bleak Gulf of St. Lawrence? Why did he teach me to read Virgil and Plato?
He did it for the best, no doubt; but I think he did wrong. He has
stirred up within me a restless evil spirit of discontent. Oh! Marie,
to think I am doomed to be a fisherman here all my life. It is hard."

"Yes, Noël, it is hard. It has always seemed to me that you with your
talents, your learning, are thrown away here. But why not go to Quebec or
Montreal? You would have a wider sphere there."

"I would go to-morrow, Marie, if it were not for one thing."

"What is that, Noël?"

"Marie, do you not know?"

"I suppose your reason is that you do not wish to leave your mother,"
said the girl hesitatingly.

"No, Marie, that is not the reason. My mother would let me go to-morrow,
if I wished."

"Then I cannot understand why you stay. You would do much better in
Quebec, you with your ability."

"You cannot understand, Marie? You do not know that it is because of
_you_, and you alone, that I stay on in this place, smothering all my
ambitions, my hopes of advancement. No, Marie, you say you do not
understand. If you spoke more truly you would say you did not care where
I went."