Luzanne had been in
Montreal, had been ready to destroy his chance at the polls, and Junia
had stopped it. How? Well, he should soon know. But now, at first,
for his mother.
When he entered the House on the Hill, he had a sudden shiver. Somehow,
the room where his mother had sat for so many years, and where he had
last seen his father, John Grier, had a coldness of the tomb. There was
a letter on the centre table standing against the lamp. He saw it was in
his mother's handwriting, and addressed to himself.
He tore it open, and began to read. Presently his cheeks turned pale.
More than once he put it down, for it seemed impossible to go on, but
with courage he took it up again and read on to the end.
"God--God in Heaven!" he broke out when he had finished it. For a long
time he walked the floor, trembling in body and shaking in spirit. "Now
I understand everything," he said at last aloud in a husky tone. "Now I
see what I could not see--ah yes, I see at last!"
For another time of silence and turmoil he paced the floor, then he
stopped short. "I'm glad they both are dead," he said wearily. Thinking
of Barode Barouche, he had a great bitterness. "To treat any woman so--
how glad I am I fought him! He learned that such vile acts come home at
last."
Then he thought of John Grier. "I loathed him and loved him always," he
said with terrible remorse in his tone.
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