“...  Land of the Madonna: 
   How beautiful it is!  It seems a garden
   Of Paradise ...  Long years ago
   I wandered as a youth among its bowers
   And never from my heart has faded quite
   Its memory, that like a summer sunset,
   Encircles with a ring of purple light
   All the horizon of my youth.”

As Chrysler regarded him then and heard this free expression of feeling he could not but feel that Haviland was a foreigner, different from the British peoples.

“And yet,” mused Haviland, in a moment again, “Have we not a more than Italy in this beautiful country of our own?”

After weighing his companion in thought for a few moments longer, according to a habit of his, the elder man recollected another matter:—­

“You have resigned your seat in the Dominion House to enter the Provincial.  Why is that?”

“A new turn has arrived in affairs, sir.  The Honorable Genest’s fever has broken him down.  He cannot fill a place where activity is needed.  Until the fever, he was an influence, you know, in the Dominion House, while I was in the Local.  After it, he arranged that we should exchange seats, as the Legislature has latterly been so quiet.  Lately, however, Picault’s corruptionists, whom we thought crushed, have made another assault for the moneys, bullied, lied, and bribed, weighed their silver to the Iscariots, and edged Genest out of his seat.”

“Who is their man here?”

“Libergent, lawyer.  The election was annulled for frauds, but by moving the heavens and earth of the Courts they saved Libergent from disqualification, and now he appears again against us.  Our cause calls for energetic action, in the Legislature, so Genest and I are changing places back again.”

“I hope you will not be lost to us long?”

“No longer than I can help.  The national work will never cease to attract me. Is it not sublime this nation-making?—­that this generation, and particularly a few individuals like you, sir, and myself should be honored by Heaven with the task of founding a people!  It is as grand as the nebulous making of stars!”

The seigneur’s manner was full of enthusiasm.

“I can’t see it as you young men do,” Chrysler said, in an inflection suggestive of regret.  “What may we effect beyond trying to keep Government pure and prudent, and we are often powerless to do even that?  Nor can we form the future character of the people much, but must leave that to themselves, don’t you think?”

“A partial truth,” he returned, meditatively,—­“a great one too.  When I go into the country among the farmers, I often think:  ’The people are the true nation-makers.’”—­

“And Providence has apparently designed it,” the old man proceeded in his gentle strain, “to be our modest lot to follow the lead of other lands more developed and better situated.  Where do you discover anything striking in the outlook?”