lift a hand to help him except to give him money, not John Grier's money
but my own, always that. You are fighting what is stronger than
yourself. One thing is sure, he is nearer to the spirit of your race
than you. He will win--but yes, he will win!"

Her face suffused with warmth, became alive with a wonderful fire, her
whole being had a simple tragedy. Once again, and perhaps for the last
time, she had renewed the splendour of her young womanhood. The vital
warmth of a great idea had given an expression to her face which had long
been absent from it.

He fell back from her. Then suddenly passion seized him. The gaunt
beauty of her roused a spirit of contest in him. The evil thing in him,
which her love for her son had almost conquered, came back upon him. He
remembered Luzanne, and now with a spirit alive with anger he said to
her:

"No--no--no, he cannot win." He stretched out a hand. "I have that
which will keep for me the place in Parliament that has been mine; which
will send him back to the isolation whence he came. Do you think I don't
know how to win an election? Why from east to west, from north to south
in this Province of Quebec my name, my fame, have been all-conquering.
Suppose he did defeat me, do you think that would end my political life?
It would end nothing. I should still go on."

A scornful smile came to her lips. "So you think your party would find a
seat for you who had been defeated by a young man who never knew what
political life meant till he came to this campaign? You think they would
find you a seat? I know you are coming to the end of your game, and when
he defeats you, it will finish everything for you. You will disappear