadership. St. Just had studied with care 
 his own moves in the present game. Arline was his own 
 friend ; Arline's influence upon Leleu would be solely upon 
 the side of a policy which in time would unite her husband 
 with the men of her own social set. As for St. Just, a crisis 
 would be all for him. For the hour, the Cartler was in 
 his hands and launched on a trackless sea. It was for him 
 to choose the port in which he should at last cast anchor.
 
 166 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Meanwhile, what harm if he should hoist a pirate flag ? 
 The flag could be lowered again, as soon as a fixed power 
 should once more come in sight. What that power would 
 be, St. Just as yet confessed himself unable to judge. All 
 he could do, was to hold himself ready for any alliance 
 and, in the meantime, to prove to the world at large that 
 his pirate craft carried guns of unerring aim. Guns, 
 though, counted only in a time of war. His first and ob- 
 vious duty was to increase the disruption at any cost. 
 
 As the dinner neared its end, Arline roused herself and 
 turned to St. Just. 
 
 " I have just been having a long discussion with my 
 husband," she said, with a careless smile. 
 
 " Did you convince him ? " St. Just asked negligently, 
 for the eye of Stan wood Tyler, resting upon them both, 
 rendered him a bit uneasy. 
 
 " Oh, no. 11 She laughed a little. " We only reached 
 a what is it you call it ? A deadlock ? " 
 
 An hour later, St. Just put her into her coat. 
 
 " You will be at home, this afternoon ? " he asked, too 
 low for the rest to hear his words. 
 
 The next night, half the city was discussing the latest 
 utterance of the Cartier. Trenchant, witty, full of innu- 
 endo and of reference to a year-old speech by the Chief 
 of the Opposition, and of half-veiled prophecy of excite- 
 ments yet to come, it hung itself upon a pithy title phrase : 
 From the Lips of a Loyal Liberal.
 
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
 
 JIMMY, crossing the Esplanade with Sir Morris, cast a 
 reflective glance after St. Just. 
 
 " Curious thing," he observed ; " that a fellow with a 
 perpetual grievance can look so content with things ! " 
 
 Sir Morris laughed. 
 
 "Content with things, or content with himself?" he 
 queried. 
 
 " By Jove, that 's it ! " Jimmy assented, in obvious satis- 
 faction with the distinction made by his friend. " More- 
 over, if you care to go on splitting hairs, you might say 
 that his content is wholly personal, and his grievance is a 
 mere bit of professional pose." 
 
 Sir Morris turned up the collar of his coat, as they came 
 out under the Kent Gate and faced the chilly blast sweep- 
 ing down across the open spaces around the Parliament 
 Buildings. 
 
 " What is his grievance, anyway ? " he queried. 
 
 "What isn't?" Jimmy rejoined promptly. "It's 
 everything. Sometimes it is that Spencer Wood enter- 
 tains more Englishmen than French ; sometimes it is that 
 the French translation of the report of an English com- 
 mittee gets delayed in the printers 1 hands. Yesterday, it 
 was a Liberal senator who stands out against the Govern- 
 ment ; to-day, it is that same senator who goes into the 
 cabinet. Sometimes it is a colonial matter, sometimes an 
 imperial. Do you know, I should pity his wife, if he ever 
 married. He 's the sort of fellow who would be late to 
 breakfast, and then curse the cook because the muffins 
 were too brown."
 
 168 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " He '11 never marry," Sir Morris predicted oracularly. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " He 'd never think any woman was worth the compli- 
 ment he 'd pay her by asking her." 
 
 " You never can reckon on St. Just," Jimmy retorted. 
 Then he gasped, as the gale swept down upon them. 
 " Oh, I say, this is awful ! Let 's get back to the Grande 
 Allee." And, taking advantage of the first opening in the 
 low gray curb which surrounds the Parliament Buildings, 
 he struck into a path which led them directly past the 
 main entrance steps. 
 
 Just as they reached the side of the building, Sir Morris 
 looked up at a group of men who had pulled open the 
 door and come out on the steps. Leleu was among them ; 
 but he gave no sign of recognition of his passing friends. 
 Instead of that, eager-eyed and with a scarlet spot in 
 either cheek, he was wholly engrossed in the talk which 
 ran from man to man of the group, talk excited, insistent 
 and wholly lacking in the alternating phrase of conversa- 
 tion. Jimmy, meanwhile, had descried a boy, laden with 
 afternoon papers, standing at the foot of the ring in 
 front of the main entrance. Heedless of the group on 
 the steps, he held up a warning finger to the boy and 
 whistled. The next instant, the youngster was by his 
 side, his ink-damp papers spread invitingly over his 
 arm. 
 
 "Which will you have, Sir Moms?" Jimmy inquired, 
 as he felt in his pockets for a coin. 
 
 "The one with the tallest headlines," Sir Morris an- 
 swered promptly. 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 " Take your pick, then. The Cartier seems to fill your 
 ideal. Oh, by Jove ! " 
 
 "What now?" Sir Morris queried, for Jimmy's gloved 
 hands had shut on the flimsy sheet with a vigour which
 
 Hearts and Creeds 169 
 
 suggested that it would be long before his companion 
 gained sight of the page. 
 
 Jimmy read the headlines, ran his eye down the first 
 column and up to the top of the next. Then he looked 
 up. His eyes alone betrayed his excitement ; his voice 
 was as jovial as ever. 
 
 "According to the Cartier, there'll be the devil to 
 pay." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Within two days." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Three ministers are ready to resign." 
 
 Sir Morris gasped. 
 
 " But there has been no division." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " And the session does n't open for a few days yet." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Then what does it mean ? " 
 
 Jimmy folded the paper into a square bundle, then 
 crushed the bundle into his overcoat pocket. 
 
 " That they 're blithering cowards, and don't dare start 
 a vote of non-confidence," he said sharply. 
 
 Sir Morris eyed him over the top of their two fur 
 collars. 
 
 " Then you think ? " he asked again. 
 
 " That they are determined to cripple the Government ; 
 that they can do it with least risk to themselves, if they 
 send in their resignations too late to leave time for their 
 places to be filled. The very suddenness of the attack is 
 enough to shake the strongest power." 
 
 " Hm ! I begin to see," Sir Morris made thoughtful 
 comment. " In fact, the whole thing is a bolt from the 
 blue." 
 
 But, even in this crisis, Jimmy's humour was dominant. 
 
 " No," he objected. " It 's a 'bolt from the red."
 
 170 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 For a moment, Sir Morris grappled with the joke. 
 Then he gave it up and passed on to the main question. 
 
 " What makes you think it is true ? " he asked. 
 
 Jimmy's mind swept backward over the past week. 
 
 "Because I know it," he replied curtly. Then he 
 forced himself to put away his anxious frown. "Beg 
 pardon, old man. I did n't mean to take your ears off; 
 but Oh, I say, are you good for a long walk ? " 
 
 "We were going to call on Mrs. Laurie," Sir Morris 
 reminded him dubiously. 
 
 " Hang Mrs. Laurie ! I 've got to walk this thing out, 
 talk it out, too, for the matter of that, though it 's not 
 a pretty subject." And Sir Moms heard the paper in 
 Jimmy's pocket crackle beneath his clutching hand as, 
 heedless now of the biting wind, they swung into the 
 Grande Allee and faced westward. 
 
 In perfect silence, but with an energy that was more 
 eloquent than words, Jimmy tramped onward until they 
 were between the ancient battle lines. Suddenly he spoke. 
 
 " Damn St. Just ! " he said. 
 
 Sir Morris laughed. 
 
 "Have you frozen my nose in your confounded gale, 
 just for the sake of remarking that under the eaves of the 
 Franciscan nuns?" he inquired amicably. "If so, next 
 time you'd best telephone." 
 
 But Jimmy disregarded the protest, albeit his hands 
 were busy rubbing his own whitening ears. His next 
 words, however, were disjointed. 
 
 " I 've known Arline for several years. She 's no fool ; 
 neither is she all knave. What the deuce do you suppose 
 her game is ? " 
 
 This time, Sir Morris faced about and stared at his 
 friend in open astonishment. Jimmy laughed, as he met 
 the wide blue eyes ; but his laugh was not too good to 
 hear.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 171 
 
 " No ; I 'm not going off my head, old man. Neither 
 am I ignorant that one does n't usually turn one's family 
 skeletons into jumping-jacks for the edification of one's 
 friends. Just now, it 's talk to you, or lose my head and 
 say things to St. Just that will make matters ten thousand 
 times worse." 
 
 Sir Morris laughed shortly. 
 
 " Best talk to me, then. I Ve a confounded bad 
 memory."" 
 
 " Thanks," Jimmy replied laconically. " It may be 
 just as well. The best safety valve should n't have any 
 escapement, as Tyler would put it." Then he faced for- 
 ward and walked on, with his eyes fixed upon the distant 
 perspective of the roadway ahead of him. " The fact is," 
 his words now were coming with obvious difficulty ; " the 
 fact is, my own family are mixed up in this thing more 
 than I like to admit." 
 
 "In the bolt?" 
 
 " No ; I wish they were, and had bolted, too," Jimmy 
 said, in a swift wave of impatience. " Mixed up, I mean, 
 in St. Just's getting hold of it." 
 
 " Get hold ! " Sir Morris echoed. " That fellow could 
 catch the ghost of a greased pig. Nothing escapes him, 
 nothing." 
 
 "Perhaps not," Jimmy replied moodily. "This time, 
 though, the pig cuddled down and went to sleep in his lap. 
 Have you been at any of Arline's receptions ? " 
 
 " One." 
 
 " And that was probably enough," Jimmy commented 
 shrewdly. " It would have been for me, only I began to 
 get curious to see what was in the wind. At first, it 
 seemed natural enough for her to ask Leleu's friends and 
 her own and even Molly's. She naturally wanted to have 
 some sort of social life, and I thought she was rather 
 decent to take in the French set, after she 'd made such a
 
 172 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 row about meeting it in the first place. I must say, she 
 did it nicely, too. The Lord made her a beauty ; when 
 she wants to, she can make herself charming. Moreover, 
 her punchbowl was unusual, even for Quebec, and we 
 aren't exactly what you'd call a prohibition city." 
 
 But Sir Morris's mind was floundering along far in the 
 rear of Jimmy's none too obvious logic. 
 
 " But what does all that have to do with to-day ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 Patiently Jimmy waited for him to catch up. 
 
 " That was at first," he explained then. " Now for last 
 time. The change has been gradual, but steady. First 
 Molly's friends dropped out. Then the ones Arline 
 counted as her own. That cleared out all the Conserv- 
 ative set but St. Just. Of course, Brooke and I went, now 
 and then ; but we 're no politicians, and did n't count. As 
 for the other fellows, as far as the talk went, one did n't 
 miss them. They 'd been out of the game since Novem- 
 ber, and only served the turn of Greek chorus, just a lot 
 of frogs croaking over the approaching ruin of the Liberal 
 party." 
 
 " But why ruin ?" Sir Morris objected suddenly. " The 
 game has been all in their hands." 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 "Remember your vEsop ? how one frog swelled and 
 swelled till he split himself ? And I suppose all the other 
 little frogs sat in a ring on the edge of the puddle and 
 said ' I told you so.' But about Arline. For a month, 
 now, she has had nobody but a mob of Liberals, all talk- 
 ing their own views, and one Conservative who has been 
 all ears and inkpot, and no tongue." 
 
 "St. Just? " Sir Morris asked, as light began to dawn. 
 
 " St. Just. Of course, with all this buzz about the sen- 
 atorial accusations, the talk grew more and more exciting. 
 St. Just held his tongue, filled his ears and then emptied
 
 Hearts and Creeds 173 
 
 his inkpot. All last week, things were in the air. Sun- 
 day afternoon, I dropped in while Leleu was at Benedic- 
 tions. I 've been doing it, lately. St. Just was there, and 
 I came in on him explaining to Arline what do you 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " More politics, of course," Sir Morris answered promptly. 
 
 " That 's where you are dead wrong. He was telling 
 her how Madame the Comtesse of Something or Other 
 used to brew her punch, and offering to mix it for Arline's 
 reception, next night." 
 
 Sir Morris nodded. 
 
 " I see the trick, by Jove ! And then he did n't take 
 any, himself." 
 
 " That 's where you are wrong again. He drank with 
 the rest of them ; but he is immune. It was a curious 
 concoction. Nobody was absolutely drunk ; but everybody 
 was garrulous and cocksure of his own scheme to save the 
 province." 
 
 " Cordial ? " Sir Morris queried. 
 
 " Nothing so deadly." 
 
 " Where was Leleu ? " 
 
 The animation left Jimmy's face, and his sigh had a 
 tired sound. 
 
 " Everywhere at once. He knew his friends were mak- 
 ing fools of themselves. It just was n't bad enough to give 
 him an excuse for clearing the house. Arline was in her 
 glory. She had no idea what was going on in the other 
 room ; she merely thought the evening was a grand success." 
 
 "And St. Just?" 
 
 " Everywhere that Leleu was n't. He raked up the 
 embers as fast as Leleu scattered them." 
 
 Sir Morris squared his shoulders and lifted his honest 
 face against the wind. 
 
 " Why does n't Leleu kick him out ? " he demanded, in 
 hot wrath.
 
 174 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "The fellow that kicks at a cur gets his heel nipped," 
 Jimmy made trenchant answer. 
 
 " Let him nip. It 's uncomfortable, but not dangerous."" 
 
 Jimmy's answering words came with a little groan. 
 
 " That 's where Brooke comes in." 
 
 " Mr. Brooke Lord ? " Sir Morris demanded incredu- 
 lously. 
 
 "Yes. The story is longer than you think," Jimmy 
 made dreary answer. "Of course, you know it is open 
 talk that the Cartier is growing less Conservative, every 
 day of its life, publishing Liberal letters and all that. 
 Well, have you noticed in the papers any references to its 
 claim of an agreement made long ago between a prominent 
 Liberal and a rich Conservative ? " 
 
 Sir Morris shook his head. 
 
 "I'm such a duffer at politics, you know," he said 
 rather apologetically. 
 
 " No duffer. It 's only that it has missed your eye. 
 I 'm thankful if there 's one person in the city who has n't 
 seen and wondered about the Cartier's hints. Every 
 page bristles with them, and they are growing more 
 ominous. Now the gist of the matter is " Jimmy 
 paused. 
 
 " Is what ? " 
 
 " That, three years ago, Leleu and St. Just and Brooke 
 crossed on the same steamer. They were together a good 
 deal and, naturally, talked politics by the hour. St. Just 
 claimed to be ignorant, and asked any number of ques- 
 tions. Brooke and Leleu answered them. Brooke told 
 how his business was falling off under the Liberal policy, 
 how much it would be worth to him, if they could only 
 see his side of the case a little more clearly. Leleu 
 listened, admitted the justice of his claims, and then 
 they both slid off into a wholly impersonal discussion of 
 political bribery."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 175 
 
 " Oh," Sir Morris said slowly. " Hercules built out of 
 a shoemaker's last." 
 
 And Jimmy made moody reply, 
 
 "Yes, and neither shoemaker can deny his share in 
 making the last. Then, of course, fate took a hand, mar- 
 ried Arline to Leleu, and the rest is a natural sequence, 
 up to the secret of the bolt floating out in the bowl of 
 punch. St. Just is playing a shrewd game ; but he is only 
 just beginning to show his hand. If Leleu interferes in 
 the least with the game, St. Just will demand a showdown 
 and, what cards he lacks from the pack, he will produce 
 in duplicate from up his sleeve. 1 " 
 
 Sir Moms shut his teeth together. When at last he 
 opened them, 
 
 " And what is the conclusion of the whole matter ? " he 
 asked. 
 
 Jimmy's reply was terse. 
 
 " Damnation." Then he added abruptly, " Let 's go 
 back to the Tylers' and see if Stanwood has heard the 
 news." 
 
 Nevertheless, both men, as they turned their backs to 
 the wind, were fully aware that it was more than an hour 
 before Stanwood was due at his home. 
 
 Patience met them cordially. She read the trouble in 
 their faces, and she was tactful enough to make neither 
 comment nor question. Instead, she poked the fire to a 
 blaze, lighted the alcohol lamps beneath her tea kettle 
 and her chafing dish, and announced her intention of a 
 substantial feast, even at that unorthodox hour of the 
 day. It was obvious that her guests were tired, cold and 
 worried. As hostess, it was her part to see that they 
 were warmed and fed. 
 
 An hour later, Stanwood found them in animated dis- 
 cussion of the prospects for early golf. Patience was wise 
 in her generation. Had either of her guests appeared to
 
 176 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 her alone, she would have lent a sympathetic ear to the 
 tale of his woes. Confidences, however, she felt, should 
 never take the form of a duet, nor yet of a fugue. And 
 so it chanced that it was Stanwood who brought to her 
 the first news of the rumoured crisis. After one glance 
 at Jimmy's face, she took it quite as a matter of no impor- 
 tance, laughed at Stanwood for his credulity, laughed about 
 St. Just for his hot-headed readiness to magnify trifles. 
 Nevertheless, while her lips laughed, her eyes were grave. 
 She too had lately formed the habit of dropping in upon 
 Arline at the hour for Benedictions. Like Jimmy, she 
 had been there, only the Sunday before. 
 
 Alone of them all, Stanwood Tyler had an impersonal 
 appreciation of the gravity of the impending crisis. The 
 rumour he was ready to accept as a fact. The months- 
 long discontent with the existing order of things, in- 
 creased by the passive revolt of the Conservative party 
 and aided by their active influence, was ending, as they 
 had hoped, in the temporary disruption of the Liberal 
 power. Ever since the provincial elections in late Novem- 
 ber, it had been check and counter check and check again, 
 until the independent Liberals were ready to deliver their 
 final mate. Ethically dubious, the move had yet been 
 cleverly planned. No government could fail to be crip- 
 pled by the resignation of half its cabinet, on the very 
 eve of the coming together of the house. Only a miracle 
 could prevent its downfall and the consequent rising of a 
 new power close beside the foundations of the old. And 
 the aspirants for that new power chose to discount the pos- 
 sibility of a miracle, and. at the same time, they showed 
 themselves wholly regardless of the commercial paralysis 
 which the threatened crisis could not fail to bring upon 
 the province. 
 
 Pipe in hand, Stanwood argued the question from every 
 viewpoint and entirely to his own satisfaction. Sir Morris
 
 Hearts and Creeds 177 
 
 lent him profound attention, and Jimmy scowled and 
 prodded the fire. At length, he turned to Patience, 
 seated at his elbow. 
 
 " I 'm going now," he said abruptly. " May I come 
 back, to-morrow morning, to talk to you ? " 
 
 " About the thunderbolt ? " she asked, with forced 
 lightness. 
 
 His voice sank even lower, and the words came reluct- 
 antly. 
 
 " No ; about Arline." 
 
 Patience threw off her mask of lightness, and faced him 
 with a smile that was gentle, womanly, pitiful. 
 
 " I know what you mean," she answered. " We both 
 of us think things ; we both of us would like to talk 
 about them. Still do you think it would be quite 
 wise ? After all, Arline is your sister ; and, by and by, 
 we both might be sorry we had spoken." Then, as 
 Jimmy flushed a little and rose to his feet, she also rose 
 and stood looking at him with anxious, kindly eyes. 
 " Don't think I misunderstand," she added ; " and please 
 don't misunderstand me. It 's not that I don't care, you 
 know ; it 's only that I am a little bit afraid." 
 
 And Jimmy bowed, and went away. As he went, how- 
 ever, he felt relieved of at least a share of the weight 
 which had fallen upon him when he had crossed the 
 park before the Parliament Buildings. He had looked 
 into Patience's steady eyes and read there the truth, that 
 she shared his anxiety and, sharing, let herself come even 
 closer to the secret places of his life. 
 
 12
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
 
 A WEEK or two afterwards, the province and the city 
 were stretched on the rack of a political crisis, 
 Leleu of a domestic one, Sir Morris Plante of a crisis 
 of the heart. Nevertheless, to the outward eye, social life 
 was going on its usual gay routine, a bit more gay, that 
 year, than was ordinary, partly because of the unwonted 
 length of a season which lasted into March, partly be- 
 cause the general atmosphere of feverish excitement ex- 
 tended even to the purely feminine and social. Whatever 
 the next day might bring forth, even to the decapitation 
 of the political head, society was bound to dine and to 
 dance. True, the emergency developed an entirely new 
 form of social activity upon the part of the successful 
 hostess who, smiling and nonchalant as ever, yet kept a 
 watchful eye upon the aides whom she had detailed to 
 break up the diminutive caucuses which were sure to form 
 themselves, wherever two or three men of the same faction 
 found themselves unnoticed in a corner. 
 
 The march of political events had gone at the double 
 quick, that winter. Viewed in the light of the past 
 month, the weeks preceding the general elections seemed 
 tame and empty of excitement. Hard on the heels of 
 the general elections had come the provincial dissolution 
 and the consequent withdrawal of the Conservatives from 
 the political arena. The Liberals had been returned 
 again, victorious ; but, by very lack of a common foe, 
 their party had fallen a prey to internal strife. Accusa- 
 tion had followed accusation, investigations had been 
 demanded, delayed, countermanded. There had been
 
 Hearts and Creeds 179 
 
 appeals made to the dominion government ; there had 
 been unsought advice received from it. Every political 
 leader appeared to be at war with every other political 
 leader, and, in the multitude of petty wars, motives 
 vanished from sight. Then, just as the session was to 
 open upon a patched-up peace, the rumoured resignation 
 of half the cabinet had gone from rumour to historic 
 fact, and, worst of all, the outgoing faction of the cabinet 
 had stolidly refused to make public the reasons for the 
 resignation. And the Government, shaken and pitifully 
 alone, was facing the crisis with brave and steady eyes. 
 
 As a matter of necessity, Spencer Wood had come to 
 the rescue. It was palpably impossible for the cabinet to 
 be filled at a day's notice. Accordingly, the opening of 
 the session was delayed until early March. Meanwhile, 
 the two factions, that of the Government and that of the 
 so-called bolters, faced each other like angry dogs whose 
 teeth are bared, whose hackles have risen. Eye to eye, 
 they measured their strength, while they waited, each for 
 the other to make the first move. 
 
 The resignation had scarcely become a fact when, one 
 day, Monsieur Aucune sent a messenger in search of 
 Leleu. The conference which followed, lasted throughout 
 the afternoon. When the two men parted, Monsieur 
 Aucune was serenely content. Leleu, on the other hand, 
 was flushed and eager, unsteady of hand and eye and 
 voice. It was not until he had tramped far out the Sainte 
 Foy Road that he dared return to the Clarendon and 
 face Arline. He had been bidden, for the present at least, 
 to hold his peace. Nevertheless, he was uneasy for his 
 secret. It seemed to him that Arline, seated opposite him 
 at the table, must be able to behold his reflected future, 
 shining back at her from out his dazzled eyes. It was a 
 relief to him when the meal was ended and they could join 
 Jimmy and the Tylers, waiting for them in the hall below.
 
 180 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Tara Hall was full, that night, so full that the managers 
 of the symphony society felt some regret that they had 
 decided against giving their midwinter concert in the 
 Auditorium. The barren little hall was a meagre substi- 
 tute for the still, green beauty of the larger place ; but 
 the audience made good the lack, for Quebec is never half 
 so dainty as in its evening clothes. 
 
 It had been Jimmy's doing that the Leleus had been 
 added to their usual quartette. It would be better for 
 Patience to have another woman along, and Sir Morris 
 would see to it that Leleu was not left out in the cold. 
 In fact, Jimmy was coming to the slow realization that Sir 
 Morris generally could be relied upon to do the social 
 duties shirked by other men. 
 
 Sir Morris, in these last days, had been watching 
 Patience with doubtful eyes. His manner to her was as 
 friendly as ever; but it was slightly tinged with self- 
 distrust. Sir Morris had never been able to understand 
 the mirth with which Patience had met his eager words, 
 that day on the slide at Bureau's. The incongruity of the 
 situation had made no appeal to his sense of humour. 
 His absolute loyalty to Patience forbade his being angered 
 at her ; he could only sum up the whole affair as being 
 one of the incomprehensible American jokes in which the 
 girl's soul delighted. Nevertheless, he was conscious of a 
 distinct desire that the joke should have passed completely 
 out of her mind, before he made another effort to have 
 her society quite to himself. Accordingly, then, his calls 
 were as frequent as before that winter afternoon, his plans 
 for her amusement as elaborate ; but he took care that a 
 third person should be always present, to serve as a species 
 of psychological buffer between Patience Tyler's American 
 sense of humour and his own serious British self. 
 
 True to his recent tactics, he forcibly annexed Leleu to 
 his other side, as he came out from the Clarendon with
 
 Hearts and Creeds 181 
 
 Patience and turned westward along Sainte Anne Street 
 to Tara Hall. The street outside the door, already 
 blocked with carriages and with loitering foot passers, 
 offered an impenetrable barrier to their trio, however, and 
 one by one they slid through the crowd as best they 
 might. When they reached their seats, Sir Morris was 
 chagrined to find that the inevitable shuffling of the groups 
 had left him between Arline and Leleu, with Jimmy and 
 Patience quite at the other end of the row. Rescue was 
 impossible. He could only fold his arms, grit his teeth, 
 and stare darkly at the stage. Fortunately for him, the 
 leader was already raising his baton, as they took their 
 seats. Sir Morris was quite within his conventional rights 
 as he sat there, speechless, glowering at the assembled 
 orchestra where an occasional green sash or scarlet facing 
 stood out in bold relief from the usual black and white 
 evening dress of the rest of the men. 
 
 Sir Morris was musical. Nevertheless, that night, he 
 was out of temper, and the Gallic interpretation of the 
 Unfinished Symphony went upon his nerves and left him 
 wholly thankful that it had never been carried to its lawful 
 completion. What business had a raw orchestra, mainly 
 made up of amateur musicians, to attempt the work of 
 the masters ? But a moment later, his brow cleared, and 
 he reversed his former criticism, as the musicians swung 
 into the Danse Maccabre, playing it with a fire, a verve 
 which completely overshadowed his previous recollections 
 of it. The diabolism of the solo violin filled him with 
 joyous excitement, and he caught himself, under his 
 breath, repeating the old quatrain, 
 
 Zig el zig, zig et zig, la Mort en cadence 
 Frappant une tombe avec son talon 
 La Mort, a minuit, joue un air de danse, 
 Zig et zig et zag, sur son violon.
 
 182 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 And the violin lost itself in the general carnival of sound, 
 and the theme grew madder and more mad, until it seemed 
 to Sir Morris that the whole tense atmosphere of those 
 last days of political strife had swept into the little hall, 
 had fallen upon the players and had turned their blood to 
 spirit, and set the spirit all ablaze. 
 
 " Oh, good evening, Madame Leleu ! How well you are 
 looking ! Good evening, Sir Morris."" 
 
 Sir Moms turned his head. Quite unobserved, St. Just 
 had come into the vacant seat behind them. 
 
 " So sorry to have been so late ; but I was busy at the 
 office,"" the Frenchman went on easily. " These are hard 
 days for us of the press. One never knows when the next 
 sensation will arise. It is the time for eternal vigilance. 
 Good evening, Leleu. Is there any news, my politician ? " 
 
 "Nothing later than to-night's Cartier" Leleu said, 
 with quiet, stinging emphasis. "That is always sure to 
 be a few hours ahead of the fact."" 
 
 St. Just shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " You are bitter, my friend. Of what use is a journal, 
 if it only follows on the heels of the event ? No one will 
 read of the past, when he can instead have a glimpse of 
 the future. Then you say you have no news ? " 
 
 Arline turned about suddenly. 
 
 " Only this,"" she said, with a smile, as she gave St. Just 
 her folded programme. "You should devote a column 
 to this, to-morrow. 11 
 
 He looked up and laughed, while his fingers shut on 
 the programme. 
 
 "And is the Dance of Death a hint for the Govern- 
 ment ? " he asked gayly. " If so, it would have been well 
 to have followed it with a funeral march. 11 
 
 "That should come after the intermission, 11 she an- 
 swered. " No ; keep the programme. Sir Morris will 
 allow me to share his, and you may need that to refresh
 
 Hearts and Creeds 183 
 
 your memory, to-morrow. I shall expect an illuminating 
 criticism built out of the Danse, you know. 11 And, with 
 a gay little nod and smile, she turned back to speak to 
 Sir Morris. 
 
 Jimmy, on the other end of the row, faced Patience a 
 little sternly. 
 
 " You saw it, too ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Perhaps " 
 
 " Don't fib, Miss Tyler. This is too serious a case for 
 that," he said briefly. 
 
 Then Patience gave assent. 
 
 " Yes, I saw it." 
 
 " What do you think it was ? " 
 
 " I could n't tell. Some sort of a letter." 
 
 Impatiently Jimmy beat the palm of his left hand with 
 his rolled-up programme. Then he looked up. His eyes 
 were grave, but not unkindly. His voice, too low to be 
 heard by those sitting in front, yet was strong with dignity. 
 
 "I think," he said slowly; "that the time has come 
 to speak out." 
 
 Patience drew a deep breath. Then, unconscious of 
 herself as a child, she passed her hand across her forehead 
 as if brushing away a physical weight. 
 
 " Yes," she said then. " It is. But to whom ? " 
 
 " To him." 
 
 " To Mr. Leleu ? " She shook her head. " Never. It 
 would kill him." 
 
 Jimmy shut his teeth. 
 
 " Men don't die so easily. Better if they did. But 
 who then ? " 
 
 " The other," she answered, mindful of listening ears. 
 
 In his turn, Jimmy shook his head. 
 
 "I'm half afraid not of him, of course; but of my- 
 self. I might only make it worse. I think, instead, I '11 
 try her first."
 
 184 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Patience made doubtful assent. 
 
 " It may be better so. Still " she flushed scarlet, as 
 she turned to him appealingly ; " be gentle, Mr. Lord. 
 Even with Arline, it is possible to make it infinitely 
 worse. Blame her as we will, the mischief is done and 
 we mustn't be too merciless now." 
 
 And Jimmy lowered his eyes. 
 
 " Trust me," he said briefly. 1 11 do my best." 
 
 Early the next morning, Arline received a note from 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord, urging her to lunch, that day, on 
 the Grande Allee. The servant, however, who admitted 
 Arline, told her that Mrs. Brooke Lord had just tele- 
 phoned up to the house that she had been delayed in 
 her shopping and might be a little late in her return. 
 Would Mrs. Leleu please go directly to the library ? 
 
 Somewhat to Arline's surprise, she found Jimmy, book 
 in hand, settled before the library fire. As a general 
 rule, Jimmy Lord's morning hours were not given over 
 to domestic idling. He looked up, as his sister came 
 into the room. 
 
 " You at last, Arline ? Glad to see you. You are 
 getting to be quite a stranger," he said, as he rose and 
 brought forward a chair. 
 
 " You saw me, last night," she reminded him. 
 
 Jimmy forced back the cloud in his eyes. 
 
 " Yes ; but it 's not the same. And you come here so 
 rarely, nowadays." 
 
 " I know," she assented a little sadly. " But Do 
 you really and truly miss me ? " 
 
 He laughed while, still standing beside her chair, he 
 took her face in his strong, lean hands and tilted it up- 
 ward till he could meet her eyes. 
 
 " You were my legacy from the pater, you know. He 
 told me to take care of you." 
 
 " Yes," she assented again.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 185 
 
 " And you went off and married Leleu." 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " And now I suppose it 's not my place to take care of 
 you, any more." 
 
 " Why not ? " she asked abruptly. 
 
 " Because it is Leleu's right now," he answered. 
 
 A hard note crept into her voice which before had been 
 only dreary. 
 
 " But he doesn't do it, Jimmy; not, at least, the way 
 you used to do." 
 
 Jimmy's hands, though still caressing, slid to her shoul- 
 ders where they lay, half buried in the fluffy trimmings of 
 her gown. 
 
 " Arline," he said gravely ; " Leleu adores you. He 
 would breathe for you, if you would let him." 
 
 " But that 's not what I want, not what I need," she 
 answered impatiently. "Jimmy, we women know our- 
 selves better than you men think we do. Amedee adores 
 me ; but he lets me go my way." 
 
 Taking his hands from her shoulders, Jimmy crossed 
 the rug and stood leaning against the mantel. 
 
 " Whose fault is it, Arline ? " he asked her then. 
 
 " Not mine," she flashed hotly. 
 
 " I think it is." Jimmy's tone was very gentle. " When 
 first you were married, you refused to go Leleu's way ; you 
 opposed him at every point ; when you did yield here and 
 there, it was only from necessity, and you took pains to 
 show him that you grudged the yielding, that you consid- 
 ered his way inferior to your own." 
 
 " And so it was," she broke in impetuously. 
 
 "Not at all. It was different; but it was quite as 
 good. In fact, it was even a little better. Leleu is mak- 
 ing himself a record I should be proud to claim. If he 
 died, to-moiTOw, he would leave a name that you might 
 be proud to bear. And, now," suddenly and by steps of
 
 186 Hearts a?td Creed* 
 
 which he had taken no heed, he came around to the point 
 at which he had been vaguely aiming, ever since his words 
 to Patience, the night before ; " and now, Arline, for the 
 sake of us all, see to it that you bear the name worthily 
 and in all honour. 11 
 
 His voice throbbed with his own earnestness and, at his 
 final words, he lowered his eyes from his sister's reddening 
 face. The next instant, he started, as if at a blow, when 
 her insolent laugh fell upon his ears. 
 
 "Melodrama isn't your strong point, Jimmy,"" she 
 said lazily, although, beneath its mockery, her voice 
 clashed like steel. " You need the help of a dim light 
 and slow music. No zig et zig et zag for you ; you 
 sound like a leaf from a novel for the Young Person. 
 What have I done, to bring down upon myself this 
 lecture ? " 
 
 For a moment, Jimmy looked her full in the face. All 
 the gentleness had gone out of her ; leaning back in her 
 deep chair, she faced him with the angry eyes of an in- 
 sulted queen. Queenly she was in her beauty ; queenly, 
 too, in the very power of her scorn. Jimmy looked stead- 
 ily at her for an instant. Then once more he lowered his 
 eyes. It was not in Jimmy Lord's nature to watch any 
 woman, least of all his sister, as she flinched beneath the 
 blow which he was about to deal. 
 
 " What have you done ? " he echoed. " Ask Achille 
 St. Just." 
 
 But Arline had no thought of flinching. She sprang to 
 her feet, faced him ; then, scarlet with anger, she took one 
 step forward. The next instant, she flung her hands back- 
 ward and locked them behind her. 
 
 "Please explain yourself, Jimmy,"" she said, with icy 
 politeness. " I fear I do not quite understand what you 
 mean." 
 
 Her deliberate, controlled courtesy was full of bitter
 
 " ' Please explain yourself. Jimmy,' she said, with icy politeness." 
 
 Paye 186.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 187 
 
 scorn. It struck like a lash in the face, and it drove him 
 to even plainer speech. 
 
 " Merely this," he said, with a quiet which matched her 
 own ; " as Leleu's friend, as your brother, I can stand by 
 no longer and watch you making a friend of a man like 
 St. Just." 
 
 She raised her brows. 
 
 " And why not, if you please ? And who gave you the 
 right to choose my friends ? " 
 
 Still Jimmy tried to hold himself steady. 
 
 " The dear old pater. He left you to me, Arline. He 
 told me to look out for you. I 've tried my best. Even 
 now that you are the wife of another man, I am trying 
 still." 
 
 "Thank you. I am sure it is very kind of you," she 
 said coldly. 
 
 He bit his lip. 
 
 "Arline, be reasonable. I know I am saying it all 
 wrong ; but do be patient, dear. I thought I had it all 
 planned out in my head, and your taking it wrong has put 
 it all out of order. " 
 
 "Oh, I begin to see." Arline's tone was colder and 
 more hard. " It was all a pretty little plot ; was it ? I 
 was to be asked here, not to lunch with Molly, but to be 
 lectured by you. It was very clever, only " And, turn- 
 ing, she moved towards the door. 
 
 " Arline, wait ! " Jimmy's voice was imperious now. 
 " We have gone too far to stop ; we must finish the 
 subject once for all." 
 
 Turning slightly, she looked at him from over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 "What subject?" 
 
 "St. Just." 
 
 Deliberately she faced about, crossed the floor again 
 and took her place at the other end of the rug.
 
 188 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " What about Monsieur St. Just, Jimmy ? " she asked, 
 with the weary acquiescence that one bestows upon an 
 insistent child. 
 
 "There is no use in mincing matters, Arline. You 
 know you are altogether too friendly to St. Just." 
 
 "He is AmedeVs friend, too, AmedeVs friend years 
 before I ever met him," she answered. 
 
 "AmedeVs enemy, rather," Jimmy corrected her. 
 " Arline, it is the talk of the city that St. Just and his 
 paper have worked systematically to spy out the Liberal 
 camp ; that he has supported Leleu's election for that end ; 
 that he has haunted Leleu's house, .has made the most of 
 his former friendship, in order to betray him in that end." 
 
 " Oh," Arline smiled. " Is that all ? " 
 
 This time, Jimmy looked her full in the face, to measure 
 the effect of his blow. 
 
 " And moreover," he added slowly ; " it is also said that 
 Leleu's wife, knowingly or unknowingly, is a party to the 
 betrayal. I have denied it as long as I could and since 
 it has been impossible to ignore the story. Now, though, 
 it is impossible any longer either to ignore or to deny." 
 
 "Why?" Coldly, deliberately, Arline allowed the 
 single syllable to fall upon the stillness. 
 
 Jimmy spun about on his heel, walked away to the 
 window, walked back again to the fire. 
 
 " Because you were seen, last night, to give a note to 
 St. Just under cover of your programme." 
 
 "Who saw it?" 
 
 c J 
 
 " Are you sure ? " 
 
 " Miss Tyler saw it, too." 
 
 Her lip curled. 
 
 "And so you have been discussing me with another 
 woman ! Does that also come into your scheme for taking 
 care of me ? "
 
 Hearts and Creeds 189 
 
 "Arline!" But again he controlled himself. "Are 
 you ready to deny the fact ? " he demanded steadily. 
 
 For one long instant, Arline's eyes met the eyes of her 
 brother without flinching. Then, when the scarlet tide 
 had covered her cheeks and mounted even to the edge of 
 her hair, her violet eyes drooped. Silently she turned 
 away and opened the door leading into the hall. 
 
 " Arline/ 1 
 
 She paused, irresolute. Then once more she faced about. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " You have not answered my question."" 
 
 She took a swift, short breath. Then she lifted her 
 arm and spoke rapidly. 
 
 " Answered your question ! No. Why should I ? 
 The very asking it is an insult. The very speaking to 
 Patience is another insult, to her as much as to me. No 
 man but one has the right to ask me such questions, and 
 he, my husband, is too generous, too loyal. As for you, 
 you are only a spy. You drove me into my marriage by 
 your spying ; now you seek to ruin the marriage you have 
 made. As for Achille St. Just, I care nothing for him. 
 Not that ! " A tatter of lace from her gown fell to the 
 floor. " He is AmedeVs friend ; he has worked hard to 
 bring Amedee into prominence, worked harder still to 
 bring him into allegiance with what is bound to be the 
 ruling power. And I, I am proud to help him, to be 
 helped by him. As for you, Jimmy, your hints and your 
 innuendoes and suspicions only go to show the colour of 
 your mind, and that is black, all black. No ; you need n't 
 say any more. You have said too much, as it is. The 
 rest you can talk over with Patience Tyler. It is nothing 
 I care to hear. Tell Molly that I am sorry she was late, 
 that it was impossible for me to wait any longer." 
 
 "But, dear " 
 
 Heedless of his words, of his detaining hand, of his
 
 190 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 anxious, loving eyes, she brushed past him to the table 
 where she had left her hat and coat. The next instant, 
 the door had closed behind her. 
 
 Then and then only Jimmy's shoulders drooped to- 
 gether. Turning, he re-entered the library which, all at 
 once, seemed to him to be strangely still. 
 
 " Oh, by Jove ! " he said forlornly, as he rested one arm 
 across the oaken mantel and stared down at the smoulder- 
 ing fire. " Oh, by Jove ! " he repeated, after a pause. 
 " What 's the use of good intentions, when they only serve 
 to stir up hell ? " 
 
 Slowly, reluctantly, he put on his fur-lined coat, took 
 up his hat and left the house. At the foot of the steps, 
 he halted, irresolute. Then he crossed the street, crossed 
 the park, entered the side door of the Parliament Build- 
 ings and turned towards Leleu's private office. 
 
 St. Just had been called to Montreal, that day. Re- 
 turning in the early evening, he dropped in at his office 
 for a moment, before going on to his room and his dinner. 
 Conspicuously laid on the top of his desk, quite apart 
 from the little heap of his mail, was a letter, sealed, yet 
 without a stamp. St. Just glanced swiftly at the writing 
 on the envelope ; then tore the envelope open. 
 
 Once, twice, he read the few lines written within. Then 
 he laughed a short, sharp laugh and stood for an instant, 
 frowning, his narrowing eyes fixed upon the opposite wall. 
 Then he laughed again and, tossing his hat on a chair, he 
 sat down at his desk, drew towards him a sheaf of paper 
 and, dipping his pen, fell to work. Now and again his 
 pen halted ; but a glance at the letter, lying open by his 
 side, set the pen in motion once more. 
 
 The letter was from Amedee Leleu. Crisply and with- 
 out question or comment, it bade St. Just to discontinue 
 his calls at the Clarendon.
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
 
 TWENTY-FOUR hours later, Quebec was at fever 
 heat. The Cartier, now avowedly upon the side 
 of the bolting Liberals, claimed to have unearthed another 
 governmental scandal. Names were suppressed ; but facts 
 were given, and, at countless dinner tables, that night, 
 random guesses spoken over the soup, settled into com- 
 parative certainty with the coming of the joint. 
 
 It had never been the policy of the Cartier to mince 
 matters, least of all since the illness of the chief had .put 
 St. Just in charge. His first thrusts were straight and 
 deep. His thrusts once made, then he gave one or two 
 turns of the wrist before he drew the weapon from the 
 wound. From the first, he had taken up the cause of 
 the bolting ministers ; had lavished untold scorn upon 
 the taciturn paper which was pledged to the support 
 of the Government ; had even, in reminding them of 
 their duty to the best of the Liberal party, threatened 
 them with a possible new paper which, leading them in 
 the road to professional loyalty, should yet sweep the com- 
 mercial ground from beneath their feet. So specious 
 had been the arguments and predictions that nine people 
 out of ten believed that a new paper was imminent. The 
 tenth, reading between the lines, read the truth : that 
 the new Liberal paper would only arise, Phcenix-like, 
 from the ashes of the old Conservative one. And mean- 
 while St. Just, scattering powder with one hand, with the 
 other arranged a line of fire extinguishers, so that all 
 things might be in readiness for any event. His columns
 
 192 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 were filled with communications from indignant Liberals, 
 received, as was elaborately set forth in introductory 
 notes, because they were refused admission to their party 
 organ. The editorials were scrupulously impartial, hurl- 
 ing blame on all sides, pointing out to all alike the means 
 of political regeneration. And, in the meantime, the 
 province was losing its own self-respect, losing the respect 
 of the entire dominion. Still, no one dared to demand 
 an investigation. After a general washing-day, the gar- 
 ments must be hung out on the line. 
 
 For a day or two, there had been an interval of quiet. 
 The quiet, however, only threw into stronger relief the 
 succeeding shock. The charges of the Cartier were brief 
 and simple. It denounced one of the younger Liberal 
 members as having been bought up by Conservative 
 interests. It claimed that he had won his seat from a 
 Conservative constituency by money supplied by a Con- 
 servative well known in the business and financial circles 
 of the city, that his avowed loyalty to the Government 
 party, his avowed disapproval of the more honourable and 
 progressive element represented by the bolters had been 
 by the orders of his Conservative patrons, and finally that 
 the Government, yielding in its present crisis to the 
 needed support of Conservative millions, had sent for the 
 member and held out tentative offers concerning a seat in 
 the cabinet. For the rest, the Cartier was reticent. It 
 promised, however, within the week to publish the names, 
 together with affidavits concerning conversations which 
 had taken place in the presence of the editor. These 
 conversations concerned bribery and the rating of each 
 man according to his price. They had been spoken be- 
 tween the member and the well-known Conservative, and 
 they covered a term extending from two years past up to 
 the night after the last general election. The agreement, 
 neither new nor hasty, was so much the more unpardonable.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 193 
 
 The old government was obviously rotten to the core. 
 Something must be done to keep the rot from spreading. 
 In conclusion, the Cartter reminded its readers that, long 
 since, it had warned them of j ust this danger, as bound to 
 develop from the ranks of the dreamers of a new regime. 
 
 By chance, Leleu was one of the last people in the city 
 to hear of the new sensation. All that afternoon, he 
 had been shut up in the office of Monsieur Aucune, weigh- 
 ing bit by bit his own fitness for the new responsibilities 
 which were opening before him. The dazzle had left his 
 eyes, and once more he could see clearly. The road be- 
 fore him was straight and narrow as Little Champlain 
 Street ; like Little Champlain Street, it ended against a 
 rocky wall which could be scaled only by a flight of 
 Breakneck Stairs. Like Little Champlain Street, too, its 
 entrance was flanked by the two alternatives, Cul de Sac 
 or the elevator, an aimless passage on the lower level, or 
 an easy, irresponsible slipping to the upper plane. The 
 road was narrow ; the stairs would be hard. Nevertheless, 
 he chose them. Better to win up by his own effort than 
 to be hoisted up, or to remain below. The crisis was 
 upon them. It called for men of steady, self-sacrificing 
 energy. Chosen, he would do his best. 
 
 He came late to dinner, his cheeks blazing not alone 
 from the fierce outer cold, but from the fiercer fires within 
 his brain. He found Arline dressed and awaiting him. 
 Her cheeks, too, burned hotly ; her eyes were aflame. 
 As Leleu greeted her, he took swift note of her nervous- 
 ness; and, meanwhile, he attributed it to her excitement 
 over his own concerns. The crushed and tattered copy of 
 that night's Cartier lay, a little heap of white, light ashes, 
 beneath the glowing grate. 
 
 They were still loitering over their dinner, when Leleu 
 was called to the telephone. Stanwood Tyler was asking 
 
 for a business talk. 
 
 13
 
 194 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Come here, if you don"*! mind," he added. " Patience 
 will be out, and we can be more free from interruption 
 over here." 
 
 Stanwood Tyler himself opened the door to Leleu and 
 led the way up-stairs. His greeting, cordial, was full 
 of kindly gravity. Even in his own excitement, Leleu 
 felt a swift reliance upon the strength of the big, silent 
 American before him. 
 
 Stanwood drew a chair to the fire, and brought out the 
 impedimenta of smoking. Then, without more ado, he 
 spoke. 
 
 " Leleu," he said shortly ; " I sent for you to tell you I 
 am ready to stand by you in this thing. What can I do 
 first?" 
 
 Seated, his cigarette between his fingers, Leleu stared 
 up at his host as if, of a sudden, he had gone daft. 
 
 " What thing ? " he inquired blankly. 
 
 It was the turn of Stanwood Tyler now to stare. 
 
 " You Ve not seen to-night's Cartier ? " 
 
 Leleu shook his head. 
 
 " The dev Oh, damnation, Leleu ! I had no idea 
 I'd have to tell you," Stanwood blurted out, in swift 
 contrition. 
 
 Leleu paled, and his hands shut on the arms of his 
 chair. 
 
 " What now ? " he asked briefly. 
 
 Stanwood thrust his fists into his pockets and stamped 
 the length of the room, chewing fiercely, the while, upon 
 the amber mouth-piece of his pipe. When he came back 
 to Leleu's side, the Cartier was in his hand. 
 
 " You 'd best read it," he said. " Then you can see for 
 yourself. I 'm sorry. I supposed you must have seen it." 
 Then he turned his back and fell to clattering the tongs 
 against the coals in the grate. 
 
 The sound of a moving chair made him face about
 
 Hearts and Creeds 195 
 
 once more. Leleu was on his feet, stepping towards his 
 overcoat and hat. 
 
 " You are going ? " 
 
 " To St. Just." 
 
 " He 's not in his office now. 1 ' 
 
 " I know where to find him." 
 
 " Is it wise, think ? " 
 
 " It is the only thing to do." 
 
 " But before you have had time to think the thing 
 over ? " 
 
 " Things like this need no thinking." 
 
 " No," Stanwood assented slowly. " Perhaps you are 
 right. They don't. Shall I come with you ? " 
 
 Leleu shook his head. 
 
 " No. I 'm best alone. But I thank you." 
 
 Stanwood followed him to the door. 
 
 "You'll come back here ?" 
 
 "Perhaps. It is impossible to tell." Then he went 
 quietly down the stairs. 
 
 For a moment, Stanwood lingered to look after him. 
 Leleu's face was white and drawn, his lips twitching, his 
 hands unsteady. It was only for a moment that Stan- 
 wood's back had been turned away, yet that moment had 
 sufficed to make Leleu's eyes look sunken and heavy. In 
 their sunken depths, however, there burned a sombre fire. 
 Amedee Leleu was as one smitten in a mortal part, that 
 part his honour. Nevertheless, Stanwood Tyler, watching, 
 made no effort to hold him back from the coming inter- 
 view. Leleu, in that hour, was no plastic boy. He was 
 a man, and he owned a man's whole right to avenge his 
 tarnished name. He was angry ; but his anger was within 
 the full control of his reason. St. Just had no cause to 
 look with pleasure upon the coming hour, yet Stanwood 
 felt sure that the morrow would bring no sting of remorse 
 upon Amedee Leleu.
 
 196 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Contrary to Stan wood Tyler's prediction, Leleu found 
 St. Just in his office. He liked it better so. The very 
 impersonality of the place gave him strength and steadi- 
 ness for the talk. St. Just glanced up with seeming indif- 
 ference, as Leleu came in upon him. 
 
 " Good evening, Leleu, 11 he said. " Sit down, and I "11 
 be with you in a moment.' 1 
 
 He spoke with perfect quiet. Nevertheless Leleu, whose 
 senses were strained to five-fold their normal power, saw 
 the pencil point in his hand cast a quivering shadow upon 
 the paper above which it had stayed itself. 
 
 "As you will,"" Leleu answered briefly. But he re- 
 mained standing. 
 
 With infinite deliberation, St. Just finished his notes 
 and filed the notes away in a drawer. Then he whirled 
 about sharply and faced Leleu. 
 
 " Well,"" he said ; " name your figure." 
 
 His very suddenness took Leleu off his guard. 
 
 " My figure, 11 he echoed. 
 
 " Yes. 11 St. Juste tone was nonchalant. " Of course, 
 you want this thing hushed up. In fact, I was expecting 
 you, and waited here in the office, to-night, sure that you 
 would come. There is no use wasting words. What are 
 you ready to pay ? " 
 
 There came a pause, almost imperceptible, yet long 
 enough to allow St. Just to congratulate himself that he 
 had won the game. Then he quailed before the fury in 
 Leleu's face. 
 
 " By heaven, St. Just ! If you repeat that once again, 
 you shall lie dead on your office floor. 11 
 
 Over the polished floor, St. Juste chair rolled backward 
 for an inch or two, and he shut his hand on the edge of 
 his desk, as if to gain support for his shaking fingers. 
 When he spoke, he accompanied his words with a little 
 laugh ; but the laugh came from whitening lips.
 
 " St. Just glanced up with seeming indifference, as Leleu came in 
 upon him." Page 196.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 197 
 
 " It is no use to bluster, my dear Leleu. The game is 
 all for me^ If I play my cards to the end, you suffer. " 
 
 With a mighty effort, Leleu had regained his grasp 
 upon himself. 
 
 " You have no cards that are genuine, or that can be 
 played with honour." 
 
 St. Just laughed again. Then, letting go his desk, he 
 picked up his pencil and fell to examining its point. 
 
 "Honour? 11 He raised his brows. "Then you still 
 talk of honour, my dear Leleu ? " 
 
 " There is no man living who dares talk to me of dis- 
 honour, 11 Leleu retorted curtly. 
 
 " I suppose, 11 St. Just made nonchalant reply. " Such 
 things, as a rule, are not to be put into words. Still, 
 there comes a time when one no longer can be silent. 
 Such a time appears to be upon us. 11 
 
 Leleu faced him, angrily, but with steady eyes. 
 
 " You mean ? " he questioned. 
 
 " That you are bought, body and soul, by Brooke Lord. 
 That you are pledged to support his interests before a 
 rotten government. That, in return, he has paid for your 
 election to your seat. I myself have heard him talk with 
 you in regard to the price he must pay. 11 
 
 " When ? " 
 
 " On the steamer, when I had the pleasure of crossing in 
 the company of you both. On the night which preceded 
 the last provincial dissolution. For the rest of it " 
 
 Leleu took the words off from his very lips. 
 
 " It is a black lie." 
 
 St. Just smiled at the point of the pencil in his hand. 
 
 " I have my proofs." 
 
 " Produce them," Leleu demanded fearlessly. 
 
 St. Just barely glanced up at the intrepid face and 
 figure, at the flaming eyes before him. Then, ever so 
 slightly, he shrugged his shoulders.
 
 198 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Impossible, my dear fellow ; at least, for the present." 
 
 "But why?" 
 
 " Merely because there is some one else involved in the 
 case." 
 
 "Who then?" 
 
 " My informant." 
 
 Leleu gritted his teeth at the delay, at the lazy, inso- 
 lent voice. 
 
 " Who then ? " he reiterated abruptly. 
 
 Again St. Just smiled inscrutably at the pencil point. 
 
 " Who then ? " he repeated. " Oh, merely your wife." 
 
 The next instant, there was a crash and a soft thud. 
 Then Leleu went out and shut the door, leaving St. Just 
 on the floor beside his overturned and broken chair. 
 
 To Arline Leleu, the evening was dragging heavily by. 
 A mood of utter depression had followed the nervous ten- 
 sion of the hour when she had sat waiting for Leleu to 
 come home to dinner. Then she had been braced to face 
 the coming storm. There had been no storm, however, 
 and now the inevitable reaction had followed upon the 
 tensity of her previous mood. She was too apathetic even 
 to reason about the failure of the storm to break. It was 
 inconceivable that Leleu should not have seen the Cartier, 
 Leleu who always read the papers daily and with care. 
 It must be that, in his present absorption in his own 
 interests, he had failed to behold the truth which was so 
 open to all the world besides, or, beholding, to give it any 
 heed. Of his summons from Stanwood Tyler, Arline took 
 no thought. Stanwood was wholly out of the political 
 fellowship. He doubtless wished to consult Leleu about 
 investments or some trivial question of legislation. At 
 best, the American engineer was a bit of a bore. Arline 
 yawned slightly, tossed aside her book and, clasping her 
 arms against the chair-back above her head, fell to think- 
 ing of Leleu, to wishing that he would return. It was
 
 Hearts and Creeds 199 
 
 dull, the sitting there alone. Of late and since Leleu 
 had been so busy, Arline had found now and then that 
 she missed him more acutely than she would have liked 
 to confess. 
 
 Then, as she thought of the future, coming now so near 
 at hand, she smiled regretfully and a little more gently 
 than it was her wont to do. The future would change so 
 many things ; and, all in all, the present was good enough. 
 True, bit by bit, she was renouncing her cherished dream 
 of moulding her husband into the outer likeness of her 
 own race and creed and party. To the last phase, she 
 had given all the strength of her imperious will, all the 
 wile of her wifely cunning. It had all been quite in vain. 
 Leleu's liberalism could be neither bent nor broken. By 
 race and creed and temperament, he was wholly alien 
 to the ideals of a Protestant Imperialism by whose teach- 
 ing the plastic young colonial life should be tightly laced 
 in the stays of English thought and ambition. It was 
 useless to strive, or even to argue. She could only leave 
 his politics, as she had done his racial allegiance, an open 
 question between them, and gain what pleasure she could 
 from his swift advancement. She had tried and failed. 
 St. Just had agreed to help her ; but now he had given 
 up the game. Too bad of him to invent this last sensa- 
 tion, mere froth of party journalism though it was ! It 
 was bound to annoy her husband, and, just now, he was 
 plainly bearing too much care already. Poor old Amedee ! 
 He had looked so tired, of late. 
 
 She had expended a share of her nervous energy, that 
 night, in making an elaborate toilette for dinner. Now, 
 as she lay back in the deep chair, her hands clasped above 
 her head, the full, soft lace fell back from her rounded 
 arms, her pale gown swept the floor at her feet. Some 
 whim, or was it some set purpose, had led her to cast 
 aside the jewels which Leleu had bought her. She wore
 
 200 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 only the sapphire-studded chain which matched the deep 
 blue eyes above. Against the dark velvet of the chair, 
 her hair, shining in the electric lamps, formed a gleaming 
 halo about her face, and her scarlet lips were curved up- 
 wards in the beginnings of a smile. It was so that Leleu 
 found her, when he came striding into the room. 
 
 Arline gave one look up into his livid face. Then she 
 started to her feet, lifting her hand, the while, as though 
 to ward off some approaching peril. 
 
 " What is it, Amedee ? " she asked, and, as she spoke, 
 she felt the words catching in her throat. 
 
 Halting upon the threshold, he looked at her for a 
 moment in silence. Arline broke the silence, and her 
 accent was sharp with fear. 
 
 " Amedee, what is it ? Something has happened." 
 
 His answer surprised even himself by its quiet. Not 
 even in his anger could his generations-old tradition be 
 surprised into brutality towards any woman, least of all 
 his wife. 
 
 " Yes," he assented. " Something has happened." 
 
 Then he crossed the room, unfastened his coat and, 
 slipping it from his shoulders, laid it across a chair. 
 That done, he faced her. 
 
 " Arline," he said ; " it seems that I have been blind too 
 long. We Leleus, as a race, have not had cause to dis- 
 trust our wives. I have followed the family tradition 
 and " Steady himself as he would, his voice began to 
 break a little ; but he caught himself up sharply and 
 turned its pathos into scorn ; " and it seems I have made 
 a mistake." 
 
 His scorn stung her sharply. She had never heard him 
 use that tone to her until then ; she could not know that 
 he was adopting it as a means of self-defence. Instead, 
 she met his scorn with scorn. 
 
 " You speak in riddles, Amedee."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 201 
 
 "I have just come from St. Just," he assured her 
 quietly. 
 
 She raised her head haughtily. 
 
 "And what of that?" 
 
 " I left him unconscious on the floor. " There was no 
 heat in the tone. He was merely stating the fact. 
 
 Her face grew white. She moved forward impulsively. 
 
 " Amedee ! Are you hurt ? " 
 
 But her involuntary alarm for him could not soothe his 
 mental pain. His wound was too deep for that. 
 
 " No. St. Just is hurt,"" he said, as he gazed straight 
 into her dark blue eyes. " For me " His voice broke 
 once more. " My God, Arline, I think you have killed 
 me." 
 
 Smiling a little, she sought to take his hand ; but he 
 disregarded the gesture. For an instant, she eyed him 
 askance, while the look in her face slowly turned from 
 wondering pity to a bitter, passionate dislike. Then, 
 stepping backward, she moved quite beyond his reach. 
 
 " What have I done ? " she asked proudly. " You have 
 no right to talk to me like this. If you must accuse 
 me, then speak out. What is this dreadful thing that I 
 have done ? " 
 
 His eyes never wavered from her face. 
 
 " You have betrayed me to Achille St. Just." 
 
 " Amedee ! " White with anger, she faced him, her 
 head erect, her eyes meeting his eyes squarely. " Be 
 silent ! No living man shall use that word of me ! " 
 
 Wearily, as if the straggle already were telling on his 
 strength, wearily he raised his hand. 
 
 " Wait ! " he bade her. " You do not understand. I 
 did not mean the word as you would use it. I am not 
 English. In times like this, your words come slowly to 
 me. I do not distrust your woman's honour, Arline. But 
 you have played me false in many ways. I have feared it ;
 
 202 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 but the very fear seemed to me an insult to my wife. I 
 know it now. Looking back, I see it all. You and St. 
 Just have made me, made my friends, made my profession, 
 even, the tool for the shaping of his own selfish ambitions." 
 
 Her lip curled, and she smiled. 
 
 " If I were in your place, Amedee,'" she said, with slow 
 scorn ; " I should hate to confess that I could be made the 
 tool of a man like Monsieur St. Just."" 
 
 " You ! " he laughed bitterly. " Arline, you have been 
 his tool from the very beginning." 
 
 "Amedee, you are absurd," she said, in hot anger. 
 " How have I been his tool ? " 
 
 " In your receptions, in the way you have lured on these 
 men to talk that he might listen. In the way that 
 Suddenly he drew a folded paper from his pocket. " Tell 
 me, if you can, how this came to be on St. Just's desk," 
 he demanded. 
 
 Even her angry colour faded, as her eyes rested upon 
 the note by which Monsieur Aucune had summoned her 
 husband to the first of their many conferences. 
 
 " How should I know ? " Her tone rang hard with con- 
 tempt. " It is not my place to care for the letters you 
 leave lying about." Then, defenceless herself, she took 
 swift refuge in counter attack. " Your suspicions, your 
 accusations are of a piece with all the rest of it. You 
 have spoiled my life, taken it for yours and broken it to 
 bits, and now you make toys of the pieces." 
 
 He drew his hand slowly once and yet again across his 
 brow. 
 
 "Both our lives are spoiled then, Arline. But tell me, 
 how have I spoiled your own ? " 
 
 For a moment, she paced the rug with the long, swing- 
 ing step of an angry creature. Then she faced him again. 
 
 " You spoiled it when you forced your way into it, in 
 the first place," she said vehemently. " I was happy, con-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 203 
 
 tented with my old friends, in my old life. You came ; 
 you cajoled me into a pitiful apology for a wedding, into 
 signing away the religious freedom of my children, into 
 giving up my home, my own social life, giving up every- 
 thing, in fact, to you. And what have you given up ? 
 Nothing. What have you done for me ? Taken me into 
 a life where I am an alien, alone and never understood. 
 Oh, yes, you think because I laugh, and wear pretty frocks 
 and dance with the rest, that I don't care. You think I 
 am satisfied because you are getting into a sort of political 
 notoriety. What do you care that you and your politics 
 and your religion all run counter to what I hold most 
 dear? And when I try to swallow my dislike, to make 
 the best of things, and to help you along and make you 
 popular among your political people, you turn on me and 
 accuse me of betraying, of be tray-ing you to the friend 
 whose help I have been driven to seek. And then, after 
 everything else, you tell me I have spoiled your life. 
 What if I have? What have you done to mine?" 
 
 " Tried, as I believe in God "" 
 
 " No ; never mind that now," she interrupted him. " It 
 is all over. You have ruined my life ; you have forced me 
 to give up everything ; you have thrown aside the help I 
 would have given you. Amedee Leleu," she faced him 
 sharply ; " how far would you have won your present hold, 
 if I had not made my evenings pleasant for your friends ? 
 Poor dunces! They came here and talked, talked and 
 babbled. And I endured it, tired and bored as I was, en- 
 dured it all for your sake. You liked it, so long as you 
 needed its help. You could have stopped it, if you would. 
 Now that you think you are firmly on your feet, you 
 brush away your supporting platform, brush it away with- 
 out a word of thanks to me for making it." She checked 
 herself abruptly. Then she crossed the room and threw 
 herself down upon the couch at the farther end of the
 
 204 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 floor. " No matter, 11 she added wearily. " It is all over 
 now, so why discuss it. I should have been glad of your 
 thanks ; in fact, I counted on them. Still, it is no matter ; 
 and it is just as well to have the thing end. I shaVt be 
 able to go out much more till after June. After that," 
 she laughed a little ; " after that, who can tell ? I used to 
 think it would be rather nice to have a child ; but now it 
 seems to me that, considering all things, religion and all, 
 it will only be one barrier the more."" 
 
 " Arline ! " 
 
 Leleu stepped forward, with a little cry. For a mo- 
 ment, she lay quiet, looking up at him with a world of defi- 
 ant scorn in her dark blue eyes. Then she dropped her 
 eyes and turned her face to the wall. 
 
 Silence sank over the room. In the hush, Leleu could 
 hear the swish of the blood throbbing in his temples. He 
 waited long, not daring to speak, himself, praying that 
 Arline might break the stillness. The clock ticked softly, 
 and a single coal, crackling in the heat, seemed to jar the 
 room with its sudden tiny explosion. Arline neither 
 moved nor spoke. Over Leleu's face, gray shadows were 
 settling down, his lips drooped and his hands, dangling at 
 his side, opened and shut incessantly. Then at length he 
 turned, picked up his coat and hat and moved towards the 
 door. With his hand on the knob, he halted and looked 
 back, framed his words as if to speak, then checked the 
 impulse and noiselessly left the room, closing the door 
 behind him.
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN 
 
 THE next morning at his usual hour, St. Just entered 
 his office. Strips of plaster, interlaced to form a 
 triangle, bedecked his right temple, a purple spot marked 
 his left cheek just in front of the ear. Nevertheless, he 
 answered curtly to the sympathetic surprise of his sub- 
 ordinates, and, with a wholly impenetrable face, crossed 
 the floor to hang up his coat, then seated himself at his 
 desk and drew towards him the little heap of his morning 
 mail. 
 
 One after another, St. Just ran his knife along the edges 
 of the envelopes, pulled out their contents, glanced at 
 them and sorted them into orderly piles, ready for a sec- 
 ond reading. Twice, in the midst of his hasty exami- 
 nation, he started slightly, once in annoyance, once in 
 obvious pleasure. However, he went on with his method- 
 ical work, finished his piles and then went over the sepa- 
 rate piles with careful attention. Now and then a letter 
 fluttered down into the great basket at his feet. Now and 
 then he paused, frowning, and vouchsafed a second reading 
 to some communication from an indignant Liberal who 
 demanded that his woes should receive their baptism of 
 printer's ink. At last, he gathered up the piles into a 
 thick sheaf and passed them over to his clerk, together 
 with a few crisp words of instruction. That done, he 
 whirled about in his chair again and took up the two let- 
 ters he had slipped into a pigeon-hole by themselves, to 
 await his further consideration. 
 
 One, the shorter one of the two, was from a local lawyer 
 who stated in behalf of his client, Mr. Brooke Lord, that
 
 206 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 unless St. Just made instant and public retraction of his 
 recent innuendo, he should at once proceed to a suit for 
 damages, without waiting for more specific statements, or 
 for the threatened publication of names. St. Just read 
 the letter twice, three times, tapping the while with his 
 pencil upon the desk before him. Still tapping, he sat 
 staring at the orderly pigeon-holes with unseeing eyes 
 which narrowed to a line, then of a sudden widened to 
 show their whites. St. Just nodded slightly, laughed 
 shortly, and tossed the letter aside. Then he picked up 
 the other letter. 
 
 This was more bulky, and the flap of the envelope bore 
 the scarlet crest of the Canadian senate. St. Just lingered 
 over it, examined the device, the address and then drew 
 out the sheets within, much as a contented child draws 
 out the plum from his cake. Then, shrugging his shoulders, 
 he settled himself at ease and began to read. The letter 
 was from a well-known Liberal senator. It recapitulated 
 the slow change in the Cartier's policy. It pointed out 
 wherein would lie the Cartier's best policy for the future, 
 and it closed with a brief question in regard to the present 
 holdings of a controlling interest in the Cartier's stock 
 and the stock's probable price. Even as he read, St. 
 Just's fingers moved mechanically towards the drawer of 
 his desk where lay duplicates of many of the company's 
 records. 
 
 Suddenly his hand stayed itself, and he glanced up. 
 Sir Morris Plante was just opening the office door. 
 
 Outwardly, St. Just was upon friendly terms with Sir 
 Morris Plante. At heart, he liked the great, boyish 
 Englishman not one whit ; he feared him more than a 
 little. Thorough-going honesty coupled with British 
 brawn made a man a bad antagonist in a game such^ as 
 St. Just was playing then. Furthermore, it was wise to 
 be scrupulously polite to a man having the entree to
 
 Hearts and Creeds 207 
 
 Spencer Wood and certain other houses almost as potent 
 in the purely local world. Moreover, from the very fact 
 of his being an alien, bound to no party, nor creed, nor 
 race, Sir Morris was the more likely to insist upon seeing 
 fair play. And, granted he won out in the end, fair play 
 was by no means a principal clause in St. Just's gaming 
 creed. St. Just's conscience was immune from pricks ; but 
 his sore head gave a reminiscent twinge, as he looked up 
 to greet the Englishman with a smile. 
 
 Sir Morris advanced unsmilingly, ignored the out- 
 stretched hand and helped himself to a seat. Then, with 
 the utmost deliberation, he pulled out his eye-glass, 
 screwed it into his eye and took a good, long look at the 
 beplastered brow before him. The eyeglass fell with a 
 click. 
 
 " Oh, by Jove ! " Sir Morris said then. " So Leleu has 
 been here ahead of me." 
 
 In spite of his nonchalant self-control, St. Just turned 
 scai'let with anger at the lazy satisfaction in Sir Morris's 
 tone. Then he put a strong curb upon his temper. 
 
 " All the world, sooner or later, comes to the Cartier 
 office, Sir Morris." 
 
 Sir Morris settled himself tranquilly in his chair. 
 
 " Of course. I 'm only sorry I could n't have been the 
 early bird, myself." 
 
 St. Just's eyes betrayed his puzzlement. Expert linguist 
 that he was, proverbs couched in the vernacular were 
 beyond his ken. 
 
 " I do not understand," he said apologetically. 
 
 Sir Morris crossed his legs. 
 
 " To catch the worm," he explained tersely. Then he 
 added, with boyish gravity, " Of course I 've caught him, 
 as you might say ; but I 'd have liked first lick." 
 
 Involuntarily St. Just's hand sought his purple cheek. 
 Then he laughed carelessly.
 
 208 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "I am very dull, Sir Morris. I fear I do not 
 understand." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; you do," Sir Morris reassured him. " You 
 understand me to perfection, only you don't care to let on. 
 Do you know anything about our public schools ? " 
 
 St. Just smiled alertly. 
 
 " Ah, I begin to understand. I forgot that you were 
 here, a student. You were sent to me from the office of 
 education ? " 
 
 Again the lazy amusement crept into the eyes of Sir 
 Morris Plante. In spite of his efforts to conceal the fact, 
 St. Just obviously was lacking in his wonted dexterity of 
 mind, that morning. His evasions were slow, clumsy, 
 wholly obvious. 
 
 " No ; I 'm not hunting any Quebec education, this morn- 
 ing," he said placidly. 
 
 St. Just interrupted him. 
 
 " It is well. There is little you would find." 
 
 " Possibly. In certain ways, the city is very like France," 
 Sir Morris replied imperturbably. " But I was asking you 
 if you knew anything about our English public schools." 
 
 " A very little, too little for my content," St. Just 
 answered, with careful politeness. 
 
 "So I judged. Do you know what is one of the first 
 lessons they teach us ? " Sir Morris pursued calmly. 
 
 " I have not heard." 
 
 Sir Moms uncrossed his legs and crossed them the other 
 way. 
 
 " Well, it ""s this : when we meet a sneak, to lick him 
 into some sense of decency and honour." 
 
 St. Just glanced hastily at Sir Morris. Then he slid 
 his chair slightly so that a corner of the desk should be 
 between them. 
 
 "I see. It is different with us. We fight an even 
 battle."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 209 
 
 Sir Morris spoke with level emphasis. 
 
 "So do we, when we meet a man, 1 ' he averred 
 tranquilly. 
 
 St. Just delivered counter stroke. 
 
 " Ah ? Then your training has not been wholly in 
 England ? " he queried. 
 
 Sir Morris eyed him as a St. Bernard dog might have 
 eyed a soft, elastic puppy, before knocking him over with 
 a turn of his burly paw. Then he spoke. 
 
 " Mostly. You see we had a French fellow at Eton, 
 and I used to keep my hand in, licking him at odd times. 
 He generally needed a licking, you know. 11 
 
 St. Just's lips went white. 
 
 " Monsieur is humourous, to-day, 11 he observed dryly in 
 French. 
 
 Sir Morris answered him in his own tongue. 
 
 <l On the contrary, I am quite in earnest." Then he 
 lapsed into English again. " Now see here, St. Just, 11 he 
 said quietly ; " as a rule, I don't mix up in the next man's 
 affairs. It 's bad manners ; it 's not my way. Still, when 
 I see a round half-dozen of my friends 'having their lives 
 tormented out of them by an arrant, lying scoundrel " 
 
 " Monsieur ! " St. Just started up from his chair. 
 
 Sir Morris waved him back. 
 
 " Sit it out, man," he admonished him. " You may as 
 well save your strength. You may need it. Where was 
 I ? Oh, yes. By an arrant, lying scoundrel, I propose to 
 take a hand in suppressing that scoundrel and No, 
 sit down ! You are not to open that door." 
 
 St. Just bit his lip angrily. Then, with a deft gesture, 
 he reached out under Sir Morris's arm and struck the 
 button of an electric bell. 
 
 Very quietly Sir Moms Plante faced him. 
 
 " I don^ care to boast," he said ; " but I have done some 
 
 boxing in my day, and I outweigh you by ninety pounds. 
 
 14
 
 210 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 May I advise you to let me speak to the boy, when he 
 comes ? " 
 
 With an inarticulate oath, St. Just bent over his desk. 
 Sir Morris turned a placid face to the boy who appeared 
 upon the threshold. 
 
 " Monsieur St. Just merely wishes no one to disturb 
 him. 11 He tossed a coin to the youngster. " You under- 
 stand ? He will be busy for about fifteen minutes more. 11 
 
 He turned back to find the Frenchman facing him in 
 angry scorn. 
 
 " The law will see to this, 11 he said bitterly. " Even the 
 English law is not afraid of Sir Morris Plante. 11 
 
 Sir Morris laughed. 
 
 " No ; but Monsieur St. Just is afraid of the English 
 law, 11 he observed. Then he straightened up in his chair. 
 " Now look here, St. Just, there is no use in wasting words. 
 You know you are a blasted scoundrel. You have slan- 
 dered Brooke Lord ; you have made it impossible for 
 Leleu to enter this provisional cabinet ; you have made his 
 wife the talk of half the town. You have betrayed your 
 paper, your friends. The worst of it is, you have gone 
 so far that no retraction can make good the harm you 
 have done. 11 
 
 "I have no intention to retract, 11 St. Just said 
 sullenly. 
 
 " Not now, perhaps ; but I fancy the intention will come 
 to you later. However, that's as may be. There are 
 still some things that retraction can't undo. Down in the 
 States, Tyler tells me, they would paint a man in tar and 
 then roll him in feathers for a thing of this sort. The 
 Canadians have a few things yet to learn of the States. I 
 fancy even you might find out the value of discretion, while 
 you were busy picking yourself. Still, this is n't the 
 States, so I must adopt the English method." 
 
 " And that ? " St. Just queried, with a sneer.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 211 
 
 Slowly Sir Morris rose to his feet and squared his wide, 
 clean-cut shoulders. 
 
 "And that," he responded calmly; "is to lick you. 
 First of all, though, St. Just, I want you to know why I 
 do it. It 's for no personal grudge. As far as I am con- 
 cerned, you can babble all day ; your words don't count the 
 value of the ink that goes into them. They Ye black, of 
 course ; but they don't weigh anything. No. Hear me 
 out. You can take your turn, if you feel like it, when 
 your paper goes to press. But now hear me out. Leleu 
 has evidently been down here to lick you for the harm 
 you Ve done his wife. If I lick you, it will be for the 
 general menace you Ve been to society, for " 
 
 A deprecating hand rapped on the door, far down on 
 the middle panels. Sir Morris stayed his speech. 
 
 " Come in," he said. 
 
 The door swung open, and upon the threshold there ap- 
 peared the tiniest of the office boys, his weazen little face 
 wrinkled in terror of what might befall the one who had 
 the temerity to disturb the temporary chief. Sir Moms 
 looked down at him, smiled and, with a forward stride, 
 laid his hand on the spiky hair. 
 
 " What is it, youngster ? " he asked cheerily. 
 
 The boy caught his breath, in sharp revulsion from his 
 former terror. 
 
 " A telegram for Monsieur St. Just," he answered then. 
 " It is marked ' rush, ' and I was afraid to wait." 
 
 " Afraid to come in, too, I fancy," Sir Moms said 
 kindly, as he took the telegram and tossed it to St. Just's 
 desk. " Run away now. Monsieur St. Just will ring, 
 when the answer is ready." 
 
 The crackle of paper was followed by an instant's hush. 
 Then St. Just laughed harshly, threw aside the telegram, 
 crossed to the window, came back to the desk, lighted a 
 cigarette, then laughed again and still more harshly.
 
 212 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Messieurs, le Jeu est fait he quoted, and even Sir 
 Morris shrank at the rasping bitterness which he had con- 
 trived to give to the familiar phrase. 
 
 " You have bad news ? " he asked, with the traditional 
 courtesy which had trained him to show gentleness to all 
 who were in trouble. 
 
 For his only answer, St. Just jerked the telegram 
 towards Sir Morris. Stooping, Sir Morris read the crisp 
 words. 
 
 " I reach Quebec to-night. Publish no more politics."" 
 
 And the message, dated from a town in northern New 
 York, bore the signature of St. Just's too long absent 
 chief. 
 
 Sir Morris took up his hat. Then he faced back to 
 St. Just and stood for a moment, gazing at him with 
 thoughtful, frank, blue eyes. 
 
 " Old man, I believe I 'm rather sorry for you, after all,"" 
 he said slowly. " You are in the devil of a mess, though, 
 to be sure, the mess is wholly of your own mixing. Still, 
 I have a notion that you 're in a way to get all the licking 
 that's good for you, without much help from me. You 
 don't deserve any sympathy or advice. However, if I 
 were you and thank the Lord, I 'm not ! I 'd pack my 
 boxes as fast as I could and sail on the Tunisian, at four, 
 to-morrow afternoon." 
 
 Then Sir Morris, turning on his heel, went out of the 
 office and closed the door behind him. 
 
 And, meanwhile, Pere Leleu was pacing slowly to and 
 fro on the topmost gallery which overhangs the little 
 Seminary garden. Sheltered from the wind sweeping 
 down from the north and east, open to the southern sun- 
 shine, the long gallery seemed, that February morning, 
 to have a climate all its own. Around it, the rigours of 
 the Canadian winter were still unabated. The ice-cakes 
 still ground against each other in the wide river beneath
 
 Hearts and Creeds 213 
 
 the cliff, the Levis shore was glistening under its heaps of 
 snow, and even the garden just below the gallery was 
 buried in drifts that covered every hint of the paths and 
 the low arbours which offered such an attractive pleasure 
 ground in the summer. Nevertheless, up on the gray old 
 gallery the sun lay warm and caressing, and the Laval 
 spires at the left rose up athwart a sky blue as of an 
 Italian noon. 
 
 From end to end of the long gallery Pere Leleu paced 
 back and forth with steady, thoughtful steps. From 
 under his black beretta, his soft white hair stood out in 
 a gleaming fringe. One thin, muscular hand was shut on 
 a fold of his soutane, and his ascetic, high-bred face was 
 turned towards the shining heights of Levis where the sun, 
 resting upon a convent roof, lighted its cross to flaming 
 gold. Nevertheless, Pere Leleu's clear dark eyes were 
 heedless of the cross just then, and of its flaming import. 
 Ascetic he might be, and wholly consecrated to the relig- 
 ious life ; yet he could not turn a deaf ear to the flying 
 rumours that all was not well with his nephew, Amedee 
 Leleu. Hearing, he could not easily forget that, of his 
 three nephews, Amedee was his favourite. By rights, Pere 
 Leleu's mind should have been filled with the fact that 
 he was to preach in the Basilica, on the next Sunday 
 morning. Instead, he vaguely wondered how soon it 
 would be wise for him to send for his nephew to come to 
 talk with him. Then he lifted his eyes to see a messenger 
 standing before him on the gallery. 
 
 " Your nephew is below. He would speak to you." 
 
 " Bring him here, 11 Pere Leleu made swift reply. 
 
 A moment later, Leleu, white, wan and heavy-eyed, 
 came out on the gallery with the step of one who walks 
 in his sleep. Before Pere Leleu, he halted and spoke, his 
 eyes resting on the sun-striped floor. 
 
 " My uncle, I have sinned,"" he said, and his accent was
 
 214 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 piteous as the accent of a tired child. " I do not know 
 how much ; I do not know exactly how. Still, before I 
 go to confession, even, I need to ask your judgment, your 
 advice." 
 
 It was only for an instant that Pere Leleu glanced at 
 him in silence. That instant, however, sufficed to show 
 him the disordered dress, the unshaven face, the heavy, 
 sunken eyes of his nephew. Then, with a smile and with 
 a touch, firm, but of an ineffable gentleness, he stepped 
 forward and drew Leleu's hot, dry hand through his arm. 
 
 " I am glad you are come," he said ; " for I have been 
 thinking of you. Pere Du Sort is your confessor, Amedce. 
 Forget that I am anything but your old uncle, and speak 
 to me as you will. I too, even here, have known my sor- 
 rows. Perhaps I can help you in your own. 11 
 
 Leleu hesitated. Then he gazed up into the face above 
 him, calm, ascetic and full of love and of human under- 
 standing, and, in one passionate, turbulent tide, he poured 
 out the whole story of the past winter weeks, of the past 
 days, and of that last, tragic night. 
 
 Now and then, during the hours since he had left 
 Arline, it had seemed to Leleu that the night would 
 never end. He had walked the streets for cold and weary 
 miles, seeking by physical exhaustion to deaden his agony 
 of mind. Down by the bank of the St. Charles, out on 
 the Grande Alice, in the dull monotony of Richelieu 
 Street and at the bend of Palace Hill, the policemen on 
 their beats had wondered at the solitary figure moving 
 steadily along the midnight streets. He took no heed of 
 passing hours, nor of the waning night ; but the morning 
 was still gray, when, almost without his own volition, his 
 step turned to the familiar gate of the Basilica and, enter- 
 ing, he cast himself down at the altar rail just within its 
 doors. 
 
 But even there no help awaited him. The chancel was
 
 Hearts and Creeds 215 
 
 hung with black ; close at his side, the huge, black- 
 covered bier lifted its terraced bulk in readiness for some 
 early-morning funeral mass, and the nave echoed with the 
 slow steps of a solitary black-robed priest who moved to 
 and fro, arranging the triple ranks of tall white candles. 
 Leleu buried his face in his hands, seeking oblivion ; then 
 he lifted his head abruptly. What was the justice of all 
 those trappings of woe set forth for death alone, when he, 
 facing a future which was worse than death, would be 
 denied the luxury of a single moan ? So long as Arline 
 lived, it mattered nothing, as to outward form, that Ar- 
 line's love was dead. He rose, left the Basilica and, cross- 
 ing the narrow court, opened the wide oak doors of the 
 Seminary Chapel, passed the bronze Saint Peter just 
 within, and, going up the central aisle, knelt at the rail 
 at the foot of the high altar. 
 
 Around him, the place was very still. Far in some dis- 
 tant corner, he could hear a faint echo of steps ; but at 
 last the steps were heard no more, and the chapel lay in 
 an absolute hush of peace. Little by little and by slow 
 degrees the hush of peace came over Leleu's tired senses. 
 He had exhausted, for the time being, his power for active 
 suffering. In the torpor which followed, his mind went 
 back again over the old happy, carefree days when that 
 chapel and the Seminary beyond had been a home to him. 
 Life had been bright to him then, full of promise, fuller 
 still of dreams. And now, over a present which might 
 have been brighter than any boyish dreams, the shadows 
 had dropped and dimmed the lustre. And the fault? 
 
 He bowed his head still lower. As yet, it was impos- 
 sible for him to see on whose side the fault lay. The battle 
 was too near, the wound too fresh. Only time could give 
 him the proper perspective ; but time would allow the 
 wound to heal into an ugly scar above the distorted flesh. 
 Better than that would be the firm touch of another hand
 
 216 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 upon the hurt. No matter how agonizing now, it might 
 be helpful in the end. Rising, he moved to the altar at 
 the right, and bowed again before the shrine of the all- 
 pitiful Sainte Anne. 
 
 Then, when the morning was far spent, white and wan, 
 but steadfast in his purpose, he once more rose from his 
 knees and left the dim-arched chapel. He was conscious 
 of but one purpose only ; and that purpose was the find- 
 ing of his uncle, the venerable Pere Leleu. 
 
 And Pere Leleu heard him to the end, the end of the 
 story, and self-blame, and final question. Then he turned 
 and faced his nephew with dark, lambent eyes which burnt 
 their way into the soul of Amedee Leleu. 
 
 " And still you love your wife ? " he asked slowly. 
 
 Leleu bowed his head. 
 
 " As I love my hope of paradise," he said, and his voice 
 was full of reverence. 
 
 Pere Leleu's face cleared. His eyes lost their sombre 
 flame. 
 
 "It is well. That was your marriage vow, and no 
 Leleu ever was false to the vows of his marriage. And 
 now you ask my advice. There is one course open to you, 
 Amedee, one course and only one. Go home to your wife. 
 Tell her your love. Show it to her freely and every day. 
 Give her no chance to forget it ; surround her life with it 
 until it leaves place for nothing else. Of the past and of 
 whose the fault, what matter ? The future is still in your 
 hands, the future of your wife, of your child, of your love. 
 Go home, then, Amedee, go home swiftly and see that 
 you hold it yours, now and for the life to come." And, 
 lifting one hand as if in benediction, with the other, 
 slowly, reverently, he made the sign of the cross. 
 
 The noonday bell was ringing, as Leleu crossed the 
 ancient market place and turned his steps once more 
 towards the Clarendon. Swiftly he passed the office,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 217 
 
 swiftly ran up the familiar stairs. Outside his own door, 
 he halted, drew his hand across his brow, his eyes, and 
 swallowed hard for an instant. Then softly he turned the 
 knob and entered the room where Arline lay on the couch 
 just as she had lain, only the night before. The dark 
 shadows beneath her closed eyes intensified the whiteness 
 of her cheeks ; her short, sharp breathing alone betrayed 
 the fact that she was alert to every sound which betokened 
 his coming. 
 
 Leleu never hesitated. For him, the hour for hesita- 
 tion had ended when he had left the Seminary chapel. 
 Now he crossed the intervening bit of floor, knelt beside 
 the couch and gathered his wife in his arms, while he laid 
 his brown cheek against her own. 
 
 " Arline," he said brokenly ; " I too was wrong, and I 
 am sorry. But the past is gone. Shall we forget it, dear, 
 like some ugly dream, and wait for the future, side by side 
 and with good courage ? " 
 
 There was no need for him to hold his breath, awaiting 
 the spoken reply. Arline's whole body had yielded to the 
 first touch of his clasping arms, her head had nestled 
 against him and he felt her tears dropping fast upon his 
 fingers and even upon his swarthy cheek.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY 
 
 OVER the grassy stretch of the Esplanade, the June 
 sun lay warm. The gray wall was bathed in sun- 
 shine and the tower of the Kent Gate cast a sharp shadow 
 across the turf. On the benches at the northern end, a 
 trio of gray-gowned, black-bonneted nurses alternately 
 gossiped and made little relief expeditions after their tod- 
 dling charges who seemed bent upon committing suicide 
 under the cars rounding the corner out of Anne Street. 
 Farther to the south of the little park, a squad of infantry 
 from the citadel close by, went through an elaborate drill, 
 with a listless indifference born of the summer day and of 
 their consciousness of the admiring eyes of the dozen 
 American tourists who had climbed the stairs of the Louis 
 Gate and were squatting like doves on the top of the city 
 wall. 
 
 "Do you know," Jimmy Lord observed ; " it 's a curious 
 and significant fact that the country which sends us the 
 most tourists should also have invented the choice, but 
 expressive word stunts. It never would have occurred to 
 me to get on top of that wall ; but neither would I have 
 had the initiative to write my name and address on the 
 rail of the Wolfe-Montcalm monument, or even to take 
 a midwinter drive in a caleche." 
 
 Leleu smiled. 
 
 " They are a strange race, those Americans." 
 
 But Jimmy disagreed. 
 
 "Not all,"" he answered, with a crisp brevity which 
 caused Leleu^s eyes to widen with surprise. " Miss Tyler 
 is an American, you know.""
 
 Hearts and Creeds 219 
 
 Leleu took refuge in epigram. 
 
 "There is no nationality among the angels," he said. 
 
 And Jimmy laughed, partly in understanding, partly in 
 agreement, partly in pleasure at the old mood of content 
 which, day by day, was once more taking hold upon Leleu. 
 To them all, little by little, the past winter was turning 
 to a vague memory, as of some disordered dream. Many 
 things had contributed to this blotting out of a grim 
 page in all their lives, and those things had followed one 
 another in swiftest succession. Leleu and Arline had not 
 yet finished talking of their plans for their reconstructed 
 life, when news had come to them that St. Just, hastily 
 summoned back to Paris, had left for Halifax on the very 
 afternoon of the day which had brought the summons. 
 Then, for three swift, hurrying weeks, Leleu had divided 
 his time between the Parliament Buildings, Arline, and 
 the house he had bought on the Esplanade. To Arline, 
 he explained that his increasing duties would make it 
 needful that he should live nearer his office. To himself, 
 he admitted frankly that he could not bring himself to 
 spend one unnecessary hour in the familiar rooms at the 
 Clarendon. Not even the sight of Arline, gentler than of 
 yore, more considerate and infinitely more loving, could 
 quite blot out the memory of the long agonies he had 
 suffered, within those bright and cheery walls. It was 
 with a look of ineffable content that, one morning in late 
 March, Leleu had led his wife up the steps and into the 
 spacious home which he had chosen and decked out for her 
 coming. 
 
 Four days later, the Government had fallen. The 
 game of the provincial crisis had played itself out to an 
 inglorious end, had filed itself away to wait for the judg- 
 ment of history. For two long weeks, Leleu had sat in a 
 temporary cabinet, giving what help he could to the leader 
 who was quietly arranging all things in readiness for his
 
 220 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 own end. The position had not been a glorious one ; it 
 was open to some ridicule, much blame. Nevertheless, 
 Leleu, in his seat on the day after the resignation of the 
 premier, listening to the tribute paid by the leader of the 
 Opposition to those few members who had been loyal to 
 the leaders to whose support they were pledged, listening 
 to this, Leleu had felt that he had gained a rich reward. 
 The prizes of the winning side were not for him ; but at 
 least he could return to his county, clean-handed, level- 
 eyed. The rest would be but a matter of time. 
 
 For Leleu, then, hard on the heels of his domestic 
 reconstruction had come his political one. In both of 
 these, the Cartier had taken no mean share. From the 
 Carolina pine belt and at the hazard of his life, the chief 
 had come dashing northward as fast as trains could bear 
 him. Quebec still talked of the two-column editorial in 
 the extra which had announced his arrival. Sir Morris, 
 meanwhile, had never mentioned the long hour he had 
 loitered in the station, awaiting the departure of the train 
 for Halifax, nor of the contented smile which had illu- 
 mined his face when the train, with Achille St. Just on 
 board, had finally steamed away. 
 
 All that had been in March, and now late June had 
 come, and summer was upon the land. From end to end 
 of the house on the Esplanade, the windows stood wide 
 open to the breeze, and the sun lay warm over the road- 
 way and over the stretches of grass beyond. 
 
 Jimmy and Leleu were sitting in the open windows 
 looking out upon the street. At each man's elbow was 
 a heaped-up ash tray, and the heaps held a number of 
 matches wholly disproportionate to the ashes beside them. 
 They talked disjointedly, with forced interest and stilted 
 phrases ; and, every now and then, Leleu interrupted the 
 talk while he crossed the floor, softly opened the door into 
 the hall and, holding up his hand for silence, bowed his
 
 Hearts and Creeds 221 
 
 head in intent listening. Then, closing the door with the 
 same elaborate care, he shook his head and returned to 
 his seat and to his conversation. And, with the dragging 
 hours, the conversation dragged ever more heavily, while 
 the sun dropped behind the tower on the Parliament, 
 Buildings, then behind the roof, and then behind the city 
 wall, heavy and gray as the twilight shadows which crept 
 across the greensward of the Esplanade. 
 
 And then, all at once and without warning, it seemed 
 to the two men that the atmosphere of the house grew 
 tense with some impending crisis. The tension grew, 
 holding them both silent, listening. There came the stir 
 of hurrying footsteps, the low murmur of voices. There 
 came another silence, longer than the first had been. 
 Then, faint with distance, but lusty with new-born life, 
 there came floating down to them the sound of a high- 
 pitched baby cry. 
 
 The pompous old English doctor, marching solemnly 
 down the stairs to acquaint the waiting father with the 
 news, became wellnigh speechless with indignation to find 
 himself brushed aside as Leleu, lithe as a cat and beaming 
 with happiness, went springing up the stairs. Then, as 
 he met the eye of Jimmy, waiting in the hall below, his 
 irate pomposity lost itself in an indulgent chuckle. 
 
 " They "re all alike, English or French, over their first 
 baby," he remarked, as he followed Jimmy through the 
 rooms on his way to the sideboard. 
 
 Jimmy drew a long breath. Then he laughed. 
 
 " I Ve had a day 1 11 never forget. Leleu has had no 
 idea of being difficult ; but he 's been like a caged tiger. 
 Is everything all right ? " 
 
 The doctor nodded into his glass. 
 
 " Admirable, Mr. Lord, admirable." 
 
 "And Arline?" 
 
 " Admirable. Your sister's constitution, you know."
 
 222 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " I know. I was only afraid she might have overdone, 
 last winter." 
 
 The doctor shook his shining poll. 
 
 " I assure you, Mr. Lord, I have never seen a case where 
 all the conditions were more entirely satisfactory." 
 
 Half an hour later, Jimmy, seated alone by the open 
 window, looked up alertly, as Patience Tyler came into 
 the room. The girl was pale, and her weariness would 
 have been obvious to eyes far less searching than were 
 those of Jimmy Lord ; but her voice broke gayly in upon 
 Jimmy's twilight musings. 
 
 " My congratulations to you, Uncle Jimmy ! " she said 
 blithely. 
 
 He sprang to his feet, whisked the ash trays out of 
 sight and rolled forward the easiest chair which the room 
 afforded. Patience nodded her thanks, then sat down on 
 the chair arm, with her clasped hands falling into the lap 
 of her soft, thin gown. 
 
 " Do you feel the stimulus of your new dignity ? " she 
 demanded then. 
 
 " Not so much as I shall, when I Ve seen it." 
 
 " It ! " Patience echoed, in swift rebuke. " I thought 
 better of you than that." 
 
 Jimmy gave a shamefaced laugh. 
 
 " Do you know," he confessed ; " I was so glad to get 
 Leleu safely off' my hands, without his breaking anything, 
 or setting fire to anything, that I really quite forgot to ask 
 the doctor whether the little chap was a boy or a girl." 
 
 " The little chap is a girl," Patience assured him gravely. 
 " Furthermore, she has a puggy nose, and eyes just like 
 Arline^." Her tone was carefree. However, she rose to 
 her feet and began to move restlessly to and fro about the 
 room, changing the place of an ornament here, straighten- 
 ing a book there. 
 
 Jimmy watched her uneasily. He took note of her
 
 Hearts and Creeds 223 
 
 nervous gestures, of the shadows that lay beneath her eyes. 
 Then he said bluntly, 
 
 " Oh, I say, you Ye quite tired out with this thing. 11 
 
 " Thing ? " She smiled faintly, as she lifted her brows in 
 rebuke. Nevertheless, something in his tone had brought 
 the quick tears to her eyes. 
 
 Jimmy rose and stood beside her, his tall, lean figure 
 towering above her in brotherly protection. 
 
 "No matter what you call it. Angel, if you choose. 
 That does n't affect the main point : that you Ve been 
 shut up in this house, all day long. Come out for a 
 breath of air." 
 
 " But they may need me, 11 the girl protested weakly. 
 
 " Then let them go on needing. There 's the nurse and 
 the doctor and Leleu, to say nothing of Molly at the other 
 end of a telephone wire. Molly is a darling ; I Ve always 
 said so. Still, she need n't shirk. 11 
 
 " But Arline did n't want her, 11 Patience said defensively. 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 " Arline did n't want you ; but you insisted. Stop 
 arguing, Miss Tyler, and get your hat. I 'm fagged 
 out, myself." 
 
 Patience echoed his laugh. 
 
 "I suspect it has been a strenuous day for you, 11 she 
 observed. 
 
 " I should rather say it had. I like Leleu ; he 's a 
 good fellow. Still, on an occasion like this, I prefer to 
 deal with a stoical Briton. The fiery Gaul is a bit too 
 inflammable. It has been a whole Dominion Day cele- 
 bration for me, with somewhat of your Fourth of July 
 thrown in for good measure. Do you happen to re- 
 member, Miss Tyler, that I invited you to come for a 
 walk ? " 
 
 The darkness had nearly fallen when Patience and 
 Jimmy, leaving the crowded terrace, turned into the
 
 224 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 shadowy silence of the Governor's Garden. As they 
 neared the steps of her home, Patience drew a tired 
 little sigh. 
 
 " I have kept you out too long," Jimmy rebuked him- 
 self instantly. 
 
 "No; it was better for me. Truly, I wasn't tired in 
 that way," Patience demurred ; [but not all of Jimmy's 
 urging could prevail upon her to speak of the scenes 
 through which she had passed, during those last days 
 with Arline. 
 
 Jimmy had some faint inkling of them, however, and to 
 them his next words had reference. 
 
 " No matter now," he said hopefully. " I believe all 
 our bad times are ended." 
 
 But Patience shook her head. Then she spoke with a 
 dreary depression for which her weariness alone was not 
 sufficient to account. 
 
 " I hope so," she echoed sadly. " Still, for Mr. Leleu, 
 I am a little bit afraid." 
 
 Her words came back to Jimmy, the next noon, when, in 
 answer to an imperative summons on the telephone, he was 
 walking rapidly along the Esplanade. Why should Arline, 
 weak as she was, and never too demonstratively attached 
 to the members of her own family, why should she have 
 sent for him in such hot haste ? 
 
 To Jimmy, alert and full of vigour and fresh from the 
 sunny streets, Arline, lying there in the midst of her white 
 draperies in the dim, cool room, looked alarmingly pale 
 and wan, as she held out an eager hand to greet his 
 coming. The great, tender-hearted fellow was conscious of 
 a sudden drawing at his throat, though he smiled bravely 
 down into her wide violet eyes, while he settled himself on 
 the edge of the bed and took her hot hand in his. After 
 all, she was his sister, and weak withal. Moreover, in 
 passing through one of the mysterious crises of her life,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 225 
 
 she had wandered close to the borders of The Unknown. 
 His slim, strong fingers closed over her restless ones. 
 
 "It is rather jolly, Arline; isn't it?" he said, in a 
 comfortable, quiet voice which should have worked like 
 balm upon her nerves. 
 
 Instead, she gave an excited little laugh. 
 
 " I hope so. It remains to be seen." 
 
 Jimmy looked at her in swift alarm. 
 
 " But you 're better, Arline ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes. I am better. There is never any fear 
 for me." 
 
 " And the baby is strong ? " 
 
 " Strong, yes." There was a slight stress upon the 
 adjective. Then she glanced to the window where the 
 nurse sat holding the square little bundle of flannel and 
 flesh that goes to make up a baby. "Have you seen your 
 new niece, Jimmy ? " 
 
 " Not yet. I came to see you ; she '11 keep," Jimmy 
 responded tranquilly. But he rose and crossed to the 
 window. " She 's she 's a beauty," he said bravely, when 
 the nurse had opened a crack in the outer layers of flannel 
 and permitted him to peer in at the red and wrinkled 
 visage of the new member of the family. "I I fancy 
 she looks like you both." 
 
 Arline laughed weakly. 
 
 " Well done, Jimmy ! You have said all the decent 
 things. Now take her away, nurse. I want to see my 
 brother alone. Yes, go," she added imperiously. "It 
 won't hurt me, and I have something I must say to 
 him alone." 
 
 Jimmy looked at the nurse. Then he eyed Arline 
 dubiously. 
 
 " Won't it keep, Arline ? I can come again." 
 
 She caught at a fold of his clothing, while the scarlet 
 
 flush rose in her cheeks. 
 
 15
 
 226 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " No ; it must be now, Jimmy. I must talk. It won't 
 hurt me. Has the nurse gone? Then sit down here, 
 close, closer, so I can talk without the others hearing. 
 You are sure there is no one in the room ? " 
 
 Jimmy glanced over his shoulder, in a futile hope that 
 the nurse was still within hearing. Arline's flush and the 
 glitter in her eyes made him uneasy. The door had closed 
 upon the nurse, however, and the brother and sister were 
 quite alone. 
 
 "Steady, Arline," he cautioned her. "Don't excite 
 yourself, girl. You are not too strong yet, you know." 
 
 Her other hand shut on his arm, drawing him yet closer 
 to her side. 
 
 " I 'm strong enough, Jimmy. I could n't rest till I had 
 seen you. I tried to talk to Patience, yesterday ; but she 
 was no use. She is so cold and hard and conventional 
 that I might have known she would n't help me out. But 
 you you 're all that is left to me, Jimmy." 
 
 Jimmy looked startled. 
 
 " What about Leleu ? " he demanded anxiously. 
 
 She amended her phrase. 
 
 " All of my own kind and kin, I mean. At a time like 
 this, one needs her own people. Jimmy, you have always 
 been so good to me." 
 
 "I hope so, dear," he assented soothingly, for Arline, 
 lifted on her elbow, was growing more excited with each 
 passing moment. 
 
 " You have, better than I knew, even. I know it now. 
 I appreciate it. I wonder if you remember, Jimmy," 
 she lay back again, nestling her cheek against their 
 clasped hands ; " remember the day after I was en- 
 gaged. You told me then that, if I would make up 
 my mind where I stood and honestly stick to my mind, 
 you would stand with me, wherever it was. Do you 
 remember ? "
 
 Hearts and Creeds 227 
 
 He did remember only too well. The memory lent a 
 touch of tragedy to his brief assent. 
 
 " Yes, Arline, I do remember." 
 
 Her clutch on his hand grew tighter. 
 
 " And will you say it again ? " 
 
 " What is it you want, Arline ? " 
 
 She burst into tears, as a child might have done. 
 
 " You won't ! You are so hard, Jimmy ! And I 
 trusted you ! " 
 
 " What is it, dear ? " he asked again. 
 
 " Will you promise ? " she urged swiftly. 
 
 " Promise what ? " 
 
 " That you will be loyal to me, loyal for the sake of our 
 father?" 
 
 Jimmy bowed his head. 
 
 " Yes, Arline." 
 
 She shut both hands on his upper arm and drew him 
 towards her with a nervous force which he was powerless 
 to withstand. 
 
 " Come close, then. I must whisper. Some one might 
 hear," she said feverishly. " Put your ear down where I 
 can whisper into it." 
 
 He obeyed. Her hot breath swept his cheek, her burn- 
 ing words filled his ear. For an instant, listening, he held 
 himself in rigid wonder. Then he drew back ; but his 
 physical recoil was as nothing in comparison with his 
 moral one. 
 
 " Arline, for shame ! " he said aloud, heedless of her 
 weakened condition. 
 
 But why ? " 
 
 " Your promise to Leleu." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 Jimmy rose and stood facing her, white and still and 
 determined. It was plain that Arline had struck a blow 
 at his whole sense of manly honour.
 
 228 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " When you signed your marriage contracts." 
 
 " I was forced into them," she whimpered weakly. 
 
 " No one forced you, Arline. In any case, you signed 
 them ; you are bound by them." Low and steady, Jimmy's 
 words fell across the silent room. 
 
 Twisting her arms above her face, she burst into an 
 agony of weeping. 
 
 " What if I did ? I was only a girl ; I had no notion 
 what they meant. I had no notion what it would mean 
 to have my child, my baby daughter, baptized into the 
 Catholic church. Jimmy, I won't ! It 's cruel ! You 
 promised to help me, promised in our father's name." 
 
 Jimmy went white. 
 
 " Arline, it would be an insult to the dear old pater's 
 memory, if I helped you turn traitor in this thing. You 
 gave your word, two years ago, that the child should be 
 brought up Catholic. You chose your course ; you must 
 walk in the course you have chosen. I promised Leleu, 
 only last night, that I would be godfather to his child. 
 He asked me, Protestant as I am, as the greatest honour 
 he could pay his wife. And now," Jimmy bit his lip ; 
 " now you are asking me, without your husband's knowl- 
 edge, to smuggle the Dean into this house, to-day, to 
 baptize your baby." He swung about on his heel. Then 
 he checked himself. " Arline," he added slowly ; " I am 
 a Protestant, Protestant in birth and training and of my 
 choice. Still, I confess that, now and then, the Catholic 
 seems to me to have the nobler sense of loyalty." 
 
 She checked her sobs and looked up at him in swift 
 antagonism. Then the old, hard edge came into her 
 voice. 
 
 " I fail to see the loyalty," she said, with slow, tense 
 bitterness. " The game is all for him. I am here, weak, 
 helpless. No one will come to my rescue. He, strong 
 and well, can make his plans and carry them out to suit
 
 Hearts and Creeds 229 
 
 himself. And you talk of loyalty ! And I must lie here 
 and see my little child, my baby, snatched away from 
 my arms and thrown into the maelstrom of Catholicism. 
 Jimmy ! "" 
 
 But the door had opened upon the nurse, and Jimmy, 
 with an appealing look at the woman, had escaped from 
 the room and from the house. 
 
 Less than a week later, they gathered at the rail of the 
 high altar, Amedee Leleu and his baby girl, and the 
 sponsors, Jimmy Lord and Madame Aucune. Clustered 
 in the nearer pews sat and knelt the others : the friends 
 and kinsmen of Leleu ; and the Brooke Lords and Patience 
 and her brother and Sir Morris Plante. And baby 
 Agatha, dressed in the christening robe which had served 
 for seven generations of Leleus, stared out upon it all with 
 vague and wondering eyes. It was a soft, gray day of 
 summer rain, and the upper arches of the Basilica lost 
 themselves in dim shadows, while the candles on the high 
 altar tipped themselves with wavering points of yellow 
 light, as the breeze crept in upon them from some far-off 
 open door. It was all so huge and still and solemn, under 
 the dusky arches bending above the tiny being now to be 
 taken into the protecting care of the mother church. And 
 the child, heedless of the solemn rite, lay and babbled 
 softly to herself about the land whence she had so lately 
 come. 
 
 And the service went its course : the salt, the laying on 
 of the stole, the exorcism and the anointing. And at 
 last Fere Leleu, white-haired and venerable and carrying 
 in his face the love of little children, bent over the baby 
 for an instant, before offering the burning light of faith to 
 the waiting sponsors. The wrinkled old face was infinitely 
 gentle, yet sad withal, for there had rushed back upon 
 him, as he stood there, the memory of his talk with Leleu 
 upon the gallery, that bright midwinter morning. And
 
 230 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Amedee was his favourite nephew, and this was AmedeVs 
 own child. Pere Leleu's white head bent even lower in a 
 swift prayer that all might be well with the life of the 
 baby girl. 
 
 Then of a sudden he lifted his head, and his face broke 
 into a smile. Wriggling uneasily in the motherly arms of 
 Madame Aucune, the baby had freed one little arm from 
 the enfolding blanket and, an instant later, Pere Leleu had 
 felt his hand, the hand which bore the burning candle of 
 faith, held in the soft, unconscious grasp of the tiny baby 
 fingers. Then once more he bowed his head, and his thin 
 old voice broke a little over the final solemn words, 
 
 " Vade in pace, et Dominus sit tecum" 
 
 And meanwhile, in the upper room of the house on the 
 Esplanade, the nurse was bending above Arline who, since 
 early morning, had been muttering to herself and tossing 
 to and fro in wild delirium.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 
 
 " T/"ES," Patience assented ; " she really is better." 
 " And out of all danger ? " 
 
 " At last," she assented again. 
 
 " I am glad," Sir Morris answered. " It 's been an 
 awful time for Leleu, and I suppose, for a few days, there 
 was some risk." 
 
 " For her mind, you mean ? " 
 
 Sir Morris nodded. 
 
 "Yes. At least, Jimmy said so," he replied a little 
 apologetically. 
 
 " Oh, if they speak of it. I did n't know, and some 
 people are so reticent about illness. Yes, for a few days, 
 the chances were less than even ; but yesterday the doctor 
 said the danger was past and gone." 
 
 " It ""s a good hearing," Sir Moms said cheerfully. 
 " Poor Leleu has had a bad time of it, the past few 
 months. Let 's hope it is all over now. And he says, 
 Jimmy, I mean, that you Ve been devoted to Arline, these 
 last days." 
 
 Patience shook her head. 
 
 " There was so little I could do," she demurred. 
 
 Sir Morris's clean blue eyes swept her tired face. 
 
 "That's not what Jimmy said," he answered. 
 
 Patience smiled ; then she waited for him to come up 
 the steps. 
 
 " But are n't you going in ? " she asked, as he halted 
 beside her at the top.
 
 232 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " What 's the use ? You have just brought out the 
 latest bulletin." 
 
 " I know ; but they 'd be glad to know you had 
 called." 
 
 Sir Morris faced about and led the way down the steps. 
 
 " If that 's all, I can telephone Leleu," he responded. 
 " I 'd rather do that than stand talking with the servants 
 in the hall. Which way are you going ? " 
 
 " Home," Patience responded briefly. 
 
 Sir Morris glanced up at the sun, over his shoulder at 
 the khaki-coloured line of soldiers drawn up against the 
 gray city wall. Then he made deliberate answer, 
 
 " Oh, I would n't ; at least, not directly." 
 
 Patience laughed. 
 
 " Do you refer to time or space ? " she queried, with a 
 touch of her old-time humour. " So far as I have seen, 
 there 's not a direct road inside the city wall." 
 
 Sir Morris stuck his hands, stick and all, into his 
 pockets and swung into step at her side. 
 
 " That 's the Canadian of it," he observed. " They are 
 a race of infinite leisure, Miss Tyler." 
 
 She raised her brows inquiringly. 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 " Oh, I don't count ; but my people are busy. My 
 brothers are always in a great row about something or 
 other. They are younger than I, you know." 
 
 " How many are there of you ? " Patience asked, as they 
 turned down Saint Louis Street. 
 
 Curiously enough, it had never occurred to her, until 
 that moment, to give a thought to the absent family of Sir 
 Morris Plante. That he was well-born and made of a 
 metal which rang true, she had discerned at the outset 
 of their acquaintance. At that time, inquiries would 
 have smacked of gossipful impertinence. Later, as she 
 had come to know Sir Morris better, his personality had
 
 Hearts and Creeds 233 
 
 seemed to her enough in itself. There was no particular 
 need of asking him to account for it. 
 
 " There are four of us," Sir Moms answered. " Two 
 are in the university Oxford and one is at Eton. 
 I 've a young sister, too. She 11 come out, next year, be 
 presented and all that. The mater she is second wife, 
 and not the mother of any of us is almost as young 
 as my sister. I don't mean in years ; but they go in for the 
 same sort of thing." 
 
 " And your father ? " Patience queried. 
 
 Sir Morris's eyes, fixed on the tall end door of the Pean 
 house across the way, clouded heavily. 
 
 " The poor old pater ! He had a hunting accident, and 
 and he does n't know us any longer. It 's awful to see 
 him, just like a baby. He has an old servant, John, the 
 groom who was with him when he fell ; and John breathes 
 for him, feeds him, dresses him, carries him around in his 
 arms. And, once on a time, the pater was no end of a 
 man, keen on hunting and politics and doing transla- 
 tions of Horace. 11 And, quite without sense of shame, Sir 
 Morris rubbed his hand across his eyes. 
 
 " I am sorry, Sir Morris," Patience told him slowly ; 
 " sorriest of all that I have made you talk about it." 
 
 "Oh; but it's better," he reassured her. "Nobody 
 else here' knows it, and it's a bit lonely, now and then, 
 thinking about it when I'm all by myself. It's rather 
 good to speak of it ; it makes them seem not quite so far 
 off, you see." 
 
 Patience smiled a little. 
 
 " Then you do get homesick, after all, Sir Morris ? " 
 
 " Not homesick, only anxious," he corrected her. 
 " There 's no especial comfort in being at home. My 
 father and I were friends one's father is n't always, 
 you know and, now that he does n't know me, I 'm 
 best off where I don't see him. He gets excited, when
 
 234 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 people are in the room. 1 ' Sir Morris bit his lip. "You 
 see, it was a five-barred gate, and the horse took it too 
 soon and fell on him. It broke some bones ; but the real 
 trouble was all from the shock to the brain."" 
 
 They had almost reached the corner of Haldimand 
 Hill, and Sir Morris's step hesitated irresolutely. Pa- 
 tience, however, glanced up at his face, and she hesitated 
 not at all. It was plain to her that the great, jovial, 
 boyish Englishman had troubles of his own, and that 
 her chance word had brought those troubles uppermost 
 in his mind. Under such conditions, it seemed to her 
 a bit unfair that she should leave him to go on alone, 
 and think those troubles back into their usual lurking- 
 places of his consciousness. She faced about and turned 
 into Du Parloir Street. 
 
 " Come," she said ; " it really is too good a morning to 
 spend in the house. Shall we go for a walk ? " 
 
 His face cleared a little, and he kept on at her side, 
 past the Ursuline Convent, past the side of the Cathe- 
 dral close; then, turning to the left, they came out to 
 the Grand Battery. At their feet, the old city lay warm 
 in the bright June sun ; from countless chimneys in the 
 town beneath, tall lines of smoke rose straight across 
 the windless sky, and beyond it all the Beauport flats 
 stretched away and away, a level sheet of shining green. 
 And, beside them, the close rank of aged guns poked their 
 black, impotent noses over the crest of the ancient wall. 
 
 It was long before Sir Morris broke the silence. When 
 at last he spoke, it was with his eyes fixed upon the ocean 
 steamer that lay in mid-channel, far below. 
 
 " I think perhaps I ought to go home soon," he said. 
 
 Turning, Patience stared at him with startled eyes. It 
 had not occurred to her that their pleasant quartette could 
 be broken. 
 
 " To stay ? " she asked.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 235 
 
 "I am not sure." The gap in his words was measured 
 to the length of one steady look into her level eyes. " I M 
 like to see the pater once more for myself. Of course, the 
 mater writes ; but it 's different, you know. And, in 
 case things happened, it takes so long to get there. 1 " 
 
 Patience dropped her eyes. Miss her good comrade as 
 she would, she yet felt that Sir Morris was right. 
 
 " Yes,"" she assented. " I think that you ought to go." 11 
 
 He drew in his breath, slowly and to its fullest depth. 
 Then he let it go again with a rush. 
 
 " About my coming back," he added ; " that's another 
 matter. I 'm not needed there now, and I like it here. 
 Of course, later, I shall have to go. In the meantime " 
 
 " Well ? " Patience reminded him, after a pause. 
 
 He glanced at the group of students coming up the hill. 
 
 " Do you mind, if we come in here ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 Patience hesitated. Then she yielded to a new Sir 
 Morris whom she had never known till then, a Sir Morris 
 kindly as of old, but infinitely more virile, infinitely more 
 dominant. His clear blue eyes were steely hard, his lips 
 shaped to a resolute line, his whole bearing grave and full 
 of dignity. 
 
 Side by side, they turned in at the gate in the old gray 
 wall, followed the board walk past the long front of Laval, 
 wound in and out among the buildings and then, with a 
 sharp turn to the left, came out into a wide, open court- 
 yard. The ground beneath their feet was bare and brown 
 and hard trodden as an asphalt floor. Around them, the 
 court was walled in with the high, white buildings of the 
 Seminary, gabled above, and pierced with a triple rank of 
 narrow casements below. On one side, a low archway 
 gave exit to the outer world ; on the other, a broad, square 
 flight of steps led to a panelled door. And on the wall, 
 high above the doorway, an ancient dial marked the pass- 
 ing hours ; and on the dial, the letters standing out sharply
 
 236 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 from the old white wall, were the words Nostra Dies quasi 
 Umbra. 
 
 " I love it here," Sir Morris said simply. " It is so 
 quiet, you know. 11 
 
 Patience stood for a moment, glancing about her, at the 
 deserted court, at the high white walls, at the dial with its 
 moving point of shade. 
 
 " No wonder you love it," she answered then. " I was 
 never here before." 
 
 His face lighted. 
 
 " I am glad. I supposed you knew it. It is one of my 
 favourite haunts. I come here often, when it's warm, 
 and sit on the bench there under the tree. Shall we do 
 it now ? " And Patience was at a loss to understand 
 the note of eagerness in his voice, as he pointed to the 
 seat beneath the single ancient tree growing in the exact 
 centre of the court. " Shall we sit down here ? " he said 
 again. 
 
 Seated, their faces turned to the dial graven on the wall, 
 an unaccountable silence fell upon them both. Sir Morris 
 apparently was lost in thought, his face intent, his lips 
 pressed hard together. As for Patience, she was giving 
 herself over to the perfect quiet of the place and hour. 
 Even upon her young strength, the past few days had told 
 acutely. Arline, nervous and captious, refusing to see 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord, had clung to Patience with an insistent 
 eagerness which took no thought of any exhaustion on the 
 part of the girl. And Patience had given recklessly of her 
 time and strength. Arline, just then, was passing through 
 the crisis of her life. Small wonder that she longed for the 
 presence of another woman of her own age and class ! 
 Nevertheless, Patience found it good to turn her back 
 upon the fretting and bickering, upon the frenzied hatred 
 of the baptismal rite and on the consequent madness 
 of fever, to forget it all and sit there in silent, passive
 
 Hearts and Creeds 237 
 
 enjoyment of the shadow moving along the old white wall, 
 of the summer breeze whispering in the tree above their 
 heads. It was all so old, so peaceful, so full of rest. 
 
 " Miss Tyler. 11 
 
 She roused herself and faced Sir Morris. The young 
 Englishman was bending forward, his elbows on his knees, 
 his true blue eyes fixed steadily upon her own. Of a sud- 
 den, an unaccountable fear took hold of the girl, a terror 
 of the coming words and of the look they would be bound 
 to bring into the honest, earnest face before her. 
 
 " What is it ? " she asked faintly. 
 
 His eyes held hers for a moment. Then he said, 
 
 " I think you know, already. I 'm not much good at 
 words, Miss Tyler ; I can't seem to say things as I 'd like 
 to; but why, it's just like this. I love you. 11 As he 
 spoke, he lifted his small gray cap from its place on his 
 yellow hair. " Love you as I never thought it was in a 
 man to love a woman. I don't know when it began, nor 
 why ; I don't even know that you could ever get to care 
 for me ; but I wish you could. I ""m not much, I know ; 
 but I honestly think I could make you happy, if you 1 d 
 only let me try. 11 
 
 At his first words, Patience had cast upon him one 
 glance of piteous appeal. Then she dropped her eyes to 
 the hard-packed ground at her feet, while she shut her 
 right hand over a fold of her skirt. And, in the hush 
 that followed, the point of shadow crept slowly along the 
 ancient dial, and a heavy wall of shadow rolled slowly for- 
 ward along the old white wall. 
 
 " Will you let me try ? " Sir Morris repeated then. 
 
 Patience bit her lip. It seemed to her that she could 
 never send the shadow into those honest, earnest eyes 
 which now were seeking in vain to meet her own. Neither 
 could she give him that for which he was asking. Months 
 ago, Sir Morris's words, spoken on the slide, had cut
 
 238 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 sharply across their pleasant friendship. They had been 
 unannounced and, at least to Patience, wholly unexpected. 
 For a time, both had been fully conscious of the scar they 
 had made. Then the memory had vanished, and the old 
 happy relation between them had resumed its former 
 course. Patience had supposed that, henceforth, it would 
 remain unbroken. And now, in the stillness and the 
 peace of the old courtyard, gently and with obvious self- 
 doubtings, Sir Morris had once more made the rupture. 
 And she liked Sir Morris absolutely ; her life would be 
 incomplete without his jovial friendship. The two heavy 
 tears that dropped to the hard brown earth were not alone 
 for Sir Morris Plante. Sorry as she was for him, Patience 
 yet pitied herself acutely. 
 
 " Of course, I 'm not clever like you," he was urging. 
 " I Ve not so much to offer you, I know. And yet, I 
 believe, if you 'd let me try it, I could make you happy. 
 We would n't need to live in England, you know. If you 
 chose to stay out here to be near your brother, I could 
 arrange it in some way. Of course, we'd go over to 
 England now and then. You 'd like the mater, and you 
 would want to be presented and to go about among my 
 people." 
 
 The gravity of his face had given place to a little smile. 
 He was, for the moment, like a child who tells itself a 
 fairy tale where every man is king and every woman queen. 
 Strange to say, his happiness brought to the heart of Pa- 
 tience a keener stab than that wrought by his pleading of 
 a moment before. If the dream could give him such con- 
 tent, what would the reality yield ? Two more tears fell 
 on the brown earth. Then, turning, she laid on his a hand 
 which of a sudden had grown icy cold. 
 
 " I am sorry," she said slowly. " I wish but it is 
 quite impossible. 1 " 
 
 He went white to the lips ; but his eyes never wavered.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 239 
 
 " Do you mean you could never get to love me ? " he 
 asked slowly. 
 
 " Never," she echoed still more slowly. 
 
 "I I am sorry. I had hoped for it. It meant so 
 much to me. And you think it 's no use ? " 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " None." 
 
 Slowly, slowly the shadow crept along the dial, crept 
 along the old white wall beneath. At last Sir Morris 
 raised his head. 
 
 " It would have been so good," he said slowly. " But, 
 at least, I 'in glad I 've known you. It 's something for a 
 man, nowadays, to have known one loyal, true-hearted 
 woman. It makes him look on all women with kinder 
 eyes." Then he rose to his feet and, turning, looked 
 down at her bowed head. " Don't mind, Miss Tyler," he 
 said manfully, but with an accent of infinite sadness. " It 
 has n't been your fault. I think 1 11 go to England for a 
 little while. When I come back, perhaps, we can forget 
 all this and be good friends once more, just as we always 
 have been." 
 
 And Patience raised her head and answered steadily, 
 although with quivering lips, 
 
 " I wish it might have been, Sir Morris ; but it 
 could n't. But, at least, I never tried to make you care 
 like this." 
 
 " No," he assented honestly. " No ; you never did." 
 There came a little pause. Then he held out his 
 hand. " Come," he said gently. " Shall we be going 
 home?" 
 
 As Patience rose to her feet, she lifted her eyes to the 
 opposite wall. A heavy cloud had drifted across the sun, 
 and its shadow, resting upon the ancient dial, had blotted 
 out the finger point of time. 
 
 Sir Moms went with Patience as far as her own
 
 240 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 door. Then, turning away, he rounded the corner and 
 tramped steadily off for weary miles out on the Cap 
 Rouge road. 
 
 Jimmy and Stanwood were smoking in the library, when 
 Patience came into the room. At the sound of her hur- 
 ried, nervous steps on the stairs outside, both men had 
 ceased from talking, and Jimmy, lounging in the open 
 window behind the full, soft curtains, was quite invisible. 
 She opened the door, halted, irresolute, for a moment, 
 then crossed the room to Stanwood's side. 
 
 " What is it, Pat ? " he asked her. 
 
 " Oh, Stanwood ! " 
 
 The girl had held herself steady during the short walk 
 towards home. She had gone through the parting bravely. 
 Now, however, the reaction had come. Safe at home and 
 with her brother's strong arm around her, she could cry 
 to her heart's content. 
 
 " What is it, dear ? Is Arline worse ? " 
 
 She shook her head, trying, the while, to choke back 
 her sobs. 
 
 " No," she said at last. " It 's not Arline. It 's Sir 
 Morris."" 
 
 " Is he ill ? Hurt ? " His arms still around her, Stan- 
 wood Tyler half rose to his feet. 
 
 " No ; I 've only hurt him so. It was in the Seminary 
 court, and he sails, next week."" 
 
 With his disengaged hand, Stanwood Tyler made an 
 imperious gesture for silence towards the open window. 
 He understood his sister's viewpoint well enough to be 
 sure she would never forgive herself, if she knew of her 
 involuntary betrayal of Sir Morris. Jimmy, hidden in the 
 window, must hold his peace. Later, he could be sworn 
 to silence. For the present, Patience was the first care. 
 Worn out in body and nerve by her long attendance upon 
 Arline, the girl's blithe poise appeared to have given way
 
 Hearts and Creeds 241 
 
 completely. In all his life, Stanwood Tyler had never 
 seen his sister cry as she was crying now. 
 
 Gently he passed his arm about her shoulders. 
 
 " You are so tired, Patsy, utterly tired out. This fuss- 
 ing over Arline has been too much for you, without any 
 other worries " 
 
 But she interrupted him. 
 
 " Sir Morris did n't worry me, Stan ; he was superb, so 
 kind and gentle, so generous to see my side. It was only 
 that I could n't." 
 
 The last words came with a sob, and her head fell over 
 against his shoulder. 
 
 Above the top of her head, Stanwood sent a warning 
 glance at the curtains which were moving uneasily, as if in 
 sympathy with the discomfort suffered by the man hidden 
 within their folds. For the moment, both men were 
 cursing the fate which had sent Jimmy into the deep em- 
 brasure of the window, just as Patience had come up the 
 stairs. Then Stanwood's arm tightened about his sister. 
 
 " Don't mind, dear. We all have to take our bad half- 
 hours. I 'm sorry about Sir Morris. He is a good fellow ; 
 he might have made you happy, if you had cared for him. 
 Still, I 'm not ready to give you up, Patsy. Don't cry, 
 dear. Come into your room and lie down. You 're quite 
 used up." 
 
 But she lifted her head and drew back, shuddering as if 
 the thought of solitude were terrifying to her. 
 
 " No ; I can't. I don't want to rest. Truly, Stan, 
 I 'm not so tired. It is only that I never expected it 
 all this, and it has upset me just a little." Then 
 she steadied herself. " We shall miss Sir Morris," she 
 added wishfully. 
 
 " He is going to England ? " Stanwood asked her. 
 
 "Yes. I have sent. him away." Again there came the 
 falling cadence to her words. 
 
 16
 
 242 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Heedless now of the silent listener, Stanwood faced 
 about. 
 
 " Patsy,"" he said a little sternly ; " it 's not too late to 
 change your mind. If you have made a mistake now, for 
 God's sake, don't allow any false notions of modesty to 
 keep you from taking it back." 
 
 She straightened at his words and faced him bravely, 
 albeit with no hint of defiance. 
 
 " There 's no mistake, Stanwood. A year ago, even, 
 there might have been ; but not now. Sir Morris is 
 like a dear old cousin. I care for him, and I shall miss 
 him ; but it's not the way you mean. Sir Moms Plante 
 is one of the noblest men I 've ever known ; but he 's not 
 the only one, nor yet the noblest of them all." 
 
 For an instant, Stanwood Tyler's face showed his 
 relief. 
 
 " Then there is some one else, Pat ? " he asked, almost 
 involuntarily. 
 
 For another instant, she looked at him in silence. Then 
 she bowed her head. 
 
 "I am not sure." Then she looked up at him again, 
 and her eyes were pleading. "Stanwood," she said ; " for- 
 get all this. I had no right to tell you ; it was not fair 
 to Sir Morris. I had supposed my nerve was better ; but 
 I rather think I was a little tired. Forget it, dear, 
 and never speak of it again." She smiled a little wanly. 
 " You know we women never like to be reminded of the 
 day when we have lost our poise." And, turning, she 
 went away into her own room. 
 
 With a swift step, her brother crossed the floor, drew 
 aside the curtain and pointed to the door. Jimmy, white 
 to the lips, came out from his corner and, stern and 
 unsmiling, shook his head. 
 
 " No," he said softly. " It is too late for that now, 
 Tyler. I must stop and face it out."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 243 
 
 But Stanwood realized the unspoken meaning of his 
 words. 
 
 " Not now,"" he urged. " She is tired and off her nerve. 
 Best wait" 
 
 " I could n't," Jimmy made brief reply. " I should feel 
 all kinds of a sneak. But at least," he looked up at Stan- 
 wood a bit appealingly ; " if things go wrong, you 11 tell 
 her I never meant to listen." 
 
 Stanwood nodded. Then, with the wishful, boyish words 
 still sounding in his ears, he turned away and left Jimmy 
 standing there alone. 
 
 It was a long quarter of an hour, before Patience came 
 out of her room. As she crossed the threshold, her straight- 
 forward glance wavered, for it was Jimmy Lord, not Stan- 
 wood, who stepped forward to meet her, and Jimmy's eyes 
 were compelling. 
 
 Without delay, he rushed upon his fate. 
 
 " I was here. I heard, 1 ' he said abruptly. 
 
 " You ! " The scarlet blood rolled up across her cheeks. 
 "You listening ! That was not like you, Mr. Lord." 
 
 "I hope not," he assented humbly. "It was all an 
 accident. I was behind the curtain, there by the window, 
 when you came into the room. Before I could get out, 
 you had gone so far that I dared not show myself." 
 
 She bit her lip. 
 
 " But you show yourself now," she reminded him. 
 
 Jimmy reddened. Then he made quiet answer, 
 
 " That 's not a fair thrust, Miss Tyler. Perhaps I was 
 wrong to stay there ; but I had no time to think it over, 
 and I hated to have you see me walk out, when you were 
 so upset. Of course, whatever comes, you can count on 
 my keeping still. Even if I had no honour of my own, I 
 like Sir Morris too well to tell of his bad times." 
 
 The girl lifted her eyes to his. 
 
 " Thank you," she said, with perfect quiet. " I believe
 
 244 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 you, Mr. Lord. Please forgive my bad temper. I was 
 wholly wrong." 
 
 He brushed her apology aside as a thing of no 
 import. 
 
 "Wait," he said. "I'm not done yet; there's more 
 to tell, more to ask. When you had gone, your brother 
 urged me to go away. I could n't. It was better you 
 should know at once that I had heard than that you 
 should find it out, later on. It was better that I should 
 wait and tell you, myself. And then " 
 
 At the pause, she raised her eyes once more. The 
 annoyance had left her face, and the grief. In their place 
 had come a mood of quiet waiting. Jimmy looked down 
 at her, took a swift step forward, then checked himself. 
 
 "I heard much, heard more than I ought," he said 
 steadily. " It left me wondering more. I 'm not the 
 noblest man that ever lived. Sir Morris is a better, truer 
 fellow than I can ever hope to be ; but you told your 
 brother that there was some one else." 
 
 The last words came hesitatingly and with long pauses 
 between. For a moment, his eyes held hers. Then she 
 turned away. 
 
 " I said I was not sure," she corrected him, for she felt 
 her hour was come and, like a true and fearless woman, 
 she was finding it hard to surrender. 
 
 " It amounts to the same thing," he said impatiently. 
 " Don't fence with me, Patience. It has gone too far for 
 that." 
 
 She glanced up sharply at his use of her name, albeit 
 the sound was sweet upon her ears. He caught her glance, 
 held it, and went on insistently, 
 
 " Tell me truly, Patience, for it is life or death to me. 
 It's not disloyal to Sir Morris, dear. Is it true that 
 there is some one else ? " 
 
 She shut her teeth on her lip, while she drew one long,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 245 
 
 slow breath. Then, as she looked steadily into his thin, 
 clear-cut face, her lip quivered, and she took one step 
 forward to his side. 
 
 " Yes, Jimmy, there is. And there will never be but 
 one."
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
 
 OUITE in accordance with the tradition at which, in 
 former days, she had been wont to scoff, Arline 
 Leleu, one Sunday noon, was giving a family dinner- 
 party. It was late October, and Jimmy and Patience had 
 just returned from an eighteen months of honeymooning 
 to and fro over the surface of the globe. Their happiness 
 had been too sacred for the sight of curious friends, too 
 buoyant to allow itself to be curbed by any social routine. 
 Rather than that, they had lived the life of vagrants, 
 roaming from place to place as chance might lead them, 
 accountable to no man, and wholly content in the long, 
 idle days of perfect intimacy. At length, however, even 
 Stanwood had felt himself moved to complain. Because 
 Patience's marriage had left him in the lurch, there was 
 no especial reason that she should take herself wholly out 
 of his sight. His campaign was the plan of a strategist. 
 
 At the extreme southern end of Des Carrieres Street, 
 one of the houses had long stood vacant. The house 
 itself was roomy and comfortable ; the outlook upon the 
 river was superb. For days, Stanwood Tyler, pipe in 
 mouth, paced to and fro before its staring, empty windows. 
 A week later, he sought the agent and demanded a key. 
 The next day, he moved his belongings into the two front 
 rooms of the topmost floor. Then, when his books and 
 his pipes were in order, he cabled to Patience that he had 
 bought the house and was waiting for her and Jimmy to 
 come home to live in it.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 247 
 
 " It 's no sort of use, Patsy ," he confided to her, the 
 night the Lords reached Quebec. " I can't get on without 
 you. You belong to Jimmy, body and soul ; I promise 
 not to get in his way. 1 11 keep to my rooms most of the 
 time ; but I want to feel that you 're here in the house. 
 I 'm older than I was, and you have been too long 
 away." 
 
 And it was Jimmy who gave the most cordial assent 
 to the new plan. Patience was all his own ; Stanwood's 
 strong, quiet presence would only give him one pleasure 
 the more. And so, with scarcely a question, the new 
 household of three started upon its happy course. To 
 each one of the three, Arline's invitation had been an un- 
 welcome break in the pleasant sense of settling down once 
 more at home. 
 
 Nevertheless, the dinner was proving a gay little func- 
 tion. It could hardly do otherwise in Jimmy's jovial 
 presence, while Patience, at the other end of the table, 
 vied with her husband in hilarity. At her side, Leleu 
 was swift to answer to her mood. Both Patience and 
 Jimmy were conscious of the change in Leleu. Alone 
 together, they had commented upon it, and confessed 
 themselves unable to account for it. It was not entirely 
 his growing political power, nor yet his increasing intimacy 
 with his own wife. The influences of both were subtly 
 blended ; yet their combined effect was not enough to 
 have wrought so great a transformation. Had they but 
 known the truth, however, they would have known that 
 the change had come in that one night when Leleu had 
 gone from Stanwood Tyler to St. Just, from St. Just to 
 Arline, from Arline to the empty streets. In that one 
 night, Leleu's character, long dormant, leaped out in full- 
 grown strength. In the years to come, it might develop ; 
 it would never change. 
 
 Leleu alone was conscious of the alteration made in
 
 248 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 himself by the twenty-four hours which had followed his 
 summons from Stanwood Tyler. Fused in the white-hot 
 furnace of emotion, he had emerged another creature. 
 His old self, eager, idealistic, was consumed to ashes. In 
 its place had come forth a man of iron will, of steady pur- 
 pose, a man of an almost infinite power of love, of an 
 infinite sense of justice. And his justice was not wholly 
 spent in weighing the frailties of Arline. 
 
 Strange to say, Arline took no heed of the change the 
 night had wrought. Leleu was as loving as of old, as 
 gentle in the showing of his love. The life-long habits of 
 his earlier nature clung around him like a husk. One by 
 one, they were soon to drop away ; but the dropping was 
 too gradual to make much mark upon her mind. The 
 pressure of the velvet glove was so full of kind support 
 that she failed to feel the iron hand within. Feeling, she 
 would have nerved herself to a resentful pushing aside of 
 the clasp. Instead, she yielded to its pressure. Leleu 
 was gentler than of yore, more full of demonstrative affec- 
 tion. Up to a certain point, he now made no effort to 
 guide the course of Arline's daily life. Beyond that 
 point, as yet, Arline had never cared to go. 
 
 Over the soup, Leleu turned to face Patience. 
 
 " Tell me," he asked ; " did you see much of Sir 
 Morris ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes. We were in London for six weeks, last 
 spring, and he did everything for us." 
 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord glanced up from her plate. 
 
 " How did you like him among his own people, 
 Patience?" 
 
 "Just as I always did, no more, no less. His people 
 really are rather impressive ; his mother is a most august 
 little personage, and his sister filled me with wonder, each 
 time I looked at her." 
 
 "With wonder?"
 
 Hearts and Creeds 249 
 
 " Yes, she is an astounding mixture of dowdiness and 
 elegance. Her nose is equine. I think her friends called 
 her pre-Raphaelite. But, among all their grandeur, Sir 
 Morris was the same dear boy we all knew. He and 
 Jimmy and I used to have fine times together, talking of 
 the dear old days." 
 
 " Do you know,"" Brooke Lord said thoughtfully ; " I 
 never understood Sir Morris's going home." 
 
 There came a little pause. Patience broke it. 
 
 " Family affection," she suggested dryly. 
 
 However, Brooke Lord persisted. 
 
 " Yes ; but so suddenly. I think he had no notion of 
 it, two days before he sailed."' 
 
 Jimmy's eyes were fixed upon his wife, and her rising 
 colour took from him the power of speech. It was Arline 
 who answered. 
 
 " The question is, is he ever coming back ? " 
 
 " He says so," Patience replied, with perfect calm. " Of 
 course, his father is only just alive, and, after Sir Morris 
 inherits, he will be more or less tied up at home. How- 
 ever, the old man may live to an endless age ; and Sir 
 Morris assured me over and over again that he would 
 never be content until he had spent one more year 
 among us." 
 
 Brooke Lord leaned back in his chair. 
 
 " After all, do you know," he observed ; " it was a 
 funny thing about Sir Morris. I thought, myself, he liked 
 us. He was here for almost two years ; I rather fancied 
 he would end his days in Quebec. I am sure we all tried 
 to be decent to him. And then, after all that, it was a bit 
 queer to have him pack his boxes and take French leave." 
 
 Again there came the little pause. Again Patience 
 broke it, lightly, although with a secret desire to thump 
 Brooke Lord on the bald spot which was beginning to 
 show upon his crown.
 
 250 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 "Speaking of French leave, 1 " she remarked; "did we 
 ever write you about our meeting Monsieur St. Just in 
 Paris ? " 
 
 Arline was scarlet now ; but Leleu turned to Patience 
 with a gleam of mirth in his dark eyes. 
 
 " Was the plaster off his face ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes ; but the scar was n't,"" Jimmy retorted, from his 
 place at Arline's side. " For once in your life, Leleu, you 
 made a lasting mark." 
 
 Leleu laughed. The history was now so old that he 
 could turn back to it without a pang. In fact, there had 
 always been a bit of satisfaction in his mind, whenever he 
 had thought of St. Just, sprawling upon the floor with his 
 legs entangled in the legs of his chair. 
 
 " Was he glad to see you ? " he queried. 
 
 Jimmy made counter query. 
 
 "Did you ever see a hound, after you'd licked it? 1 * 
 he asked. 
 
 "Do you mean the fellow really stopped to talk?" 
 Brooke Lord demanded incredulously. 
 
 Jimmy's reply was brief. 
 
 " Ask Patience. She won't lie." 
 
 Patience laughed. 
 
 " It was in front of the Madeleine, one day. I saw him 
 coming, and I poked Jimmy's arm, so he should see him, 
 too. We both supposed that, as soon as he discovered us, 
 he would have an errand somewhere else. Instead of that, 
 he smiled as perkily as ever and came directly to where we 
 were waiting for a cab." 
 
 " Had the nerve to poke out his hand under my very 
 nose, and expect me to shake it," Jimmy supplemented, in 
 reminiscent wrath. 
 
 " And did you ? " 
 
 " Not on your life, Molly. Now and then I turn short- 
 sighted, and that was the nowiest kind of a now. He
 
 Hearts and Creeds 251 
 
 didn't appear to notice it, though. The next I saw of 
 him, he was bowing and smirking at Patience, and I'm 
 blest if she wasn't shaking hands with him." 
 
 " Patience ! " Mrs. Brooke Lord remonstrated. 
 
 Patience smiled demurely. 
 
 "It's a trick I learned at college. Really, it is very 
 painful. I assure you that Monsieur St. Just turned quite 
 white, by the time that I let go." 
 
 " The question is," Stanwood Tyler remarked gravely ; 
 " was the game worth the candle, Pat ? Myself, I dislike 
 the touching toads." 
 
 "Did you go from Paris straight down to Rome?" 
 Arline asked, with a slight showing of annoyance. 
 
 " No ; we stopped on the Riviera," Patience answered. 
 
 Carried along by the general mirth at the table, the 
 girl had forgotten how distasteful to Arline the present 
 talk must be. Arline's face recalled her from her careless- 
 ness, and she sought to turn the talk into other lines. 
 Jimmy, however, at his sister's side, failed to see the 
 changing colour in her cheeks, the frown between her 
 brows, the steely glint within her violet eyes. He reverted 
 to his former theme. 
 
 " St. Just was as jerky-perky as ever ; but I thought he 
 did n't look quite as prosperous. In fact, I 've a notion or 
 two in regard to the ancestry of his necktie. He asked 
 for you all " 
 
 " For me ? " Leleu inquired. 
 
 "Yes, for you in particular." Jimmy threw back his 
 head and laughed hilariously at the recollection of their 
 talk. " Almost with tears in his eyes, he assured me you 
 were a man whose great future had been brought to 
 naught by your blind adherence to a worn-out policy." 
 
 " How do you like that, Mr. Minister of Agriculture?" 
 Mrs. Brooke Lord interpolated, with a smile. 
 
 Long before this, she and Leleu had become great
 
 252 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 friends. Mrs. Brooke Lord was very much a woman, and, 
 woman-like, she knew certain things by instinct. It had 
 not been Amedee Leleu's fast-growing fame which had won 
 her tardy liking, then her love. The hours she had spent 
 in his house during the slow convalescence of Arline had 
 taught Mrs. Brooke Lord many a lesson. Caring as she 
 did for Leleu the man, however, she gloried yet the more 
 earnestly in Leleu the politician. 
 
 He met her teasing question with a laugh. 
 
 "And yet," he added thoughtfully; "St. Just taught 
 me a good many lessons."" 
 
 " So he implied, 11 Jimmy said gravely. 
 
 Patience corrected him. 
 
 " No ; he told you in so many words. It 's only women 
 who imply. 11 Then, with a little air of finality, she 
 dismissed the subject by means of a wholly irrelevant 
 question. " Is n't Agatha to be on exhibition, to-day, 
 Arline ? " 
 
 " Of course, 11 Leleu put in hastily, before his wife could 
 make quiet answer, 
 
 " Yes, later. I told the nurse to bring her down, as 
 soon as we had left the table. 11 
 
 " Not till then ? I suppose it would be subversive of 
 discipline, if I were to ask to see her now. 11 
 
 " Better not, Patience, 11 Mrs. Brooke Lord advised her, 
 in a swift aside. " Arline does n't like to have her down 
 at meals. 11 
 
 " Oh, why not ? " Patience remonstrated. 
 
 " She cries for things she must n't have. 11 
 
 "But what if she does? 11 Patience replied serenely. 
 " She could soon be taught what wo, no ! means. 11 
 
 Leleu turned to her with some eagerness. 
 
 " You think so, too ? " he asked. 
 
 " Of course. Does n't Arline ? " 
 
 Arline glanced up carelessly.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 253 
 
 " I 'm not such a tyrant as Amedee would have me be," 
 she said. 
 
 Leleu flushed ; but Patience spoke. 
 
 " It 's not tyranny ; it is for the baby's own good." 
 
 Arline laughed, and in her laugh was the little edge 
 which Patience had known of yore. 
 
 " The optimism of the childless woman," she observed, 
 with quiet sarcasm. " You and Amedee would doubtless 
 agree to perfection. Until one is responsible for the child, 
 one never cares how much it cries." 
 
 " But it would n't cry more than once," Patience per- 
 sisted, and again Leleu gave her that eager look which, for 
 the moment, she was quite at a loss to interpret. 
 
 The interpretation came later on, however. Over the 
 dessert, Patience avowed that she could wait no longer. 
 Excusing herself from the table, she ran away up the 
 stairs. A moment afterward, she returned, with baby 
 Agatha held high on her strong young shoulder. The 
 child's face was still flushed, her blue eyes heavy with 
 sleep, as she came riding into the room on her lofty perch. 
 Above the soft white embroideries of her clothing, her 
 little head rose nobly ; her baby lips, smiling slightly, 
 opened to show her milk-white dots of teeth, and her yellow 
 hair rolled out in a shining aureole about her dainty face. 
 In colour and in form, she was all the child of Arline. The 
 smile, however, just stealing into sight about the corners of 
 her lips, was like Leleu ; like him, too, was the expression 
 in the violet eyes. 
 
 With a laugh and a kiss, Patience swung the child down 
 from her shoulder and, moving about the table, offered 
 the little face to each in turn. Then, coming back to her 
 own place, she pushed her chair slightly away from the 
 table, and sat down with the child upon her knee. In- 
 stantly one baby hand clutched the table cloth, the other 
 swept towards Patience's plate.
 
 254 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Patience snuggled the child out of reach. 
 
 " No, baby. Not for you," she said gayly. 
 
 The child turned her head, cocked one little eye up at 
 her aunt, and then, burying her head against Patience's 
 shoulder, smiled up at her ingratiatingly. 
 
 Jimmy watched the manoeuvre with amused and adoring 
 eyes. 
 
 " Bless the baby ! She knows how to wheedle, all right. 
 That 's you all over, Arline. The smile is Leleu's, though. 
 You French Canadians are hall-marked by your smile."" 
 
 And Arline's brows met in a sudden frown. She would 
 have liked it far better, had little Agatha showed no strain 
 of her father's blood. 
 
 ' No," Patience was reiterating merrily, as she caught 
 the determined little hands. " That is n't for Agatha ; it 
 belongs to Aunt Patience. 11 
 
 The child's lip rolled over, and Arline interposed. 
 
 " Give her a little. Anything is better than having her 
 begin to cry." 
 
 But Leleu, smiling and very gentle, yet shook his head. 
 
 " No, Patience, please. I 'd rather that she did n't. 
 No, baby." 
 
 At his voice, the child looked at him and, though the 
 tears were brimming in the dark blue eyes, no sound came 
 from the baby lips. She was waiting, as so often she had 
 waited before, to find out who would be the victor in this 
 contest of discipline. 
 
 Arline's voice broke the little hush. 
 
 " Give her a bit, Patience. Just see how good she is." 
 
 The child turned alertly, snatched at the plate, then, 
 staying her hand, she burst into a storm of shrieks, as 
 Leleu said gravely, 
 
 " No, Arline. No, Agatha, Must n't touch the plate." 
 
 For an instant, two baby heels battered the front of 
 Patience's lap, and the room echoed with the cries pour-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 255 
 
 ing forth from the baby throat. Then Arline, scarlet with 
 annoyance and anger and shame, pushed back her chair 
 and, passing around the table, took the child from the 
 arms of her astonished aunt. 
 
 " Poor baby ! " she said, as she returned to seat herself 
 at her own place. " Do they starve my baby daughter ? 
 Come, dear, shall have some sweeties." 
 
 But even while the sweeties were poised in the air, 
 little Agatha's lip rolled over yet once again, and two 
 baby arms were stretched out across the table. 
 
 " Papa," she sobbed. " Papa ! " 
 
 " See, dearie. Don't you want a taste ? " Arline urged. 
 
 The tears still on her cheeks, the child accepted the 
 taste, and then another taste, and yet one more. Arline 
 laughed. 
 
 " Good ; is n't it, baby ? " she asked. " Come, then." 
 
 Leleu interposed, and his tone was very quiet. 
 
 " I 'd rather you did n't give her any more, Arline." 
 
 With a jerk, Arline pushed her chair away from the 
 table. 
 
 " How can you grudge her the bit of pleasure, Amedee ? 
 I could n't be so cruel." 
 
 Leleu's lips tightened. Then he said, 
 
 " It seems to me more cruel to the child, Arline, to give 
 her what you know will make her ill." 
 
 " How tiresome you are, Amedee ! Who has the care 
 of her, I 'd like to know ? " she demanded. Then, with 
 sudden fierceness, she snatched the child close against 
 her breast. " Poor little darling ! Does your father spoil 
 all your good times ? " she asked, between her nervous 
 kisses. 
 
 Startled at the abrupt gesture, the child once more 
 cried out. Arline lifted her head. 
 
 " There, Amedee, you see for yourself just how it is," 
 she said, and her voice had a ring of bitter triumph.
 
 256 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Come, dearie."" As she spoke, she rose. " Come with 
 mamma, dearest, and we '11 see what we can find, up-stairs." 
 
 Holding the child in her arms, she turned away ; but, 
 as she went out the door, two baby hands were extended 
 in piteous appeal, and a wishful baby voice begged once 
 and yet again, 
 
 "Papa! Papa!"
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 
 
 FOUR Octobers had passed away since Arline's dinner 
 party, that far-off Sunday noon, and a fifth October 
 was on the land, mellow and ripe and golden, the climax 
 of the year. The ancient city on the cliff was all gray 
 and gold, gray walls and golden sunshine ; gray and gold, 
 too, were the long open stretches of country bordering the 
 Sainte Foy Road, stretches where the yellowing needles of 
 the tamarack caught and held the sunshine away from the 
 pale stems of the bare white birches. Here and there, a 
 twig of maple still bore its crown of gaudy foliage, and 
 the wayside paths were heaped thick with the bright 
 brown, crispy leaves. Nowhere, however, in all the city 
 were the gray and gold so dainty as in the woodlands sur- 
 rounding the white convent walls of Bellevue. 
 
 There in the sunny woodlands, little Agatha Leleu 
 played for long hours at a time, now romping gayly 
 with her convent mates, then ever and anon breaking 
 away from the little group around her, to go leaping 
 towards the sweet-faced nun who lingered near, to throw 
 her slim little arms around the skirts of the nun and 
 snuggle her rosy face in the folds of the black gown. 
 And the nun, gentle and sweet and dainty, never failed 
 to stoop to caress the eager little face upraised to her 
 own. Then, with a joyous laugh, the child went bound- 
 ing away again into the midst of the group which rarely 
 failed to cluster about her. A child in her heedless mirth, 
 little Agatha was like a woman in the passion with which 
 she craved affection. 
 
 17
 
 258 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Agatha was seven now, and in all the dignity of her 
 second term of convent life. Already she was prone to 
 cast a patronizing eye upon the children who had entered 
 with the opening September term. Already she was 
 dreaming vaguely of the day when she could leave her bed 
 in the great dormitory where the cots stood in their long 
 white lines, and, like the big girls, be promoted to her own 
 little cell. To the child, standing at the entrance of the 
 corridor which led between the rows of cells, it seemed 
 that life could hold nothing more perfect than the owner- 
 ship of one of those tiny rooms, dainty and sweet and 
 spotless as the guardian nun who slept in one of them. 
 The plain bare walls, the little bed, the crimped white 
 curtains were lovelier far, to Agatha's wishful eyes, than 
 all the luxury of her father's house. Day after day, the 
 tiny black-gowned figure lingered and peered and looked 
 forward to the hour when she should be grown up and 
 settled in a cell. For the present, the happy convent life 
 bounded the child's entire perspective. 
 
 Better than the cells, though, Agatha loved the nuns. 
 Up to the hour of her entering the convent, her little life 
 had been swayed by awe and even fear. With her blond 
 beauty, her inheritance from her mother seemed to have 
 stopped short. By temperament, Agatha Leleu was her 
 father's child. Like his own youth, her childhood was 
 gentle, sensitive and wholly reticent. Loving all men, she 
 yearned for love in return. When it was refused to her, 
 she grieved ; but it was a silent sort of grieving which ate 
 into her life, but made no outward sign. In the same 
 way, she accepted her mother's irregular discipline, the 
 hours of exuberant affection, the moments of bitter, cause- 
 less rebuke. In some vague, childish fashion, Agatha 
 linked it all with her mother's dazzling beauty. Arline, 
 to the mind of her little daughter, was like a fairy queen, 
 and fairy queens had privileges which were denied to other
 
 Hearts and Creeds 259 
 
 people. The child's first little lessons, self-taught like all 
 first lessons, concerned themselves with avoiding the dis- 
 pleasure of her mother, of shunning her mother's presence 
 in the too frequent hours of storm. She learned to know 
 the signs : the rising tide of colour in the cheeks, the lifted 
 head, the flashing eye, the harder note in the voice. 
 
 As a rule, Agatha contrived to escape the storms. Now 
 and then, however, she was helpless before them. Tiny as 
 she was, she yet learned not to cry, for crying only annoyed 
 her mother more. Her lips might quiver, and the tears 
 hang heavy on her long brown lashes ; but she made no 
 sound. And, later, she could always creep away in search 
 of her father, sure that in his loving, clinging arms she 
 would find peace and consolation. 
 
 There were other hours, too, hours when, daintily 
 dressed and smiling, she was the comrade of a mother 
 sweeter far than any fairy queen. In such hours, Agatha 
 reaped to the full her little harvest of affection. Her 
 mother played wondrous plays with her, told her merry 
 stories, and lavished upon her goodies whereof the present 
 taste atoned for the later woes to come. Such hours, 
 while they lasted, seemed to the child to promise unend- 
 ing continuance. Then, of a sudden, the mood would 
 change, and Agatha, with shaking lip and throbbing 
 heart, could only turn away and go trudging up the stairs 
 to tell her woes to the shabby old doll whose skirts had 
 more than once been used to dry the sorrowful blue eyes. 
 
 Now and then, at such times, Leleu was present ; but, as 
 a rule, he made no sign, nor did he try to comfort his 
 little daughter in her mother's presence. His sense of 
 loyalty to his wife forbade his interference. Agatha never 
 heard his remonstrances which followed her going from 
 the room. She only knew that, sometime before she 
 slept, her father would come up to the great nursery, take 
 her on his knee and cuddle her and speak loving words in
 
 260 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 the mellow French tongue which he used when they were 
 quite alone. And then, when the tears had fallen and 
 been wiped away, what talks they had! What games 
 they played ! 
 
 Once only had Agatha seen a contest of will between 
 her parents. Child though she was, it had branded itself 
 ineffaceably upon her memory. It had taken place after 
 breakfast, one morning of the previous winter, and it had 
 had to do with her entering the convent. For the once, 
 Leleu had been too hurt and shocked and angry to think 
 of his child's presence. When he returned to a startled 
 consciousness that she was in the room, he had found her, 
 white and shaking with terrified sobs, her fingers in her 
 ears and her face buried in the cushion of her father's 
 chair. A week later, tenderly and with loving words, he 
 left her sitting on the knee of the Mother Superior, in the 
 great reception room at Bellevue Convent. 
 
 Agatha held her breath and twisted her little feet 
 together in agony, as she saw him go. The habit of the 
 years prevailed, however. Her lips quivered; but she 
 made no sound, as she turned to cast a terrified glance up 
 into the strange face above her. The face was set in stiff 
 white folds of linen ; but the eyes and lips were mother- 
 sweet, the arms that drew the child closer were mother- 
 kind. A moment later, Agatha was sobbing quietly on 
 the breast of the Mother Superior, and the voice of the 
 Mother Superior was in her ears, bidding her be brave and 
 happy for her father's sake. 
 
 From that hour onward, Agatha, in so far as was possible 
 for the least of the minims, became the adoring satellite 
 of the Mother Superior ; and, next to the Mother Superior, 
 she adored that other sweet-faced nun whom she was 
 trained to call Mother Saint Faith. French gentlewomen 
 both of them, their loving, steadfast discipline was every- 
 thing for the child, so long tossed to and fro on the seas
 
 Hearts and Creeds 261 
 
 of Arline's wayward temper. As yet, but little harm had 
 been done. A thorough child and hence imperfect, Agatha 
 was loving and wholly biddable. This firm, strict dis- 
 cipline was new to her ; but she was swift to discover that 
 love, love to the nuns, love to her childish mates, was the 
 foundation upon which it had been reared. With scarcely 
 a struggle, she yielded herself to its sway. 
 
 Whatever might be his other engagements, Leleu pre- 
 sented himself at the convent, as often as the day for 
 visiting came around. At first, his manner to Agatha 
 had been marked with a certain anxiety. Then, as the 
 weeks went by and the child showed herself happy and 
 well, the anxiety vanished and Leleu gave himself over 
 wholly to the contentment of their meetings. To Agatha, 
 these days were the high days of her life. Once the door 
 shut upon her father, she fell to counting the time before 
 he would come again. During the hour or two which they 
 could spend together, she was like a mad creature, drag- 
 ging him here and there to show him where her days were 
 spent, bringing forth sundry rows of shaky, uneven stitches 
 or still more shaky, uneven letters for his admiring scrutiny, 
 or perching herself astride his knee while, between gleeful 
 shouts of laughter, she recited over to him her latest 
 answer from the catechism, smacking her lips at each long 
 word and then, when all was done, nuzzling her fluffy 
 golden head into his waistcoat while she awaited his 
 word of commendation. 
 
 The commendation never failed to come, coupled with 
 loving words of admonition. She must be a good girl, 
 and mind the nuns, and say her prayer at bedtime, no 
 matter how tired she was. And what about the picture 
 she was going to send to Uncle Jimmy, the picture drawn 
 with blue and red and yellow pencils? But, before she 
 went to get it, she would better give her father one 
 more kiss. For the happiness of those afternoons was not
 
 262 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 entirely upon Agatha's side. Fond as he was of his child, 
 Leleu's pride in her fully kept pace with his love. Her 
 baby accomplishments seemed to him wondrous beyond 
 words. Her little body, fast stretching from its baby 
 chubbiness into the lanker lines of little girlhood, was to 
 him more perfect of form than any statue. Of the rare 
 beauty of her face, no one could make denial. In feature 
 and in colouring, it was the face of Arline, done over into 
 childish lines ; but the winning, sensitive look was like the 
 pictures of the mother whom Leleu had never known. 
 And, day by day, the even discipline, the simple food, the 
 early hours were telling on the child. She grew as strong 
 and hardy as a flower in the sun. Like the flower in the 
 sun, she lost no whit of her sweet daintiness. 
 
 Miss her as he would and did, Leleu felt no doubt of its 
 being better for them all that Agatha should go into the 
 convent at the earliest possible age. Arline's influence 
 was not good for the child ; neither was the child's pres- 
 ence good for the greater intimacy which he was seeking 
 to establish with his wife. As Pere Leleu had bidden him, 
 seven years and more before, he was endeavouring so to 
 suiTound his wife with his love that there should be room 
 for nothing else. Once and once only had he spoken 
 sternly to Arline. As soon as she had quite ended her 
 slow convalescence, he had called her to the library, one 
 summer evening, and there gently, but with perfect plain- 
 ness of speech, he had reminded her of her marriage vow. 
 Her own religious freedom always and ever should remain 
 intact. For his own and for that of the child, he de- 
 manded the same right. Without reservation and with- 
 out bitterness, he sought to impress upon her, once for all, 
 that no longer would he submit to the domestic tyranny 
 which she had been wont to exercise of yore, no longer 
 would he allow the slighting comment regarding others of 
 his race and creed. In fact, as well as in name, his Cath-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 263 
 
 olic church should be held holy. And, above all else, 
 Arline was in no way to hamper him in his plans for the 
 rearing of their baby girl. 
 
 And Arline, rebellious though she was at heart, yet 
 yielded to his will and gave the promises which he de- 
 manded of her. In truth, she dared not disobey, for it 
 was a new Leleu who stood before her, and his kind, un- 
 faltering declaration of his rights carried conviction to her 
 latent sense of justice. The talk, threatening at first to 
 lead to open war, had ended in her perfect submission ; 
 and, for long months afterwards, it bore its fruit. Truth 
 to tell, it pleased Arline far better to yield to a masterful 
 Leleu than to rule an inert husband. Even the bowing 
 to a will stronger than her own possessed the charm of 
 novelty. 
 
 As the years crept by, however, the charm departed with 
 the novelty. Leleu's will still prevailed ; but Arline chafed 
 against its sway. His increasing devotion to his church 
 irked her, as did his frequent calls upon Pere Leleu. She 
 rebelled openly and aloud and in the presence of the child 
 at his strict, steady discipline, now opposing him with 
 angry words, now shedding angry tears over what she 
 termed his cruelty. And then, one bright Sunday morn- 
 ing, Leleu proudly announced his intention of taking 
 Agatha to mass. An hour later, he hurried the child 
 through the hall and out of the house, that she might not 
 hear her mother's words ; but, as he passed up the aisle of 
 the Basilica, the pride had all gone out of him, and in its 
 place was a heavy sadness. And then more years passed 
 by, and it was time for little Agatha to enter the convent 
 school. 
 
 In all his after life, Leleu never allowed himself to think 
 back to the weeks which had preceded the final step. They 
 were weeks when storm only gave place to thunderous calm, 
 to break again in storm. It had seemed to him a matter
 
 264 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 of course that Agatha should be trained by the nuns of 
 the Congregation, as past generations of Leleus had been 
 trained in their time. Quite as a matter of course, he had 
 spoken to Arline, one morning, and he had been aghast at 
 her fiery opposition. Later in the day, Arline had ap- 
 pealed to Jimmy and even to Mrs. Brooke Lord. To her 
 surprise, she found herself standing quite alone. The very 
 sense of her aloneness increased her opposition. In the 
 end, however, her opposition had proved futile, and Leleu 
 had had his way. From the drawn curtains of her win- 
 dow, Arline had watched the cab drive from the door, 
 bearing with it the small bone of contention to whom 
 she had refused a parting kiss. Arline Leleu was not an 
 imaginative sort of woman ; nevertheless, she did stop 
 to wonder, now and then, what would be her perma- 
 nent frame of mind in case the horses ran away. The re- 
 curring wonder led her, upon Leleu's return, to greet him 
 with a gentleness to which of late her manner had been a 
 stranger. 
 
 Agatha gone, the point of difference decided for better 
 or for worse, the Leleus dropped back again into an out- 
 ward semblance of the peaceful life which had followed 
 upon their moving into the house on the Esplanade. As 
 if to atone for her former fits of petulance, Arline was 
 more lovable now than ever before since Leleu had known 
 her. She was happier, too, for it was impossible for her 
 to blind herself to the fact that her husband was treading 
 steadily forward along the paths of fame ; and ambition 
 was by no means lacking in Arline Leleu. Her pride 
 increased her gentleness, until Leleu, ever ready to for- 
 get another's fault, gave himself over to the hope that 
 their stormy days were forever ended. 
 
 Week after week, when Leleu started for the convent, 
 Arline sent tender messages to the child ; but never once 
 did she ask to go with him. And Leleu felt that it was
 
 Hearts and Creeds 265 
 
 better so. He dreaded to sound again the note of antag- 
 onism, dreaded to take Arline's influence within those 
 quiet walls. When summer came, he suggested a trip 
 abroad, and Arline, in her glad assent, took no heed of 
 the real cause which underlay his words. To her mind, 
 it was quite natural that he should seize the opportunity 
 to go, when the temporary victory of the Conservative 
 party left him more free than usual from political duties. 
 And the child would be quite safe and happy to spend the 
 vacation in the care of the nuns. 
 
 Agatha came home on a visit, however, during the week 
 before her parents were to sail. Leleu had gone to fetch 
 her, and Arline was waiting in the door, as the cab came 
 in under the Kent Gate. With a certain fierceness, she 
 snatched the child from Leleu's arms and covered her rosy 
 little face with eager kisses, chattering to her, meanwhile, 
 in the argot which comes by nature to the mother lips. 
 Then, letting go the child, she uttered a cry of protest at 
 sight of the plain little black frock, picked up the child 
 again and ran away up the stairs to her own room. At 
 noon, when Leleu returned to lunch, he was met in the 
 hall by a little bundle of white lace frills and pale pink 
 ribbons, and, during the meal, little Agatha sat in a chair 
 at Arline's side and ate of dainties whose very existence 
 had faded from her memory. 
 
 Too swiftly for them all, the week sped by. Arline, in 
 the intervals of her packing and of her preparations for 
 closing the house, lavished upon Agatha much the same 
 sort of care that a Paris doll receives, on the morning after 
 
 7 O 
 
 Christmas day. And Leleu, watching with hungry eyes 
 to see the happiness of the two people he loved best, 
 forced himself to disregard the petty relaxings of disci- 
 pline. To Arline, just then, life was the colour of rose. 
 He would let her enjoy the child to the full, and trust to 
 the nuns and the summer to undo the little harm which
 
 266 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 could develop in a week. Now and then he wondered that 
 Arline never seemed to talk with the child about her con- 
 vent life. Honourable himself, he trusted to the honour 
 of others. It never would have occurred to him to sus- 
 pect the daily lessons which Arline was instilling into the 
 receptive little brain. 
 
 " Not now, dear," was her invariable ending of the 
 lesson. " Some day, we '11 surprise your father with it all ; 
 but we Ye not ready yet." 
 
 The week ended and the day for the sailing at hand, the 
 cab once again drove up to the door, and Leleu came down 
 the steps, holding Agatha by the hand. On the steps, 
 Arline, smiling and beautiful, waved them a laughing fare- 
 well, and Agatha, laughing and dimpled, threw a kiss back 
 to the pretty mother whose good-by words were wellnigh 
 drowned by the noise of the wheels. 
 
 " Good-by, darling. Be a good girl and keep well. 1 11 
 bring you a doll, when I come home, and such a frock ! 
 And be sure you don't forget about the lessons." 
 
 The cab turned out under the Kent Gate, and Leleu, 
 settling back in his seat, took the little hand in his. 
 
 " What are the lessons, dearie ? " he asked. 
 
 For an instant, Agatha drew down her face into a look 
 of portentous gravity. Then, far back at the corners of 
 her lips, there came the beginnings of a smile. The smile 
 widened and grew to a laugh until, with a gurgle of fun, 
 Agatha buried her face in her father's sleeve. 
 
 " You must n't ask," she protested gleefully. " It 's a 
 secret, a very 'portant secret between mamma and me."
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 
 
 "^Ti THERE now?" Jimmy demanded jovially, as he 
 \ \ came striding across the Esplanade. 
 
 Leleu glanced up at the hail. 
 
 " Out the Sainte Foy Road.' 1 
 
 Jimmy laughed. 
 
 " To see the babe ? " 
 
 "Yes. 11 
 
 Jimmy swung into step at his side. 
 
 " Good. I 'm walking, myself. I think 1 11 go, too. 11 
 
 Leleu's face, where of late the shadows had lain heavy, 
 brightened, as it never failed to do in Jimmy's presence. 
 Totally alien to each other in race and training, the years 
 had bound the two men into a ripe intimacy. 
 
 " I Ve news, 11 Jimmy proclaimed, as they crossed the 
 roadway under the gate and turned down the hill beside 
 the empty market place. 
 
 Leleu raised his brows. 
 
 " Political ? " 
 
 "No ; nothing there to interest you. We're at a dead 
 low tide of prosperous stagnation, since our fellows ousted 
 you from the chief seats. No ; my news is wholly per- 
 sonal. I Ve had a letter from Sir Morris. 11 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " He was to sail, the twenty-third," Jimmy answered. 
 "To-day is the thirty-first. He ought to be here, to- 
 morrow. He 's to be at our house, you know." 
 
 " What sends him over ? "
 
 268 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Jimmy laughed again. 
 
 " He could n't withstand our urging. For a year, Patsy 
 and I have been begging him to come ; but he did n't dare 
 to leave his father. The old man has taken a turn for 
 the better now, and Sir Morris is on his way. He '11 be 
 here for a good share of the winter. Really, 11 Jimmy 
 added, with boyish eagerness ; " I begin to get a bit im- 
 patient to see the dear old chap once more. 11 
 
 " I liked him, too, 11 Leleu added thoughtfully. 
 
 " Well you might. He stood your friend, when you 
 had no notion of the fact,"" Jimmy assured him. " Did 
 you see much of him, last summer? 1 ' 
 
 " Almost not at all. 11 
 
 "But why?" 
 
 Again the cloud came back to Leleu^ eyes. 
 
 " Arline didn't care for him," he made brief answer. 
 
 " I remember now. He and Arline never used to hit it 
 off any too well. By the way, Arline was telling me, only 
 yesterday, that you met St. Just in Paris. 11 
 
 Even more heavily the cloud sank over Leleu's face. 
 
 " Yes, we did," he assented. 
 
 " And that the the creature said he was coming back 
 here soon." 
 
 Leleu varied his phrase by a single word. 
 
 " Yes, he did," he assented again. 
 
 Jimmy smote the curbstone with his stick. 
 
 " I wish I presided over the immigration office," he said 
 vengefully. " What does he want ? " 
 
 "He says," there was the faintest possible stress upon 
 the verb ; "he says he is coming back to take a position of 
 importance on the Echo" 
 
 " And, in reality, he is coming here to raise the devil," 
 Jimmy made savage comment. " Did Arline see much of 
 him? 1 ' 
 
 " More than I wished," Leleu confessed reluctantly.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 269 
 
 " Why did n't, you stop it ? " 
 
 Leleu looked up at him with sombre eyes. 
 
 "How could I?" 
 
 Tucking his stick under his arm, Jimmy plunged his 
 fists into his pockets. 
 
 " I '11 be hanged if I know," he said, after a pause. 
 
 The pause lengthened, and only the click of their heels 
 on the boards broke the hush. At last Jimmy spoke 
 again. 
 
 " Leleu, I am sorry for you,' 1 he said shortly. " Arline 
 is my sister ; I know her through and through. I know 
 things are n't going right at your house. In your place, I 
 should go mad. For us men, it is easier to be decapitated 
 at one fell stroke than to bear the worriment of eternal 
 pinpricks. However " 
 
 Leleu drew a long breath. 
 
 " Yes," he agreed slowly ; " there 's always the however. 
 Still, I think I am glad that you know." 
 
 "And it's worse than ever?" Jimmy queried kindly. 
 " You need n't mind about speaking out to me, old man. 
 Patsy and I see things, even if we don't say much about 
 them." 
 
 Leleu bowed his head. 
 
 " Yes," he agreed once more ; " it is worse than ever. 
 Sometimes, I almost despair." 
 
 " What is it, temper or nagging ? " Jimmy inquired 
 tersely. 
 
 But Leleu walked on in silence. 
 
 " I was wrong to speak," he said at last. " Such things 
 are better buried out of sight." 
 
 " If they don't end by also burying you," Jimmy said, 
 in blunt sympathy. " It 's hard lines, man ; but keep a 
 grip on your courage. Arline is cranky ; but she is bound 
 to come to her senses in the end." 
 
 However, the end was not yet.
 
 270 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 At the entrance to the wide avenue of Bellevue, Leleu 
 halted in uncertainty. Not so Jimmy, who strode in 
 through the gate. 
 
 "Oh, I say," he remonstrated; "please remember that 
 I'm Agatha's goddaddy, and have a claim on her, too. 
 What did you think, that I was going to stand in the 
 road and contemplate the casket, while you went in and 
 made merry with your jewel ? Not on your life, man ! 
 I 'm coming, too." 
 
 And little Agatha, that night, confided to Mother Saint 
 Faith that never again, if she lived for ninety years, 
 did she expect to have so good a time as she had had, 
 that day. 
 
 A week later, measles broke out among the smaller 
 children, and in hot haste the Mother Superior telephoned 
 to Leleu to take his child home, away from all danger of 
 infection. In hot haste Leleu obeyed the summons, and, 
 by nightfall, little Agatha, hearty and happy, was settled 
 in her father's home for a wholly indefinite period. 
 
 For three days, a summer calm brooded over the house. 
 Then, of a sudden, the storm broke, broke with a relent- 
 less fury which swept the home to ruin. 
 
 Leleu came in from his office earlier than usual, one 
 November afternoon. The golden haze of Indian summer 
 lay warm on the city, and he had turned his back upon 
 his work, for the sake of taking little Agatha out for a 
 walk on the terrace. For a long hour, the two boon com- 
 rades had paced to and fro, watching the sunset colours 
 die out to a level gray above the heights of Levis. To 
 Agatha, the walk had been fraught with great interest, 
 by reason of a Newfoundland puppy who, forsaking his 
 master, had attached himself to her side, now and then 
 mouthing a corner of her coat in token of his amicable 
 disposition. Leleu, alert and eager, had entered into 
 the frolic, now allowing the dog to worry his stick, now
 
 Hearts and Creeds 271 
 
 moving on at Agatha's side with steps which he vainly 
 endeavoured to adapt to the reach of her short legs. 
 
 At last the chill of the falling twilight had driven them 
 from the terrace. Up through the dusky tunnel of Louis 
 Street, Agatha went skipping at Leleu's side, laughing and 
 chattering in a perfect abandonment of glee. Then, turn- 
 ing north into D'Auteuil Street, they came to their own 
 door and to the end of the happy afternoon. 
 
 In leisurely fashion, Leleu let himself into the house and 
 paused in the hall long enough to pocket his latch key. 
 As he stood there beside a table, his glance rested vaguely 
 upon a bit of card, rested and slowly gathered to a focus. 
 For an instant, his eyes blazed, and he bit his lower lip. 
 Then, with perfect quiet, he turned to the child. 
 
 " Run away up-stairs now, Agatha, and ask Hortense 
 to take off your coat, while you tell her what we 've been 
 doing." 
 
 He bent above the child for one long, clinging kiss. 
 Then he slowly took off his coat, before turning towards 
 the door of the drawing-room whence a swish of skirts had 
 proclaimed the presence of Arline. His face had grown 
 very white, and his gestures were singularly still and 
 deliberate ; but in the depths of his eyes there glowed a 
 lambent beam. During the time it took to draw one 
 deep, slow breath, he stood there, motionless. Then he 
 stepped to the doorway and lifted back the heavy 
 draperies. 
 
 " Arline ? " he said interrogatively. 
 
 At his voice, she glanced up from the book in her hand. 
 Dressed with unwonted care, her face flushed to a deeper 
 pink than usual and her dark blue eyes alight, she seemed 
 to Leleu a lovely picture, as she looked up to greet his 
 coming. 
 
 " Oh ; is it you, Amedee ? I did not expect you to be 
 home so soon."
 
 272 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " I suppose," he answered briefly. 
 
 Her head lifted itself proudly, for it was plain that he 
 spoke with meaning and that the meaning was hostile. 
 
 " I do not understand," she said. 
 
 Deliberately he raised his eyes and bent upon her a 
 piercing glance, as if to read the very depths of her soul. 
 
 " I think you do," he said then. " It is useless to deny. 
 You may have forgotten that this card was left on the 
 tray in the hall." 
 
 She bit her lip, while she reproached herself for her 
 carelessness. However, she felt herself antagonized by his 
 tone of censure, and she determined to play the game to 
 the end with what aggressiveness she could. Had Leleu 
 phrased his words differently, she would have told him 
 that St. Just's call, that afternoon, had taken her com- 
 pletely by surprise, that her elaborate toilette, even, had 
 been made for the calls she had intended to pay. Now, 
 angered by Leleu's unjust blame, she was willing to allow 
 him to put whatever interpretation he might choose upon 
 the afternoon's events. 
 
 " What if it was left on the tray ? " she inquired dis- 
 dainfully. 
 
 The question was unanswerable. Leleu shifted his 
 ground. 
 
 " You know, I think," he said steadily ; " that I asked 
 you not to allow Monsieur St. Just to call." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Because he is not a fit person for you to know." 
 
 She raised her brows. 
 
 " But it was you who introduced him to me." 
 
 " Yes. I know him better now." 
 
 " Perhaps," she said lightly. " Still, Amedee, it was 
 you who did the mischief." 
 
 Again he regarded her fixedly. 
 
 " And also I who can undo it."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 273 
 
 She tossed her book to a table and, turning slightly in 
 her chair, rested one rounded arm across its back. 
 
 " But how ? " she queried calmly. 
 
 " I can forbid him the house." 
 
 Her answering laugh was low, but it stabbed him like a 
 knife. 
 
 " How melodramatic you Frenchmen are, Amedee ! You 
 take everything with such desperate seriousness. What 
 harm can that poor little man do you ? " 
 
 " None. However, he can harm my wife. 11 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Your wife can take care of herself."" 
 
 For an instant, the old flame of love flashed up in his 
 eyes, and he laid his hand on her arm. 
 
 " Not while I live, Arline. That is my privilege." 
 
 At his touch and at his words, her face grew gentler. 
 Nevertheless, she sought to argue her point. 
 
 " But a man like that can never harm me." 
 
 Quite unconsciously to himself, Leleu's tone hardened 
 with the thought of St. Just. Quite unconsciously to 
 himself, too, that involuntary hardening was the mark 
 of a crisis in his life. 
 
 " Is it no harm to you," he demanded ; " that you receive 
 as a friend the man who has tried his best to ruin me ? " 
 
 " But he tried in vain, and it was so long ago," she 
 urged carelessly. " Really, Amedee, it seems a bit child- 
 ish to take up the matter at this late day. Is n't it rather 
 a confession that he succeeded in doing you a harm ? " 
 
 " I suppose," he answered simply. " Why not ? He 
 did do me harm, much harm." 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 "It is the first time I ever heard you admit it, 
 though," she remarked, as she busied herself with a con- 
 trary fold of her gown. " Most people have said that you 
 never really came to your own, Amedee, till after that 
 
 18
 
 274 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Cartier affair. All in all, it merely served as a bit of free 
 advertising." 
 
 Without her intending it in the least, the word stung 
 him. He turned on his heel, went to the window, and 
 stood looking out across the dark Esplanade. 
 
 " I was not aware that I needed to be advertised," he 
 said a little haughtily. Then he added, without turning 
 his head, " However, that is not the main point. For once 
 and all time, Arline, I must beg of you that you do not 
 receive Monsieur St. Just in this house." 
 
 The colour flamed up in her cheeks. She laughed again. 
 
 " Do you prefer that I give him tea in one of the kiosks 
 on the terrace ? " she asked. " Really, Amedee, it would 
 be rather cold there, at this season." 
 
 His steady gaze out at the shadowy street gave no hint 
 that he had heard her flippant words. He let the silence 
 fall over them. Then he added, 
 
 " Nor do I wish that you should extend to him any 
 courtesy whatsoever." 
 
 Deliberately she rose to her feet and stood facing him, 
 tall and queenly in her indignation. 
 
 " Then," she said slowly ; " do I understand that you 
 presume," the words came with even greater slowness ; 
 " presume to dictate to me whom I shall choose for my 
 friends ? " 
 
 Turning about, he bowed his head in assent. 
 
 " Yes," he replied, with a deliberation equal to her own. 
 " Yes. In a case like this, I do." 
 
 For a long moment, their eyes met in a drawn battle of 
 will. Then Arline turned away and left the room, and, 
 as the heavy draperies swung back behind her, the look 
 in her face was not good to see. 
 
 According to her custom, Agatha came running into 
 the dining-room, that night, on the heels of the dessert. 
 Above her crisp white embroideries, her little face was
 
 Hearts and Creeds 275 
 
 glowing like a flower, her tongue, unloosed by the joys of 
 the afternoon, wagged ceaselessly. Save for a word or two 
 exchanged for the benefit of the servants, the dinner had 
 dragged by in perfect silence. Agatha's coming was like 
 an electric lamp bursting in upon a darkened place. Both 
 Leleu and Arline were dazed by her strong vitality, as she 
 romped about the room and filled its silence with her 
 merry chatter. Suddenly and without warning, she turned 
 to face Arline. 
 
 " Mamma, 1 ' she begged ; " dearest mamma, may I tell 
 our secret now ? " 
 
 " What secret, dear ? " Arline made listless answer. 
 
 Agatha frowned in childish rebuke. 
 
 "Our 'portant secret. Do you forget it, mamma? 
 Our lesson. May I, please may n't I tell it now ? " 
 
 Arline started, and her cheeks grew white ; but, for an 
 instant, she spoke no word of reply. 
 
 " Please, dearest mamma, I want to say it. I had such 
 a beautiful time, this afternoon, and we played with the 
 little big puppy and now I know he'd love to hear it. 
 Please, can't I say the lesson now?" the child argued 
 inconsequently. 
 
 Arline hesitated. Her eyes, fixed upon Leleu, narrowed 
 almost to a line, and her lips grew ashy white. Then she 
 made steady, steely answer, 
 
 " Yes, dear. You may say it now."" 
 
 " Oh, good ! " Agatha's caper of joy and her clapping 
 hands made a strange contrast to the absolute quiet of 
 the mother. Then she clicked her heels together, smoothed 
 down her little skirts, clasped her hands behind her and 
 stood very straight. "I believe," she began, looking up 
 into her father's face where, in spite of his gloom, an ex- 
 pectant smile had gathered ; " I believe that it is wrong 
 to pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I don't believe 
 in Purgatory. I don't believe in the mass, and, as soon
 
 276 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 as I'm old enough, I won't mind one thing the nuns 
 have told me to do. And What was the rest of it, 
 mamma ? " 
 
 But Arline made no reply. Deadly white, the cold 
 drops standing out upon his brow, and his lips distorted 
 into an unearthly smile, Leleu had risen to his feet. 
 
 " You," he said, in a voice so low and harsh that barely 
 could she understand the words ; "you, Arline, have done 
 this accursed thing ! May the judgment of God be upon 
 your head ! " Then he turned to the child and held out 
 his hand. " Come, Agatha, come up to the nursery." H\ 
 
 Nearly an hour later, he came down the stairs again. 
 His step was slow and uncertain like the step of an old, 
 old man. His shoulders were bowed together, and heavy 
 lines had cut themselves in his thin, dark face. His hat 
 was in one hand ; in the other was a small bag. Behind 
 him, her eyes scarlet from many tears, the maid, Hortense, 
 was carrying Agatha in her arms. The child was capped 
 and coated, and her little arms gripped fast her faithful 
 old doll. 
 
 Leaving his bag in the hall, Leleu pushed aside the 
 draperies at the door and paused before his wife. With 
 cold deliberation, she raised her eyes. Then, as she saw 
 his hat and coat, she started to her feet in alarm. 
 
 " Amedee ! What is it that you are going to do ?" 
 
 "I am going away." Distrustful of his English in 
 such a crisis, he chose his words with cautious precision, 
 although his voice was wellnigh inaudible. " The hour is 
 past when it is wise to argue it. For myself, I could bear 
 it to the end; for my child, not one other hour. No. 
 Be silent ! " And, as he raised his hand, over the silence 
 boomed the first wailing note of the evening bell, tolled 
 for the dead throughout the season of All Souls. " There 
 is no need for words. My mind is made up. My child 
 must be kept safe and inviolate. You have been faithless
 
 Hearts and Creeds 277 
 
 to your marriage vow, faithless to me, faithless to your 
 duties of motherhood. Until I learn of your repentance, 
 learn that your penitence will bear its fruit in your life, 
 no longer can I leave my child in your power. My duty 
 now is all to her, since you have defied the care with 
 which I have sought to guard your life. Good-by, Arline. 
 And may you know a swift repentance for the harm you 
 have tried to do ! " 
 
 For an instant longer he stood there, his head bowed, 
 his lips moving silently, while over the quiet room there 
 fell the deep, plaintive notes of the tolling bell. Then 
 reverently he made the sacred sign, turned away and left 
 the room. 
 
 For an instant, Arline stood, as if stupefied. The 
 stupefaction ended swiftly, and she sprang forward with a 
 wild cry, 
 
 " Amedee ! Come back ! " 
 
 But already he was in the cold, dark street, and the 
 last dull notes of the evening bell, tolling, tolling for the 
 dead, furnished the only answer to her cry.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 
 
 THE next morning was warm and sunny, and Stan- 
 wood Tyler, pipe in mouth and his hands locked 
 behind him, was pacing up and down the southern end of 
 the terrace, enjoying to the full the brief half-hour between 
 breakfast and office. He glanced up, as the shadow of Sir 
 Morris Plante fell on the boards at his side. The step of 
 Sir Morris was full of nervous hurry, his face of a dull 
 foreboding. 
 
 " Oh, I say, I 'm glad to get you, when you are quite by 
 yourself," he said, as he dropped into the rhythm of Stan- 
 wood's step, then unconsciously sought to hasten its steady 
 beat. " I had something to tell you, to ask, rather. Is 
 anything wrong at the Leleus' ? " 
 
 Without taking his pipe from between his teeth, Stan- 
 wood made brief answer. 
 
 " There has been something wrong at the Leleus*, ever 
 since the day that they were engaged." 
 
 Sir Morris laughed apologetically. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know about its being so bad as that," he 
 protested. Then once more his tone grew grave. " But, 
 I mean, something new, something especial." 
 
 Stanwood shook his head. 
 
 " I have heard of nothing. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " Because I met Leleu and the child going into the 
 Chateau, soon after eight, last night. He had a bag, and 
 the child was carrying a doll. It reminded me of the flight 
 into Egypt. Leleu looked as if he had come to the end of
 
 Hearts and Creeds 279 
 
 his strength. Of course I did n't speak to him. He looked 
 at me ; but I 've no idea he saw me." 
 
 Stanwood emptied his pipe, frowned, refilled his pipe 
 and punched the filling home. 
 
 " At what time ? " he asked then. 
 
 "Not long after eight. I met Jimmy at the club, at 
 half after, and this was earlier. 1 " 
 
 " Did you say anything to Jimmy ? " 
 
 " I could n't," Sir Moms answered simply. " It 's his 
 own people, you know. I thought I'd best wait and 
 speak to you." 
 
 " Do you think he knew it ? " 
 
 Sir Morris shook his head. 
 
 " He 'd have showed the worry of it." 
 
 Stanwood smoked in silence for a few minutes. 
 
 " What do you make of it ? " he asked abruptly. 
 
 " Domestic smash." 
 
 "So bad as that?" 
 
 " What else could it be ? As a rule, a man does n't take 
 his seven-year-old daughter to a hotel in his own town, 
 unless there 's serious cause." 
 
 " Poor Leleu ! " 
 
 " Yes," Sir Moms agreed. " Poor Leleu ! " 
 
 And to neither man did it occur that there might be a 
 doubt regarding the source of the blame. 
 
 By the time they had returned to the house, Jimmy had 
 already been summoned to the house on the Esplanade. 
 An hour later, when he left Arline, his face was anxious 
 and determined. For the first time in her life, Arline was 
 too thoroughly terrified at the results of her action to seek 
 to hide any of its details. Jimmy's questions, albeit kind, 
 had been strict and searching. When he left the house 
 he was in full possession of all the facts, in full belief that 
 Leleu, goaded to madness by this crushing climax to long 
 years of petty bpposition, was entirely justified in the
 
 280 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 course he had marked out for himself. Social decency, 
 coupled with the law of the Catholic church, forbade 
 divorce; but Jimmy Lord felt that Leleu had every right 
 to take his child and himself, and live apart from Arline 
 until such time as her penitence should show a deeper 
 proof than words. The marriage vows were shattered ; 
 but it was Arline who had shattered them. Once and yet 
 again Leleu had done his best to forge together the broken 
 links ; but it had been all in vain. Now he must wait for 
 Arline. 
 
 Jimmy was a social conservative ; the affair could not 
 fail to be known, and, known, to make a distinct sensation 
 among their friends. Moreover, he was Arline's brother. 
 Nevertheless, Jimmy Lord went from Arline straight to 
 Amedee Leleu. 
 
 It was not until a full month later that he had the 
 courage to tell Sir Morris of the events of that morning. 
 Then, late one night when they were smoking alone in the 
 library, Jimmy found relief in words, relief, too, in the 
 sympathetic attention of Sir Morris. Sir Morris heard 
 him to the end of the whole tragic, pitiful story, though 
 it was long past midnight when Jimmy ceased to speak. 
 Then, at the end, Sir Morris uttered terse judgment. 
 
 " I don't see how the poor chap could well help himself," 
 he said thoughtfully. " She has attacked him on his vital 
 spot. Leleu's religion is no empty form to him. She's 
 your sister, I know, Jimmy ; but I "11 be hanged if, in his 
 place, I would n't have done exactly the same thing." 
 
 And Jimmy nodded in slow agreement. 
 
 "I, too. But, meanwhile, what is going to happen 
 next?" 
 
 Sir Morris struck a match. 
 
 " The child is in the Ursuline Convent ? " 
 
 " Yes. Leleu thought she 'd be safer there." 
 
 Sir Morris understood.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 281 
 
 " Then your sister has tried to see her ? " 
 
 Jimmy laughed shortly. 
 
 " Yes. It "s best not to question her motives, though. 
 For my part, I suspect they are Protestant in every sense 
 of the word, not maternal." 
 
 " Oh, I 'd not say that," Sir Morris demurred. " Any- 
 way, I suppose the child could n't be in better hands than 
 she is now."" 
 
 ** No ; perhaps not. Poor little soul, it nearly broke 
 her heart to find she could n't go back to Bellevue. She is 
 an affectionate little thing, 11 Jimmy observed thoughtfully. 
 
 " Does she mourn for her mother ? " 
 
 " Not so much as you 'd expect. You see, Arline never 
 used to go out to the convent to see her ; and, at seven, a 
 child soon forgets. Now and then she asks when she can 
 go to see her mother ; but it is Leleu that she adores. 11 
 
 " Where is Leleu, nowadays ? " Sir Morris asked. " I 
 almost never see him. 11 
 
 " He is living in his old room on Haldimand Hill, and 
 working like a dog, meanwhile. He 's not going out 
 much. We coax him here now and then, when he knows 
 you and Stanwood are to be away, and Patsy makes a 
 point of seeing the child, every few days. You know she 
 always liked Leleu. 11 
 
 "Jimmy, 11 Sir Morris demanded abruptly ; "did it ever 
 occur to you to thank God for your wife ?" 
 
 It was long before either man spoke again. At last, 
 Jimmy reverted to the subject of the Leleus. 
 
 " It has been an awful smash," he said thoughtfully. 
 " It remains to be seen whether they ever will be able to 
 pick up the pieces. Arline will have it all to do ; at least, 
 in the first of it. And, 11 Jimmy smoked for a momeht in 
 silence. Then he blurted out; "and just now she seems 
 bent on trampling the pieces underneath her feet. 11 
 
 Sir Morris sat up, stiff and straight.
 
 282 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " That I walked in on St. Just calling there, two days 
 ago," Jimmy answered gruffly. 
 
 " What ! " The word came like an explosion. 
 
 "' It 's a fact." Jimmy heaved a weary sigh. 
 
 " But is she crazy ? " Sir Morris demanded. " I beg 
 your pardon, old man. I know she is your sister ; but, 
 after all, is n't there a little risk in the situation ? " 
 
 "There couldn't well be more. She is hastening the 
 end, and not the right end, either. The fact is, Arline is 
 flirting with St. Just, and he is taking her in earnest. 
 It 's not worth while to talk of his motives. Hers I can't 
 read. Now and then I wonder whether she is doing it to 
 pique Leleu into coming back to her. If so, she does n't 
 know her man." 
 
 " Have you said anything to her ? " 
 
 Jimmy smiled mirthlessly, as he made expressive an- 
 swer, 
 
 " She sent down word to me, yesterday, that she was not 
 at home." 
 
 Hm m m! And then?" 
 
 " I am blest if I know." 
 
 Sir Morris broke the pause. 
 
 " Which is your sister's day at home ? " he asked. 
 
 Arline, meanwhile, alone in the house on the Esplanade, 
 was counting the dreary days which dragged past her, 
 keeping a brave face before others and plotting, plotting 
 ceaselessly how she could bring her husband back to her. 
 Of her going to him, as yet her mind made no question. 
 
 To the outward eye, Leleu's absence changed her life 
 but little. The household routine remained the same. 
 Arline went and came and received her friends as usual. 
 Her pride forbade either retirement or retreat. She even 
 schooled herself to speak of Leleu now and then, and 
 always in a tone which lacked all bitterness. Her poise,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 283 
 
 however, was only the mask which she wore when the eye 
 of the world was upon her. Alone in her home, the soli- 
 tude and the stillness maddened her. They even drove 
 her out for long walks far into the country where, wander- 
 ing at will among the open roads, she saw no need to hold 
 her face in the lines of its set composure. Now and then, 
 her old friends drove past her ; but, after one glance at her 
 face, they merely nodded and hastened on their way, for 
 it was plain enough that, at such times, Arline Leleu was 
 in no mood to bandy social chat. 
 
 She came home from these walks, weary of body, tired 
 of nerve. A hunted look was in her dark blue eyes ; but 
 her colour was as dazzling as ever. Only at breakfast 
 after her sleepless nights when, over and over in ceaseless 
 round, she went over the past, present and future, only in 
 the early morning hours did her unwonted pallor show 
 how the strain was telling upon even her vigorous young 
 strength. The situation was plainly intolerable to her. 
 Never had Leleu's love seemed more precious to her than 
 now, when she appeared to have lost it forever. That the 
 loss had come of her own free will, however, as yet she 
 took no heed. 
 
 Arline's summing up of the case was simple. She had 
 married a French Catholic ; and, in that one fact of the 
 marriage, she had made the one great concession. Since 
 that time, while keeping to the letter of her marriage 
 vows, she had yet done all in her power to lead her hus- 
 band to a point of view more fitting for the man who had 
 married Arline Lord. He had ignored her efforts, then 
 resented them, then repented of the bitterness of his re- 
 sentment. After that had come the child. She had done 
 what she could to ensure to the child some measure of 
 religious freedom, and Leleu had resented it even more 
 bitterly than he had resented her attempted influence upon 
 himself. In time, doubtless, even as he had done before,
 
 284 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 he would come back to her, penitent and loving. Only 
 But, at this point, Arline's brave analysis invariably broke 
 down. Only, this time, his penitence was so long in coming. 
 Weeks had passed by, and Leleu had made no sign. 
 
 There had been no effort to keep the situation secret. 
 In fact, such effort would have been entirely futile, for 
 both Leleu and the Lords were known from end to end of 
 the garrulous little city. Moreover, society rarely had a 
 chance to discuss an affair which had smitten both races 
 at one blow, and society made the most of its chance by 
 discussing the affair at length and with avidity. In both 
 sets, the judgment was terse. The French friends of Leleu 
 pitied him unreservedly. The English acquaintances of 
 Arline declared that it had served her right for marrying 
 a French Catholic. Meanwhile, as by common consent, 
 they focused their eyes upon Arline. Leleu's steady, 
 patient acquiescence, while it won their full respect, never- 
 theless furnished no element of interest to their sensation- 
 loving gaze. 
 
 As a matter of course, the watching of Arline involved 
 a certain amount of social connection. Quebec was just 
 launching itself upon the gayest season it had ever known, 
 and Arline was destined to have her due share of the 
 gayety. Curiosity forbade cutting her; and, moreover, 
 the Canadian conscience is not that of New England. In 
 any community, the casting the first stone is fraught with 
 danger ; one never knows what direction the second stone 
 may take nor what the angle of its rebound may be. 
 People called upon Arline and invited her as before. Her 
 own jealous sensitiveness assured her that the calls were 
 shorter, the invitations to the larger and more formal 
 functions. Nevertheless, queenly and commanding as 
 ever, she kept up her own share of the social interchange, 
 and thanked the fates that her courage was equal to 
 the task.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 285 
 
 Sooner or later, that winter, all the world with two ex- 
 ceptions dropped in at the house on the Esplanade, in- 
 spected the hostess and went away to exchange impressions. 
 The two were Patience and Molly Lord. At the end of 
 Arline's second week alone, first Patience and then Molly 
 had been denied admittance. Later, the same fate had 
 awaited Jimmy, and from the same cause. Once for all, 
 Arline had determined to receive no advice from her family 
 in the matter. To the surprise of them all, however, 
 Brooke Lord continued to be a welcome guest. On the 
 morning after the tragedy, he had said his say to Arline, 
 forcefully and with plainness. From beginning to end, 
 he had reviewed the whole history of Arline's married life. 
 Then he had closed the matter, never to reopen it. 
 
 As the weeks passed by, there were two guests who 
 never failed to appear on each of Arline^s reception days. 
 Achille St. Just was one ; Sir Moms Plante was the other. 
 St. Just, in those winter weeks, was a frequent guest in 
 the house on the Esplanade. His calls were decorously 
 short; but his manner to Arline was the manner of the 
 old, familiar friend of the family, a friend full of chivalry 
 and of anxious care for her content. He had a trick of 
 placing her chair, of taking a teacup from her hand, which 
 implied to the looker-on that Arline's chair and Arline's 
 teacup summed up the world for him. His whole bearing 
 to her held the impress of a gi*ave, yet eager devotion. 
 And Arline received his devotion with the half-fascinated 
 fear which stirs us in the presence of a snake. Beyond 
 that, too, her womanhood was of the sort which longs 
 acutely for the companionship and care of man. With 
 Leleu absent and Jimmy tabu, she allowed St. Just to step 
 in and fill the gap. Her choice of him was by no means 
 random. His frequent presence in the house might be the 
 one thing needful to entice Leleu back to his overthrown 
 allegiance.
 
 286 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 Vary the hour for his coming as he would, chafe as he 
 would at the other man's presence, St. Just never failed to 
 find Sir Morris Plante before him in the drawing-room of 
 Arline Leleu. The Englishman, huge and a bit hilarious, 
 came early and stayed late. He totally disregarded the 
 laws concerning the proper sequence of guests. He sat out 
 people by the dozen, smiling blandly and waiting upon 
 Arline with the deft deference of a prince of butlers. 
 Now and then, and always when St. Just was present, he 
 entered upon a vigorous flirtation with his hostess, a 
 wholly one-sided flirtation to which she accorded but a 
 languid interest, although it goaded St. Just to the verge 
 of frenzy. Arline was quite at a loss as to the cause of 
 this sudden devotion on the part of Sir Morris. Since the 
 first night of their meeting, months before her marriage, 
 he had never manifested any overweening desire for her 
 society. His presence was something of an inconvenience ; 
 but Sir Morris, albeit a foreigner, was too omnipotent in 
 social life to make it wise for her to refuse to receive him 
 on her day. For one short hour, she held the suspicion 
 that he was there as Jimmy's spy. Then she recalled her 
 brother's character as she had always known it, and dis- 
 missed the suspicion as being unworthy of them all. 
 
 At last, St. Just made open revolt. 
 
 " Confound that Englishman ! " he said, one afternoon 
 in late February. " He is always in the way. Come out 
 on the terrace, Madame Leleu, before your bulldog gets 
 on your scent." 
 
 Arline laughed. Then, without pausing to ask how Sir 
 Moms Plante or any other man could be in St. Just's 
 way, she turned back at St. Just's side and crossed the 
 Ring to the terrace. 
 
 It was a still, windless afternoon, clear and bright, but 
 so cold that few people were abroad. Once and again St. 
 Just led the way up the terrace, talking the while in his
 
 Hearts and Creeds 287 
 
 most winning vein. Brilliant scraps of gossip and of epi- 
 gram flew from his lips, mingled, every now and then, with 
 some bit of sentiment which, too elusive to bring down re- 
 buke, yet called a deeper flush to Arline's cheeks. And 
 Arline, exhilarated by the swift, cold walk, excited by his 
 words, glowed like a vivid coal. For the passing hour, 
 she took no thought of anything, save that it was good to 
 be alive and tramping to and fro along that stripe of 
 teirace above the ice-locked river. 
 
 For a third time, St. Just turned at the Champlain 
 statue ; but Arline demurred. 
 
 " It is time that I went home." 
 
 " You are cold ? " he asked, with instant anxiety. 
 
 " No ; but it must be late." 
 
 " Not so very. May I not have this one last turn ? " he 
 urged. 
 
 She assented, for his mood was stirring the blood in her 
 veins till it went to her head like wine. Side by side and 
 in perfectly adjusted step, they paced up the terrace, 
 wheeled about and came down again towards the lower 
 end. Then, all at once, Arline gave a sudden start, and 
 the blood rushed from her cheeks, leaving them pearly 
 white. Around the corner of the Chateau wall, scarcely 
 ten feet away, Leleu and little Agatha were coming 
 towards them. 
 
 By some strange chance, possible even in so small a city, 
 Arline had caught no glimpse of Leleu since the November 
 night when the Basilica bell had tolled the knell of their 
 dying love. Now, for an instant, she saw all things 
 through a wavering mist ; but, even through the mist, she 
 was dully aware that Leleu looked thin and old, that his 
 face was white and drawn. Then, summoning all her 
 pride, she forced back the tears which were hurrying to her 
 eyes, and lifted her head with the old haughty gesture 
 which Leleu had known of yore. And Leleu, his dark
 
 288 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 eyes all alight with the love he had supposed forever 
 dead, saw the gesture and turned his gaze aside. Then, 
 for the first time, he saw who was Arline's companion. 
 His face went even whiter, and the light died out from 
 his eyes. 
 
 "Oh, mamma!" Agatha sprang forward, with a glad 
 cry of welcome. " Where have you been ? " 
 
 For one long moment, Arline held the little face tightly 
 against her skirts. For another moment, she lifted the 
 child to her shoulder and hid in her fluffy hair the scald- 
 ing tears which would not be choked back. Then, slowly, 
 gently, she set down the child once more. 
 
 "Go now, darling,"" she said quite steadily. "And 
 good-by." 
 
 And, with a brief word to St. Just, she passed on down 
 the terrace and out of sight.
 
 For one long moment Arline held the little face tightly against 
 her skirts." Page 288.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 
 
 PATIENCE LORD, crossing the Ring on her way 
 home from the library, had seen from afar the meet- 
 ing between Arline and Amedee Leleu. Turning aside to 
 avoid Arline and her companion, she had hurried through 
 the Chateau court and overtaken Leleu as he was passing 
 the bandstand. Impetuously she called his name. Then 
 she stood back, affrighted, as he turned, at the wild pain 
 in his dark eyes. 
 
 " Good afternoon," she said, as blithely as she could. 
 "Isn't it cold? I've been for a long walk and am half 
 frozen. I must see Agatha, though. Do you mind com- 
 ing into our house for a few minutes ? Agatha looks as 
 cold as I feel." But, while she spoke, her eyes were not 
 upon Agatha's rosy, smiling face ; but upon Leleu, shiver- 
 ing as though in a chill. 
 
 Inside the house, with a word of apology, she swept 
 the child off to her own room and left Leleu alone with 
 Jimmy. To the mind of Patience, Jimmy's presence was 
 a balm for every woe. Moreover, there were hours and 
 circumstances when man was bound to turn to man. Ac- 
 cordingly, it was a long half-hour before she brought 
 Agatha back to help make tea and pass the cups; and, 
 when she came, she saw to it that Sir Morris came, too, as 
 an effectual barrier to difficult subjects of conversation. 
 
 It was late, that evening, before she was left alone with 
 her husband. Then briefly she described the little scene ; 
 
 briefly he told her of his talk with Leleu. Then together, 
 
 19
 
 290 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 as they had so often done before, they went over the whole 
 tragedy and tried in vain to forecast the end. 
 
 To Patience Lord, when she went to bed, that night, it 
 seemed that the Leleus had clouded her whole horizon. 
 Within a week, however, another cloud had risen, so black 
 and full of portent that, beside it, all other clouds were 
 like floating bits of summer haze. 
 
 The cloud had risen from a slum in St. Sauveur. There 
 had been a mild case of varioloid; then a severer case; 
 then a baby had died, and then another. And the parents, 
 optimistically regarding the baby's salvation as an assured 
 fact, saw no need of using vaccine to prolong a life which 
 might end in sin and consequent hell. Children were 
 plenty, they argued ; it was something to know that they 
 were irrevocably saved. And, meanwhile, in the upper town, 
 society was dancing its way towards the gayest carnival 
 season which the old gray city had ever known. 
 
 Then, all at once, society had paused and held its breath 
 to listen to a whisper growing ever more insistent and more 
 loud. A child was ill on Richelieu Street. A servant, broken 
 out with the disease, had been taken away from a house on 
 the Grande Allee. Society shivered. Then it stopped its 
 ears and fell to dancing more merrily than ever, all but the 
 doctors. They, resolute, but all too futile, swept their in- 
 vitation cards aside, unanswered, and ranged themselves, 
 shoulder to shoulder, to fight the foe which had stolen on 
 them, unawares. But what were a score or two of doctors 
 in the face of an epidemic already started among the thou- 
 sands of the population who refused all vaccination ? Fate 
 denied them victory ; their professional honour denied ca- 
 pitulation. They could only stand to their guns and fight 
 a losing fight, although winning thereby the hearty re- 
 spect of every thoughtful man. And the epidemic, gain- 
 ing strength from hour to hour, like a mountain torrent 
 in the spring, swept over one barrier after another until
 
 Hearts and Creeds 291 
 
 society stopped its dancing, and the whole city lay in silent 
 fear. And between the city and the rising tide of the 
 epidemic, shoulder to shoulder in grim array, there still 
 stood the little line of doctors, banded together to fight 
 their losing fight. 
 
 From the first, the disease had swept fastest of all among 
 the children. It had taken them as they came, French and 
 English, poor and rich, singly and in groups. At the first 
 alarm, Bellevue had scattered its little colony among their 
 homes. The Ursulines were made of different stuff, and 
 back of them was the tradition of the days of old when 
 neither Indian raid nor British siege had been potent to 
 break open the wall of their routine. In the end, how- 
 ever, disease accomplished what raid and siege had been 
 powerless to effect. In some way, no one, least of all the 
 doctors, could tell how, the epidemic had crept inside their 
 cloistered walls. Not a child, this time, but an aged nun, 
 was stricken with the pest, and, on the instant, the children 
 were sent hurrying away into a place of safety. Those 
 whose parents chose it, could return to their own homes. 
 The others must pass through quarantine, and then be 
 sent to a convent farther down the river. 
 
 Jimmy was in Leleu's room, when the message came. 
 In these days of deadly, sickening fear, a fear which each 
 man, believing himself immune, lavished upon his neigh- 
 bour, one and all of the Lords had been upon the rack 
 regarding Agatha. It would take so little preparation to 
 fit her for the Kingdom of Heaven ; and immortal life, like 
 all things else, might well move along the path of least 
 resistance. Leleu took the message. Then, dropping 
 into a chair, he hid his face in his hands. 
 
 " Is it the child ? " Jimmy demanded swiftly, for, in those 
 days, no one paused to question the cause of sudden shock, 
 only the person. 
 
 "Yes."
 
 292 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " May God be pitiful ! " Jimmy said reverently. " How 
 bad is it?" 
 
 Leleu roused himself. 
 
 " It is one of the nuns in the convent. The children 
 must be scattered. 1 " 
 
 Jimmy strode to the telephone. 
 
 " Oh, if that 's all," he said, with recurring buoyancy. 
 " I thought, from the way you took it, that the youngster 
 must be nearly gone. I '11 telephone to Patsy." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " To see what she thinks of Agatha's coming straight 
 to us. You can't well have her here, going out to your 
 meals and all. Our house is the proper place for the child." 
 
 But Leleu protested. 
 
 " You can't. Think of the danger ! " 
 
 " Danger be hanged ! We Ve both of us been freshly 
 vaccinated. Patsy's arm was fit for a giant, and mine re- 
 fused to take. We 're all right. Besides, the youngster 
 very likely has never been near the nun. Moreover," and 
 Jimmy took down the receiver ; " Agatha is my godchild, 
 and I propose, if Patsy 's willing, to have a finger in her 
 training while I can." 
 
 " But if she should take it ? " 
 
 Still holding the receiver, Jimmy faced about, regardless 
 of the voice of Central, who was vainly clamouring for the 
 number desired. 
 
 " She has been vaccinated ; has n't she ? w 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And it took?" 
 
 " Superbly." 
 
 Jimmy faced about again to the wall. 
 
 "Very well. Then the risk is reduced to its lowest 
 terms. What is left of it, we '11 leave in the arms of Patsy 
 and on the knees of the gods. Yes, Central. Ready ? 
 Well, give me Nine-eight-seven."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 293 
 
 His telephoning completed, Jimmy came forward and 
 dropped into a chair by the fire. 
 
 "It's a great source of comfort to have a Patsy," he 
 observed. " One can always count on her, you know." 
 And his happy eyes, fixed upon the blazing coals, took 
 no heed of the fact that Leleu winced at the words as at 
 a blow. 
 
 In all truth, in such a crisis as this present one, it was 
 no joyous thing for a man whose wife was yet living in the 
 city, to be forced to make over his child to the care of 
 another. Leleu's passionate devotion would have chosen 
 to keep Agatha all for his own. Such a course, however, 
 was entirely out of the question. He could not absent 
 himself from his office for whole days at a time. Neither 
 could the child, for whole hours at a time, be left to shift 
 for herself. Jimmy's offer, unexpected, generous and 
 fraught with danger to himself and Patience, was the ideal 
 solution of the problem. Leleu, as the days passed by and 
 he saw the loving discipline under which Patience kept his 
 little girl, was ready to admit as much to himself. 
 
 Sir Moms Plante, meanwhile, was an avowed mystery to 
 them all. On the morning after the disease had appeared 
 upon the Grande Allee, Jimmy and Patience had come 
 down to breakfast with their minds reluctantly braced to 
 say farewell to their welcome guest. To their surprise, 
 Sir Moms ignored his own plans completely, although his 
 jovial face grew grave, as he spoke of the peril hanging 
 over the city. Jimmy at last broached the question. 
 
 " I suppose you 11 begin to pack, to-day, Sir Morris." 
 
 " What for ? Are you going to turn me out ? " 
 
 " No. Of course, we 'd hate your going. Still, I con- 
 fess it is about the safest thing you can find to do." 
 
 With delicate precision, Sir Morris chipped the end of 
 his egg. 
 
 " I don't want to force myself upon a reluctant hostess,"
 
 294 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 he remarked then. " However, I 've no intention of 
 going away, until you order me out, Mrs. Lord. Fact is, 
 it is anything but the safest thing for me to do. I 've 
 been vaccinated up to the limit ; I 'm probably immune. 
 Moreover, if I'm to be exposed at all, the deed is very 
 likely done by this time. It strikes me that it is a long 
 way more sensible for me to stay here and take it as it 
 comes, where they have learned the trick of nursing it, 
 than it would be to go bolting off to spread it somewhere 
 else. No ; I think I '11 stop here." And he attacked his 
 egg with appetite. When the last of it was swallowed, he 
 looked up again, with an odd, uncertain little smile play- 
 ing about his lips. " Besides," he added boyishly ; " I 'd 
 feel easier to stay and see you through it. A chap does n't 
 get too many friends like you, you know." 
 
 The carnival season had been only just at hand, when 
 the epidemic had crept up into the upper town. Mid-Lent 
 had sounded, when the Ursuline Convent had scattered its 
 pupils, and a late Easter found the disease still gaining 
 ground. By early May, a health map of the city would 
 have resembled the face of one stricken with the disease in 
 its most virulent type. And still the doctors fought, 
 bravely, ceaselessly and all in vain. The tide of disease 
 rose higher and higher yet. 
 
 Over the whole city lay an atmosphere of tense waiting. 
 As the spring days dragged slowly by, no one realized the 
 full horror of the present, no one sought to forecast the 
 future. Society had ceased to be. Each man went about 
 his business, with a dazed and dogged determination to 
 keep his house in order for whatever might befall. For 
 many in those May days, this detailed attention to routine 
 was all that saved from madness. As yet it was too soon 
 to count the gaps in the ranks. For the time being, 
 horror ousted grief. 
 
 Nature, that spring, seemed in a curiously callous mood.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 295 
 
 Never had the sunshine rioted more gayly among the tall 
 gray walls, gilding the crosses which seemed powerless to 
 save, playing bo-peep among the streets where Death 
 stalked to and fro. In the Ring, the fountain plashed 
 merrily, and, above the fountain, the leaves whispered to- 
 gether their sweet spring secrets, while along the Sainte 
 Foy Road, the squirrels frisked over the fences in a very 
 abandonment of joy. Alone of all of Nature's children, 
 the human race seemed smitten. Everywhere else was the 
 glad spring life. And yet, day after day, along the Sainte 
 Foy and Cap Rouge Roads, the very squirrels were 
 frightened and scurried away to hide themselves, as again 
 and again there crept past them the little knot of mourners, 
 going forth to bury their dead. 
 
 And then all at once, no one could say how or why, the 
 tide began to recede. The doctors, bony shoulder to bony 
 shoulder, began to lessen the pressure upon their lips. 
 As the days crept by, even they breathed more freely, 
 while, upon rare occasions, one heard the old-time beat 
 of heels upon the terrace, or an old-time careless laugh. 
 By the end of another week, men whispered to one another 
 that the tide was surely ebbing. 
 
 And then, one morning when May was waning with the 
 tide, Jimmy Lord lay with his lazy eyes fixed on Patience, 
 as she passed and repassed before the open doorway of her 
 dressing-room. When her dressing was done, down to 
 the very last pin, he hailed her in his wonted jovial 
 voice. 
 
 " Keep your distance, Patsy, and bundle Sir Morris and 
 Agatha out of the house as soon as ever you can. I'm 
 cold and hot, and hot and cold, and my back is aching 
 its predestined ache. Clear out as fast as you can, and, 
 when you 're safe, telephone somewhere for a nurse. It 
 won't be bad ; but it's just as catching." And, rising on 
 his elbow, he tossed her a farewell kiss.
 
 296 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 By noon, Sir Morris and little Agatha were settled in a 
 farmhouse in the mountains beyond Lorette, Agatha in 
 wild hilarity over the prospect of a holiday alone with 
 Uncle Morris, Sir Morris decidedly sheepish in the face of 
 his young ward. In a room in the extreme top of the 
 house, a nurse in cap and vast, close pinafore was in 
 charge of Jimmy who already was tossing to and fro in 
 fever. And down-stairs, within reach and hearing, although 
 beyond a barrier of doors and sheets reeking of carbolic, 
 Patience Lord and Stanwood Tyler were bravely facing 
 the chances of the next three weeks. 
 
 Four days later, it was officially announced that Jimmy 
 Lord was suffering from the mildest possible case of 
 discrete small-pox.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN 
 
 LIKE many another householder in the stricken city, 
 Arline had left town long before Easter. Even 
 under the most conventional conditions, her presence 
 there could do no real good to any one. Brooke had 
 assured her that Agatha, in Jimmy's home, was well and 
 guarded from every cljance of danger. Leleu, vibrating 
 like a pendulum between his office and his room, was in 
 no especial peril, and the Brooke Lords had already gone 
 to their cottage on the Island. In any case, Arline could 
 have seen no reason against her following the general 
 exodus. In the present state of family disruption, reasons 
 ceased to exist. Accordingly, she closed her house in 
 haste and, keeping her servants with her, went to settle 
 in a little house far down on the southern side of the 
 Island, where the telephone formed her sole connection 
 with the city. 
 
 Thither, one afternoon in early May, St. Just had fol- 
 lowed her. She had taken pains to leave no address in 
 town. Not even were her letters to be sent after her. 
 No telling what infection might lurk in the postman's bag. 
 Only the Brooke Lords knew of her present quarters. Ac- 
 cordingly, it was with unfeigned surprise that she met 
 St. Just who, braving the dubious delights of the short 
 sail and the long drive, smiling and debonnair as always, 
 presented himself at her door, one afternoon in May. 
 
 If the truth had been told, more than half of the secrecy 
 and haste of Arline's departure had been aimed at Achille
 
 298 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 St. Just. His fervid attentions long since had begun to 
 bore her. Now they were getting upon her nerves. He 
 was always eager and respectful. He demanded nothing 
 but what she might choose to give him. However, give 
 him much or little, he never seemed fully satisfied and, 
 furthermore, his manner, in some undefinable fashion, was 
 beginning to assume that all things might be his for the 
 asking. When she was in his presence, Arline enjoyed 
 his society to the full. He was clever and never cloying. 
 Apart from him, however, and more especially of late, she 
 had begun to feel as if, thread by thread, he were enwrap- 
 ping her in a silken net which in time would cover her 
 completely. Of her ability to break that net she felt no 
 doubt ; it was only that the effort which would be in- 
 volved would be distasteful to her, distasteful, too, the 
 sight of the heap of tattered meshes. 
 
 Arline had walked the house, until dawn had broken 
 over the night which had followed her meeting Leleu 
 upon the terrace. No dawn was in her mood, however, 
 only the blackness of midnight and of despair. She had 
 been inexpressibly shocked at the sight of Leleu, at his 
 look of utter wretchedness, shocked by his evident emo- 
 tion. Her own heart had leaped wildly, as her eyes had 
 lain on his. Then she had steeled herself and pulled her 
 eyes away. It was Leleu, who had left her, not she Leleu. 
 It was Leleu who must come back. How could she well 
 come back, she asked herself bitterly, when she was already 
 there ? For weeks and months, the house, the servants, 
 even she herself had waited there in vain. Leleu had 
 made no sign. And as for St. Just, he was the friend of 
 her husband's student days. What wonder that he should 
 come to seek her in her trouble? She had hoped that 
 Leleu might hear of his frequent calls. If her husband 
 really did distrust St. Just, then what more swift way 
 could she take to bring him back to guard her ? If he
 
 Hearts and Creeds 299 
 
 did not distrust St. Just, then what harm in her receiving 
 the Frenchman's calls? Arline was satisfied with her 
 logic. Nevertheless, she would have chosen that Leleu 
 should have received rumours of the calls, rather than that 
 he should have met them pacing to and fro together 
 on the terrace. And Leleu had looked so old, so wan, 
 so ill. 
 
 Then, as the gray morning light broke over the room, 
 its first gleam rested upon the long mirror before which 
 she had chanced to pause. For an instant, Arline had 
 stared with dull unrecognition at the picture so faintly 
 reflected there, at the elaborate dinner gown, at the hag- 
 gard face with its glowing eyes and tight-drawn lips. 
 Then, swiftly moving aside until the picture had vanished, 
 she sank down into a chair and bowed her head upon her 
 clasped bare arms. In that night just ending, pride and 
 womanhood had met and grappled to the death. Every 
 fibre and nerve of her womanly nature were crying out, 
 bidding her to recall Leleu to his overthrown allegiance, 
 bidding her to go to him, even, and pray for a pardon 
 which too many men would refuse to give. Her pride 
 bade her to wait in silence. It was Leleu who had gone 
 away. It was for Leleu, then, to return. And yet? And 
 yet ? For her womanhood went rushing backward and 
 forward over the memory of his gentlehood and love and 
 care, then came sweeping back upon her with the sure 
 knowledge that the fault, in its beginning, had been all 
 her own. 
 
 And in its end ? Her pride rose up, revolting. 
 
 Quietly she lifted her head. Then she crossed the room 
 to change her gown for the simpler dress of the morning. 
 As yet, the battle had but just begun. 
 
 However, after breakfast that morning, she wrote a 
 hasty note to St. Just, telling him that, for the next 
 month, she should keep no day at home. For some reason
 
 300 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 which she would have been loath to analyze, she was 
 unwilling to subject him to the " not at home " which was 
 to bar the door to her other guests. 
 
 With the first outbreak of the epidemic, St. Just had 
 had important business which had summoned him to Mon- 
 treal. The business, dragging itself along from day to 
 day, had yielded only to repeated telegrams calling him 
 back to his desk, and Arline had already left the city before 
 he returned. Accordingly, she had felt the more acute 
 surprise, when she had seen him standing on her steps. 
 
 A week later, he came again, and, a week later, still 
 again. In the midst of his third visit, Arline had been 
 summoned to the telephone. St. Just had grown tired 
 of sitting alone on the veranda, by the time she returned 
 to her chair. When she did return, he was frightened at 
 her pallor. 
 
 " You have had bad news ? " he queried, as he rose. 
 
 She bowed her head. 
 
 "Jimmy is ill." 
 
 He felt no need for question. Nevertheless, 
 
 " The universal enemy ? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes. He was taken, three or four days ago ; but they 
 have not been sure, until to-day. It was slow in coming 
 out. Just at the very first, though, they sent Agatha 
 away to the mountains with Sir Morris Plante." 
 
 " Why not here to you ? " St. Just made incisive 
 question. 
 
 The question, cutting across her sorrowful anxiety, left 
 poison in its scar. The old edge rang hard in Arline's 
 voice, as she answered, 
 
 " Because Sir Morris will exert no harmful influence. 1 " 
 
 "And you would?"" St. Just supplemented, with a 
 light laugh. 
 
 The blood swept up across her cheeks, drowning their 
 pallor in its crimson tide.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 301 
 
 " So they say," she replied haughtily. " It seems I 
 have no rights, even where my own child is concerned." 
 
 St. Just dropped his eyes, then his voice. 
 
 "He has been hard with you, Madame Leleu, hard 
 and 1 ' 
 
 " I beg your pardon." Arline's voice was icy now, her 
 head held high. " I think you forget, Monsieur St. Just, 
 of whom you are speaking." 
 
 If he quailed at her tone, at least he did not show it. 
 His answer was fearless, albeit humble. 
 
 " No," he said gravely ; " I can never forget. Neither 
 can I forget how completely he has forgotten you." 
 
 And Arline grew white once more, as her eyes clouded 
 and fell from his face. When she spoke again, it was to 
 recur to the subject of Jimmy. 
 
 " Patience telephoned to Brooke ; he sent the message 
 on to me. They say that Jimmy's case is very light, that 
 he is scarcely ill at all." 
 
 " Where is he ? " St. Just asked as, disregarding Arline's 
 gesture towards a chair, he still stood leaning against the 
 rail. 
 
 " At home, in their house on Des Carrieres Street. He 
 is on the top floor, with a nurse and a telephone. It is 
 the room Mr. Tyler usually has, you know, and the tele- 
 phone was already there in the room." 
 
 "That must be most convenient, and reassuring, too, 
 for Mrs. Lord," St. Just observed courteously. " Where 
 has she gone ? " 
 
 " Nowhere." 
 
 " She has not remained in the house ? " St. Just's tone 
 was incredulous. 
 
 " Yes. She and her brother are on the lowest floor. 
 Brooke says there are all manner of disinfectants, and that 
 Patience insisted she must stay, to be in reach in case of 
 need."
 
 302 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Mrs. Lord is very loyal," St. Just remarked. 
 
 "Very hysterical, you would better say," Arline cor- 
 rected him. " I believe in loyalty. This seems to me to 
 be hysterical and rather sentimental. She can do no good ; 
 she only exposes herself for nothing, and to what ? " 
 
 Even St. Just's voice dropped, as he made grave 
 answer, 
 
 " To death." 
 
 Arline shivered. 
 
 " And death is n't the worst of it. Even before I left 
 town, I saw such hideous faces on the street. Do you 
 know, if I were taken, I think I 'd pray to die, rather than 
 run the risk of living and being so scarred. Patience 
 has no right to run the risk of such a thing. If she is 
 careless of herself, she should have a little mercy upon her 
 friends." 
 
 St. Just bowed gallantly. 
 
 "Mrs. Lord has less to guard from risk than has 
 Madame Leleu," he said in French. 
 
 Arline smiled. 
 
 " That is for you to say," she answered, also in French. 
 Then swiftly she changed to English, while, rising, she 
 began to pace the veranda with lithe and noiseless steps. 
 " After all, it is no subject for pretty speeches, Monsieur 
 St. Just. Patience is in danger. She has no right, for a 
 sentimental whim, to put herself within the possibility of 
 such disfigurement. Jimmy is best off with a nurse. 
 Patience should never think of seeing him. What good 
 would she do ? And a man does n't care to be coddled. 
 Really, it 's absurd. Some one ought to bring her to 
 reason." 
 
 St. Just stooped to pick up his hat. 
 
 " But why not you ? " he asked. 
 
 " I ? " She laughed bitterly. " Patience and I under- 
 stand each other far too well to influence each other.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 303 
 
 She knows what I think of her hysterical way of treating 
 Jimmy like a petty god, so what is the use of my remind- 
 ing her of the fact now ? " 
 
 "None, I fear. But I must say farewell. I am sorry 
 to leave you in such alarm."" 
 
 Arline frowned. 
 
 "I am not alarmed, Monsieur St. Just. I am vexed, 
 annoyed at Patience ; that is all."" 
 
 " But the trouble is the same, call it what you will," he 
 told her, as he bowed above her hand. " In any case, 
 command me. No one would be more glad to help 
 than I." 
 
 Without speaking, she drew her hand away. St. Just 
 pressed his last words yet once again. 
 
 " You believe me ? " he urged insistently. 
 
 She raised her eyes to his, and forced herself to smile. 
 
 " Oh, yes, certainly," she assented, with a studied care- 
 lessness. " Thank you, yes. And good-by." 
 
 It was three full weeks before St. Just came again, and 
 the cause of his delay lurked in her carelessness. He had 
 determined that it would be good for them both to have 
 Arline miss him for a time and, more than that, to realize 
 that she did miss him. For three long weeks, he left her 
 quite alone. Then, one June evening, when she sat on the 
 veranda looking out across the moonlit lawn and the 
 shining liver, he came upon her, unannounced. His lips 
 were smiling, and his eyes as well ; but back of the smile 
 in his eyes there lurked an expression which boded little 
 good for the peace of Arline Leleu. 
 
 And Arline met him with unstudied eagerness. The 
 days of her exile were dragging heavily ; she longed for 
 news from the city, most of all from Amedee Leleu. Of 
 his welfare, however, she was too proud to ask Brooke 
 Lord, and Brooke Lord had told her, months ago, that 
 never again should he mention to her her husband's name.
 
 304 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 In the endless days of idleness when she saw no one from 
 morning to night, no one, at least, save the servants of her 
 household, Arline had space to think of Leleu, to ponder 
 at length upon his character, and upon the risks he must 
 have run, going to and fro to his office, day by day, in 
 that plague-stricken city. And if She stitched away 
 at her bit of embroidery more diligently than ever. Even 
 St. Just would have been a welcome guest. At least, he 
 broke the monotony, and, too, he came from the city and 
 was a bearer of tidings. It grew too dark to set more 
 stitches in her embroidery ; it was too warm to go inside 
 the lighted house. She sat on the veranda and watched 
 the shifting moonlight, and chafed, chafed ceaselessly at 
 her remoteness from all which aforetime had gone to make 
 up her life. 
 
 " Madame is quite alone and enjoying the moonlight ? " 
 St. Just's voice asked suddenly in French. 
 
 Arline gave a slight start. Over the thick, soft turf, 
 his step had been inaudible, and already he stood close at 
 her side, with the light of the full moon striking across 
 his eager, nervous face. 
 
 " Monsieur St. Just ! You have come upon me like a 
 ghost," she said, with a little laugh, as she gave him her 
 hand. 
 
 St. Just bowed over their clasped fingers. 
 
 "Rather call it something less unwelcome,"" he de- 
 murred. 
 
 She laughed again. 
 
 " Surely not an angel unawares, 11 she answered lightly. 
 " I did n't know you posed for that, Monsieur St. Just. 11 
 
 Deliberately he seated himself in the chair at her side. 
 
 " Unawares ; but not, I hope, unwelcome, 11 he observed. 
 " It is long since I was here. 11 
 
 " The remedy was in your hands, 11 Arline reminded 
 him.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 305 
 
 Without speaking, he turned to gaze at her, steadily 
 and long. Then, still without speaking, he turned his 
 eyes away and fixed them on the white sail of a little boat, 
 beating up through the southern channel at the foot of 
 the wide lawn. 
 
 " Not altogether," he said briefly then. 
 
 " But why ? Surely I never urged you not to come," 
 she answered, still in the same careless tone she had used 
 from the first. 
 
 Again came the little pause. 
 
 " Not in words." 
 
 "How then?" 
 
 Once more, he fixed his eyes upon her face, and, even in 
 the moonlight, the eyes looked greedy. 
 
 "There are ways more elusive than words, yet far more 
 potent. It was those ways by which you assured me that 
 my presence was not needful to you." 
 
 In the still, white moonlight, he saw her wince, saw the 
 faint colour rise across her cheeks ; but her voice was 
 under perfect control, as she replied, 
 
 "And so, by staying away, you thought to make it 
 more needful ? " 
 
 " I did," he answered boldly. 
 
 In his turn, he winced at her laugh, and at her words, 
 
 " Pardon me, Monsieur St. Just ; but is n't your social 
 method a bit too obvious to be successful ? " 
 
 He lowered his voice. 
 
 " In desperate cases one takes refuge in the obvious." 
 
 Still smiling, she rose to her feet. 
 
 " And do you call this a desperate case ? " she inquired 
 languidly. " If so forgive me the desperation must 
 be wholly upon your side. I find it rather amusing." 
 
 Of necessity, he too had risen. Now, as she turned 
 away, he put out a detaining hand. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " he demanded shortly. 
 
 20
 
 306 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " To the hall for a wrap. It is growing chilly. 11 
 
 " Wait ! " he said comraandingly. " I have something 
 still to say. 11 
 
 She barely glanced at him ; but the glance assured her 
 that his eyes were glowing, his lips unsteady. She felt 
 his mood seeking to dominate her own, yet she held 
 herself braced to meet it. 
 
 "Something sufficiently important to make it worth 
 while for me to wait in the cold ? " she queried, and her 
 lips still showed their mocking, careless smile. 
 
 The smile maddened him. Swiftly he stepped forward 
 and laid his hand on hers. 
 
 " Yes, Arline, 11 he said quite low. " Yes, it is. 11 
 
 With a passionless disdain, she shook away his hand. 
 
 " Speak quickly, then, 11 she bade him ; " and please 
 be good enough to remember that I am Madame 
 Leleu. 11 
 
 Notwithstanding the rebuff, his eyes never wavered, and 
 his words came clear and distinct across the silence. 
 
 " In name, yes ; but not in fact. 11 
 
 Tiger-like, she turned upon him and stood poised, as if 
 for a spring. Her speech was crisp, sharp. 
 
 " Explain yourself, Monsieur St. Just. 11 
 
 For an instant, he quailed. Then his voice lowered 
 again, and became indescribably gentle and caressing. 
 
 "What need to explain, Arline? Your husband has 
 abandoned you. You know I am standing near you, only 
 waiting to offer you the love which he "" 
 
 " Stop ! " And Arline, drawn to her full height, raised 
 her hand imperiously. " You ! You dare say you love 
 me? You!" 
 
 The ringing scorn in her tone, the defiance of her 
 queenly form, stung him to insolent retort. 
 
 I? Yes. Who else? 11 
 
 Anger, the outraged anger born of generations of clean
 
 Hearts and Creeds 307 
 
 living, was in the poise of her head, in the glitter of her 
 violet eyes, in her hard, cold voice. 
 
 " You ! " she said again, and no one syllable could ever 
 hold more furious scorn. " But I am the wife of Amedee 
 Leleu." 
 
 " What sort of a wife ? " he sneered. 
 
 She turned upon him haughtily. In that one instant 
 of his question, the memory of the past months stood off 
 from her as stands the vision of a nightmare when one has 
 awakened from sleep. 
 
 " The true and loyal wife." 
 
 His answer was full of quiet sarcasm. 
 
 " At least, Madame Leleu, your own methods are not 
 obvious. 1 " 
 
 During a long moment, she looked down at him as from 
 a measureless height. Then she made answer, 
 
 " Will you be silent ? Your words, your very presence 
 is an insult to me. Your rebuke is worthy of you, and yet 
 it has its bit of truth. I am disloyal to my husband, dis- 
 loyal to him in allowing a man like you to defile his house 
 with your presence. Go, and never let me see your face 
 again! " 
 
 " But, after these long weeks " he urged. 
 
 Her lip curled. 
 
 " Weeks of what ? " she demanded. 
 
 " Weeks of an intimacy which has been to me like " 
 
 Again he quailed at her gesture. When she spoke, 
 however, her voice was level and cold. 
 
 " Once and for all, I tell you this. Your society is 
 hideous to me, the sight of you an insult. I have allowed 
 your calls God knows why. Still, at least, he does 
 know this, that never in my life did I dream that such a 
 man could creep into my experience. If I have sinned, at 
 least I am bearing my punishment, and now is the time for 
 my confession."
 
 308 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 44 And that?"" In his total misunderstanding of her 
 words, his tone grew eager. 
 
 " And that," she said slowly ; " is to go to Amedee 
 Leleu, to tell him all that has happened, all, to ask him to 
 forgive me, if he can. As for you," she turned upon him 
 once more, with rising rage ; " I hate you from the bottom 
 of my heart ; but I am grateful to you, in spite of that. 
 Your own contemptible little soul has taught me to 
 measure, as nothing else could do, the great, white soul of 
 Amedee Leleu." 
 
 Pale, his face working, St. Just yet forced his lips into 
 the likeness of a smile. He allowed Arline^s words to drop 
 into a silence. When at last he spoke, his tone was wholly 
 changed. From the passion of a fallen angel, he had 
 taken on the mockery of a taunting demon. 
 
 " Beautiful ! " he sneered. " You are most lyric, 
 Madame Leleu. Your dream is rose-coloured ; but, alas ! 
 it is only a dream, and can never be realized." 
 
 " Why ? " she demanded, with level, tolerant disdain. 
 ." Merely this : that your husband," his voice lingered 
 insultingly upon the word ; " has small-pox and lies at the 
 point of death." 
 
 For one instant, Arline's head sank. Then she pulled 
 herself together sharply. 
 
 " I refuse to believe you." 
 
 St. Just laughed. 
 
 " Madame has a telephone." 
 
 She bit her lip and hurriedly brushed off the gathering 
 tears. 
 
 "Where is he?" 
 
 " In the pest house." 
 
 She shivered. 
 
 "Where is that?" 
 
 " Rue Des Prairies, the Civic Hospital. The morgue is 
 also there," St. Just added brutally.
 
 Hearts and Creeds 309 
 
 She ignored his final words. 
 
 " Des Prairies ? Where is that ? " 
 
 " Near the Canadian Pacific station. Perhaps you in- 
 tend to go to him." 
 
 " I do." 
 
 "But the infection?" 
 
 "What of it?" 
 
 " And the danger to Madame's beauty ? " 
 
 " I am not afraid." 
 
 He raised his brows. 
 
 " Is it not what was your word ? hysterical ? " 
 
 From head to heel she swept him with her glance. St. 
 Just, base though he was, could not fail to admire her, as 
 she spoke, haughty, calm, indomitable. 
 
 " Monsieur St. Just, as you know, I have wronged my 
 husband. For the sake of his forgiveness, I would brave 
 all things, this side the grave. Kindly oblige me by leav- 
 ing me, for I must make my arrangements to go up to the 
 city at once." 
 
 He turned. Then, of a sudden, his love for her, the 
 only love of which his worthless soul had ever shown it- 
 self capable, leaped up in his eyes and in his voice. Half 
 involuntarily and with the gesture of a terrified child, he 
 caught at a fold of her dress. 
 
 " Arline," he begged ; " for your own sake, I implore 
 you not to go into such certain death." 
 
 Calmly she put away his hand. 
 
 " Be silent," she said, with quiet, queenly dignity. " I 
 am going to see my husband." 
 
 Then all at once St. Just laughed, loudly and harshly. 
 
 " Unless he is already dead," he retorted. 
 
 Then he went away, leaving his words to ring through 
 and through Arline's brain for all the dreary, endless 
 night.
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT 
 
 " T OOK at your roses, dearest. One has dropped, 
 ^ dropped, dropped. The leaves are dropping down 
 through the floor of heaven into hell. Catch them. 
 They are so white and soft, too white to go to that scorch- 
 ing flame. See ! There is another, falling, falling. And 
 it tires me to fall so far. What makes me drop? I am 
 going down, down, down, from heaven into the deep, 
 dark places where I shall be afraid. Hold me, dearest. 
 You can hold me, if you will, hold me forever and ever 
 and ever in heaven where it is always light and where the 
 roses are always in blossom, white and sweet. Just see 
 them there, dearest, white and heavy with dew ! You are 
 like a rose, yourself, in your heavy white gown, and your 
 veil is like the sparkling dew. And I am only a loosened 
 petal, falling away from you. Hold me, dearest, hold 
 me with care. It is terrible to be dropping, dropping, 
 always dropping down through the floor of heaven. And 
 it is so far. I had no thought that it could take so long 
 to go from heaven down to hell. Dearest! Dearest! 
 Stretch your hand out to me and catch me back, before 
 it is too late. No ! No ! Don't trample me beneath 
 your feet. Crushed petals only fall the faster. Dearest, 
 you are crushing me, crushing me till all my life is gone, 
 and all the time the petals are falling down from the 
 bunch of roses in your hands." 
 
 Although it was long past dark, the room beneath the 
 metal mansard roof was fiercely hot. The one small
 
 Hearts and Creeds 311 
 
 window stood wide open in the hope of letting out the 
 air, tainted with disease and laden with the reek of disin- 
 fectants. Rather than that, however, it merely served to 
 furnish admission to other reeking odours which rolled up 
 from the wasting rubbish in the yards around, from the 
 brewery and from the cattle market close at hand. In the 
 early afternoon, a heavy summer shower had swept across 
 the city. The western streets of the lower town, shielded 
 from the sun by the overhanging cliff, lay sodden and 
 soaked in the watery moonlight, and the sour, rank smell 
 of the unclean roadways mingled with the rest to form an 
 atmosphere which, it seemed, no man could breathe and 
 live. 
 
 The nurse sighed wearily, as she hung the electric light 
 in a corner and pinned a shade across its glare. Then, 
 bending over, she renewed the vaseline upon the patient's 
 face and replaced the linen cloth above. She was a young 
 nurse, and pretty, with a dainty girlish beauty which not 
 even her ugly cap and overall could entirely hide. She 
 was strong, too, in spite of her daintiness. Again and 
 again, in the last eight days, she had lifted in her vig- 
 orous young arms the man who was now tossing and 
 mumbling there in the bed. But then, he was very light. 
 Frenchmen were always small, and this man, even in the 
 first of the disease, had been thin to the very verge of 
 emaciation. The girl sighed again, and yet more wearily. 
 It was a bit cruel of fate to hold back her hardest case 
 until the last, until she was worn out, soul and mind and 
 body, by the endless weeks of nursing. 
 
 Rising, she went to the window and looked out. She 
 was a girl from the Townships, born among the hills where 
 fresh air and green fields were the heritage of every human 
 being. From her own old room on the southeast corner of 
 the house at home, she had been able to look away through 
 miles of pleasant, open country. This room, too, was on
 
 312 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 a southeast corner. Over the high board fence across the 
 road, she could peer down into a junk-filled yard. Above, 
 the city rested upon its steep rock walls. And behind 
 her, on the narrow bed in the corner farthest from the 
 window, tossed her patient who, ever and anon during the 
 eight long days he had been there, broke into babblings 
 of roses and of petals, crushed or falling. It was a case 
 of confluent small-pox, and of the worst. 
 
 Only that noon, she had stood beside the Health Officer, 
 as he had bent above the bed, and her courage had left 
 her, not alone at the sound of his words, but at the sight 
 of his kindly face, of the lips beneath his gray mustache 
 and of the misty spectacles which veiled the keen eyes. 
 
 " The fever is too high, and the delirium too constant," 
 he said slowly. " I wonder what he means about the 
 roses. There's nothing in this hole to suggest them." 
 Then he shook his head- "The case is slow, slow and 
 severe and obstinate. I have tried all the known remedies, 
 and nothing seems to act." He shook his head again. 
 Then he turned to the girl and laid one wrinkled hand 
 upon her round young wrist. " I can do no more ; it is 
 for you to fight it out. In cases such as this, it is the 
 nurse who counts. Pull yourself together," unconsciously 
 his tone grew alert ; " and do your best. In all the 
 city, there 's not a life better worth a fight than this, the 
 life of Amedee Leleu." 
 
 He turned to leave her. At the door, however, he 
 halted and looked back. 
 
 " Courage," he bade her bravely. " Who knows but we 
 shall even now win out in the end ? " 
 
 And the girl, tired to the verge of collapse, yet yielded 
 to his mood, gritted her teeth and resolved to do the best 
 that lay within her. 
 
 It was now twelve days since, late one afternoon, Amedee 
 Leleu had come crawling wearily up Haldimand Hill, wearily
 
 Hearts and Creeds 313 
 
 up the stairs and locked himself into his room. Shivering in 
 a violent chill, his cheeks were yet scarlet with the fever 
 of a half-hour before. His head was throbbing painfully, 
 the pain in his back and limbs was intolerable. As he 
 threw himself down on his bed, he felt the fever coming 
 back upon him and, fearful of its cause, he rose once more 
 to assure himself that his door was made fast against in- 
 vasion. An hour later, he was muttering to himself with 
 low and incoherent words. 
 
 All the next day, his fever raged. Now and then he 
 had an hour of delirium ; but, for the most part, he was 
 conscious, conscious of the racking pain in his head, con- 
 scious of his fixed determination to hold the door barred 
 against all comers. Even his confused brain was wholly 
 resolved upon one thing. Until the rash should come 
 and give a sickening confirmation of his fears, he would 
 keep his secret to himself. Then, if the worst became 
 the fact, he would shut his teeth and be taken to the 
 Civic Hospital. 
 
 Early, ominously early on the third day, the worst 
 became the fact. Leleu's eyes rested on his hands ; 
 then, weakened by the fever though he was, he rose 
 and crawled across to the mirror. Sick at heart, once 
 more he crept into bed, where he lay listening for steps 
 to pass his door. 
 
 With the coming of the rash, the fever had gone, 
 and with it the delirium. His mind was clear, and it 
 worked unceasingly. He had supposed the epidemic was 
 past, that the danger was over. During the past weeks, 
 he had borne himself with a recklessness which had taken 
 no thought of possible infection. Asked then, he would 
 have said unhesitatingly that he cared not whether he 
 lived or died. Now, in the face of the disease, he was 
 conscious of a wild longing to live at any price. Of a 
 sudden, he felt convinced that life still held in its keeping
 
 314 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 much for him. He clung fast to the idea, though of its 
 nature he took no account. So far as human will could 
 go, however, he made a grim resolve that he would not. 
 must not die. 
 
 Nevertheless, lying there and staring at his reddened 
 hands, he was keenly alive to the greatness of his danger. 
 Everything warned him of it : the intense pain and fever 
 he had suffered, the early rash, and the great patches of 
 its blistered skin. He had not lived in the city through- 
 out the epidemic, to be left in ignorance regarding its 
 distinctive symptoms. His would be no case like that 
 of Jimmy Lord, who had passed from exuberant health 
 through slight disease to speedy convalescence, while 
 Patience, safe and well, had maintained her watch below. 
 Then he bit his lip, as he thought of Arline. But, at least, 
 she was safe. Perhaps, after all, it was best as it was. 
 
 And meanwhile, moment by moment, he was listening 
 for steps outside his door. They had come so often, 
 during the past two days, and with them had come a 
 voice offering food, demanding admission. And Leleu 
 had nerved himself to make brave answer. He was quite 
 well, only a little tired. He had wine there, and biscuits. 
 He needed nothing else. And then the steps had gone 
 away again, treading softly, reluctantly down the stairs. 
 Now, as he lay and waited for their coming, he imagined 
 their wild retreat, the murmur of hasty council below, the 
 tumult which would fill the house. Then the door would 
 open and other steps would mount the stairs, heavy, de- 
 liberate steps marking the man in authority. And then ? 
 He drew the sheet across his face. Best not to imagine 
 the rest. He knew the outside of the Civic Hospital well. 
 There were two, no, three doors on the street and eight 
 windows sandwiched in between, and the metal mansard 
 was pierced with more windows still, a whole long line of 
 them. The hideous old ambulance whose better days, for-
 
 Hearts and Creeds 315 
 
 ever dead, had reduced it to a creaking wreck, was scarcely 
 fit to transport beasts for market, much less a man in need 
 of careful nursing. The past months must have told upon 
 its aged frame. He had not seen it lately ; but doubtless 
 it was still in use. And the steps in the hall were very 
 slow in coming. 
 
 Then they had come, and he had called out his fearful 
 tidings, and the steps had fled in fear. From that time 
 on, everything had come to pass just as he had foreseen : 
 the tumult in the house, the summons to the doctor, the 
 coming of the Health Officer, brisk and kindly and effi- 
 cient, then the ambulance and the hideous, jolting prog- 
 ress down by Palace Hill. It had been a heavy morning, 
 and he could still smell the rank odour of the brewery 
 which swept down upon him as the ambulance jogged 
 by its long brick front. He had wondered vaguely if 
 the wraith of Intendant Bigot ever revisited its former 
 haunts, and if it felt no pity when it looked on such as 
 he. Nevertheless, it had been wholly of his choice that 
 he had been taken to the Civic Hospital. Homeless, 
 alone, he could not in honour bring to aliens the dan- 
 ger of infection, and the Health Officer had promised 
 him the best nurse to be found in the entire city. The 
 place, of course, was horrible ; but to Leleu there had 
 seemed no choice. 
 
 And now eight days had passed, eight days of racking 
 pain and of fever that had mounted high and ever higher. 
 For four whole days, Leleu had kept strict account of time. 
 Then, of a sudden, he had been swept into a fiery dark- 
 ness where time had ceased to be. Only now and then 
 the darkness had cracked a little, and, by the light which 
 came sifting in through the cracks, he could see Arline 
 advancing towards him, her ringless hands clasped close 
 around the great white roses whose petals dropped un- 
 ceasingly. Sometimes he watched the falling petals with
 
 316 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 anxious, piteous eyes ; sometimes he was a petal, himself, 
 and fell down, down into a lurid darkness which ended 
 by shutting out Arline from his imploring gaze. And all 
 day long upon the seventh day, and all day long upon 
 the eighth, he had fallen, fallen, and, falling, had babbled 
 on about the roses. 
 
 " Unless this ends before to-morrow night," the doctor 
 said, on the eighth morning after Leleu's removal to the 
 Civic Hospital; "unless this ends by then, our fighting 
 chance has gone." 
 
 And the nurse, as she pinned the red paper shade about 
 the light, echoed his belief. 
 
 Slowly the night wore on, and the babbling never 
 ceased. Now and then the nurse bathed the patient's 
 face and renewed the cloths ; now and then she crossed 
 the room to the window, where she stood looking up 
 at the black mass of the Hotel Dieu above, wondering 
 what the coming day would bring. And then, just as the 
 dawn began to streak the East, just as the faint sound of 
 the first matin bell tinkled out upon the silent city, the 
 babbling ended, and the room grew strangely silent. 
 
 And, meanwhile, Arline was out upon the mighty river 
 which stretched, pale gray, between its dun-gray banks. 
 
 St. Just had scarcely left the steps when, turning, she 
 entered the house, called a servant and ordered him to 
 find a carriage to take her up to the end of the Island. 
 The servant had demurred. It was already late. No 
 man would take the long drive at such an hour as that. 
 At length, though grumbling, he had yielded to the im- 
 perious will of his mistress, and Arline had hastened to 
 her room, to gather up a few essentials for her journey. 
 Then, heedless of her dinner gown and wrapped in a warm 
 cloak, she had paced to and fro, to and fro again, up and 
 down the hall, until a cab had driven to the door. 
 
 The night was far spent when Arline, stiff and cramped,
 
 Hearts and Creeds 317 
 
 stepped out of the cab upon the little steamboat landing. 
 The horse had been slow, his master indulgent. Arline, 
 sitting rigidly erect in a corner of the cab, had tried in 
 vain to urge some haste. Then she had given up, and 
 sat in silence, while the one phrase had gone pounding 
 through and through her brain, 
 " Unless he is already dead." 
 At the landing, she spoke once more. 
 " Find me a man to row me to the city," she bade the 
 driver. 
 
 He looked at her in amazement. Then he looked out 
 at the ink-black river which was hissing softly past the 
 piles beneath the pier. 
 
 " It is impossible," he said. " Madame must wait for 
 daylight and the steamer." 
 She turned upon him fiercely. 
 
 " Who told you to say it was impossible ? Find me 
 a man at once. I tell you, I will go. Besides, I will 
 pay you well." 
 
 Far away above the distant hills, the sky had turned from 
 gray to rose, as the little boat crept towards the rock- 
 bound city. The moon had set by now, and, against 
 the darker western sky, the old gray bastions and the 
 clustered spires stood out in clear relief. Low in the 
 southwest, as if above the Esplanade, one yellow star still 
 glittered. About them, the river was as yet untouched 
 by the dawn. The tide was flowing up sharply, and the 
 night breeze, sweeping down the valley, cut the dark face 
 of the water into waves that hissed about the tiny boat, 
 ever and anon lifting their heads to peep in, then tum- 
 bling back again to go leaping towards the distant sea. 
 Then the eastern sky turned from rose to flame, and sent 
 long banners of pale red light across the sky, until the 
 citadel above their heads was touched with vivid rose. 
 And, as with one final change, the east turned its flame
 
 318 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 to dazzling gold and the sun shot up over the edge of the 
 dawn, the boatman shipped his oars beside the long Saint 
 James Street pier. 
 
 No cabs were abroad at such an early hour. Arline 
 barely paused to pay the man. Then, wrapping her 
 cloak about her, and grasping her little bag, she hurried 
 to Saint Peter Street and on into Saint Paul. The Laval 
 spire above her head was tipped with rosy light; but 
 the hush of breaking dawn and something of its gloom 
 still rested upon the lower town, and its streets looked 
 unfamiliar to her eyes. Once she went astray, once she 
 halted in indecision ; but at length she stood, pale 
 and wan and determined, at the low middle door of the 
 hospital and raised her hand to ring. 
 
 Then, for one moment, her hand fell back and dropped 
 to her side. What would she find within those low brick 
 walls ? She drew one long, slow breath. Then, lifting her 
 hand once more, she rang. 
 
 The nurse, half dropping to a doze, started, as the peal 
 echoed through the silent house. Then, while she rose 
 and crossed to the window, the rasping noise of the open- 
 ing door came clearly to her ears, followed by the sound 
 of swift, low talk, of question and reply. 
 
 " He is here?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Alive?" 
 
 " I suppose." The answering voice was quite indifferent. 
 
 " I must see him." 
 
 "It is forbidden." 
 
 " No matter. I must come in." 
 
 " You will see the Health Officer ? " 
 
 "I tell you there is no time to lose. Show me his 
 room." 
 
 " Without a permit, no one " 
 
 " Let me in. I will pay. In any case, I will come."
 
 Hearts and Creeds 319 
 
 " I tell you it is impossible." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " The infection. Madame would carry it away." 
 
 " But I shall not go away. I shall stay while he 
 does. Stand away, and let me pass. But here, take 
 your money." 
 
 " It is not money. It is the law." 
 
 Then, of a sudden, the voice outside rose to a higher 
 note. 
 
 " I tell you, you must let me in. I refuse to be 
 shut out. I am his wife, the wife of Monsieur Amedee 
 Leleu." 
 
 And the words, floating in through the open window, 
 pierced the sick man's dreams. For an hour, he had been 
 sleeping quietly ; now he half opened his dark eyes, as he 
 murmured drowsily, 
 
 " Arline." 
 
 Only a moment later, a swift step came up the stairs 
 and a tap, soft, but imperious, sounded on the door. 
 Before the nurse could cross the room, the door swung 
 open and on the threshold stood Arline Leleu. Her ra- 
 diant hair, damp with the river mist, clung close about 
 her face, her cheeks were blazing now, her violet eyes 
 glowing and wet with tears. Her arms, outstretched 
 towards the narrow bed, had pushed aside her long, dark 
 cloak, showing the pale dinner gown beneath. And face 
 and eyes and poise bore witness to a new-born love which 
 had leaped into being, never more to die. 
 
 For one instant, she stood there motionless, undaunted 
 by disease, by the reek of disinfectants, by the barren 
 room, terrified only at the wild beating of her own tri- 
 umphant heart. For Leleu, roused again by the little 
 stir of her coming, had opened his dark eyes once more 
 and now lay staring at the vision which stood upon his 
 threshold.
 
 320 Hearts and Creeds 
 
 " Arline," he murmured weakly ; " have you come back 
 to me ? " 
 
 The instant's pause was ended. With a low, glad 
 sound which was neither laugh nor cry, Arline swept 
 forward to the bed, dropped down beside it and gathered 
 the thin shoulders into her strong young arms. 
 
 " Amedee," she whispered, while her tears fell fast 
 upon his face; "I have come, come back to you to be 
 forgiven." 
 
 And Leleu, lying in her arms, gazed up into her 
 eyes with eyes full of an unclouded happiness which the 
 coming years would never dim. 
 
 THE END
 
 A 000120080 7