"If I give this up"--she took from her breast the blue document--"he'd be
safe in his election, and he'd marry you: is it not so, ma'm'selle?"

"He'd be safe for his election, but he has never asked me to marry him,
and there are others besides him.--She was thinking of Tarboe. "Tell
me," she added suddenly, "to whom have you told this thing in Montreal?
Did you mean to challenge him yourself?"

"I told it only to M'sieu' Barouche, and he said he would use it at the
right moment--and the right moment has come," she added. "He asked me
for a copy of it last night, and I said I'd give it to him to-day. It's
because of him I've been here quiet all these weeks as Ma'm'selle Larue."

"He is worse than you, mademoiselle, for he has known Carnac's family,
and he has no excuse. If a man can't win his fight fairly, he oughtn't
to be in public life."

After a few dark moments, with a sudden burst of feeling, Luzanne said:
"Well, Carnac won't be out of public life through me!"

She took the blue certificate from her breast and was about to tear it
up, when Junia stopped her.

"Don't do that," Junia said, "don't tear it up yet, give it to me. I'll
tear it up at the right moment. Give it to me, my dear."

She held out her hand, and the blue certificate was presently in her
fingers. She felt a sudden weakness in her knees, for it seemed she held
the career of Carnac Grier, and it moved her as she had never been moved.