The Lane That Had No Turning, Complete. Gilbert Parker

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       Gilbert Parker

      The Lane That Had No Turning, Complete

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066246365

Table of Contents

       The Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier G.C.M.G.

       INTRODUCTION

       THE LANE THAT HAD NO TURNING

       CHAPTER I. THE RETURN OF MADELINETTE

       CHAPTER II. WHEN THE RED-COATS CAME

       CHAPTER III. “MAN TO MAN AND STEEL TO STEEL”

       CHAPTER IV. MADELINETTE MAKES A DISCOVERY

       CHAPTER V. WHAT WILL SHE DO WITH IT?

       CHAPTER VI. THE ONE WHO SAW

       CHAPTER VII. THE PURSUIT

       CHAPTER VIII. FACE TO FACE

       CHAPTER IX. THE BITER BITTEN

       CHAPTER X. THE DOOR THAT WOULD NOT OPEN

       THE ABSURD ROMANCE OF P’TITE LOUISON

       THE LITTLE BELL OF HONOUR

       “Sacre bapteme!”

       A SON OF THE WILDERNESS

       A WORKER IN STONE

       THE TRAGIC COMEDY OF ANNETTE

       THE MARRIAGE OF THE MILLER

       MATHURIN

       THE STORY OF THE LIME-BURNER

       THE WOODSMAN’S STORY OF THE GREAT WHITE CHIEF

       UNCLE JIM

       THE HOUSE WITH THE TALL PORCH

       PARPON THE DWARF

       TIMES WERE HARD IN PONTIAC

       MEDALLION’S WHIM

       THE PRISONER

       AN UPSET PRICE

       A FRAGMENT OF LIVES

       THE MAN THAT DIED AT ALMA

       THE BARON OF BEAUGARD

       THE TUNE McGILVERAY PLAYED

The Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier G.C.M.G.

       Table of Contents

      Dear Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Since I first began to write these tales in 1892, I have had it in my mind to dedicate to you the “bundle of life” when it should be complete. It seemed to me—and it seems so still—that to put your name upon the covering of my parcel, as one should say, “In care of,” when it went forth, was to secure its safe and considerate delivery to that public of the Empire which is so much in your debt.

      But with other feelings also do I dedicate this volume to yourself. For many years your name has stood for a high and noble compromise between the temperaments and the intellectual and social habits of two races; and I am not singular in thinking that you have done more than most other men to make the English and French of the Dominion understand each other better. There are somewhat awkward limits to true understanding as yet, but that sympathetic service which you render to both peoples, with a conscientious striving for impartiality, tempers even the wind of party warfare to the shorn lamb of political opposition.

      In a sincere sympathy with French life and character, as exhibited in the democratic yet monarchical province of Quebec, or Lower Canada (as, historically, I still love to think of it), moved by friendly observation, and seeking to be truthful and impartial, I have made this book and others dealing with the life of the proud province, which a century and a half of English governance has not Anglicised. This series of more or less connected stories, however, has been the most cherished of all my labours, covering, as it has done, so many years, and being the accepted of my anxious judgment out of a much larger gathering, so many numbers of which are retired to the seclusion of copyright, while reserved from publication. In passing, I need hardly say that the “Pontiac” of this book is an imaginary place, and has no association with the real Pontiac of the Province.

      I had meant to call the volume, “Born with a Golden Spoon,” a title stolen from the old phrase, “Born with a golden spoon in the mouth”; but at the last moment I have given the book the name of the tale which is, chronologically, the climax of the series, and the end of my narratives of French Canadian life and character. I had chosen the former title because of an inherent meaning in it relation to my subject. A man born in the purple—in comfort wealth, and secure estate—is said to have the golden spoon in his mouth. In the eyes of the world, however, the phrase has a some what ironical suggestiveness, and to have luxury, wealth, and place as a birthright