"You are not strong enough, Louis. You must be tranquil."

She turned now to the Governor. He made a sign to his suite, who,
bowing, slowly left the room. "Permit me to welcome you to your native
land again, Madame," he said. "You have won for it a distinction it
could never have earned, and the world gives you many honours."

She was smiling and still, and with one hand clasping her husband's, she
said:

"The honour I value most my native land has given me: I am lady of the
Manor here, and wife of the Seigneur Racine."

Agitated triumph came upon Louis Racine's face; a weird painful vanity
entered into him. He stood up beside his wife, as she turned and looked
at him, showing not a sign that what she saw disturbed her.

"It is no mushroom honour to be Seigneur of Pontiac, your Excellency," he
said, in a tone that jarred. "The barony is two hundred years old. By
rights granted from the crown of France, I am Baron of Pontiac."

"I think England has not yet recognised the title," said the Governor
suggestively, for he was here to make peace, and in the presence of this
man, whose mental torture was extreme, he would not allow himself to be
irritated.

"Our baronies have never been recognised," said the Seigneur harshly.
"And yet we are asked to love the flag of England and--"

"And to show that we are too proud to ask for a right that none can take