to Magon Farcinelle, farrier, farmer and member of the provincial
legislature, whose house lay behind the piece of maple wood, a mile
or so to the right of the Lavilettes' farmhouse. Farcinelle's engagement
to Sophie had come as a surprise to all, for, so far as people knew,
there had been no courting. Madame Lavilette had encouraged, had even
tempted, the spontaneous and jovial Farcinelle. Though he had never made
a speech in the House of Assembly, and it was hard to tell why he was
elected, save because everybody liked him, his official position and his
popularity held an important place in Madame Lavilette's long-developed
plans, which at last were to place her in a position equal to that of the
old seigneur, and launch her upon society at the capital.

They had gone more than once to the capital, where their family had been
well-known fifty years before, but few doors had been opened to them.
They were farmers--only farmers--and Madame Lavilette made no remarkable
impression. Her dress was florid and not in excellent taste, and her
accent was rather crude. Sophie had gone to school at the convent in the
city, but she had no ambition. She had inherited the stolid simplicity
of her English grandfather. When her schooling was finished she let her
school friends drop, and came back to Bonaventure, rather stately, given
to reading, and little inclined to bother her head about anybody.

Christine, the younger sister, had gone to Quebec also, but after a week
of rebellion, bad temper and sharp speaking, had come home again without
ceremony, and refused to return. Despite certain likenesses to her
mother, she had a deep, if unintelligible, admiration for her father,
and she never tired looking at the picture of her great-grandfather in
the dress of a chevalier of St. Louis--almost the only thing that had
been saved from the old Manor House, destroyed so long before her time.
Perhaps it was the importance she attached to her ancestry which made her