CHAPTER II.

THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.


A young man stepped forward and greeted him heartily. It was the
"Chamilly" Haviland of whom they had been speaking.

Mr. Chrysler and he were members together of the Dominion Parliament and
the present visit was the outcome of a special purpose. "It is a pity
the rest of the country does not know my people more closely," Haviland
wrote in his invitation:--"If you will do my house the honor of your
presence, I am sure there is much of their life to which we could
introduce you."

"I am delighted you arrive at this time;" he exclaimed. "My election is
coming." And he talked cheerfully and busied himself making the visitor
comfortable in his drag.

As luck will have it, the enactment of one of the old local customs
occurs as they sit waiting for room to drive off the pier. The rustic
gathering of Lower-Canadian _habitants_ who are crowding it with their
native ponies and hay-carts and their stuff-coated, deliberate persons,
is beginning to break apart as the steamer swings heavily away. The
pedestrians are already stringing off along the road and each jaunty
Telesphore and Jacques, the driver of a horse, leaps jovially into his
cart; but all the carts are halting a moment by some curious common
accord. Why is this?