Young Paul Dumont worshipped Carey , and the half-Scotch mother , who might have understood , was dead . In all the Flats there were but two people who disapproved of the match they thought an assured thing . One of these was the little priest , Father Gabriel . He liked Tannis , and he liked Carey ; but he shook his head dubiously when he heard the gossip of the shacks and teepees . Religions might mingle , but the different bloods -- ah , it was not the right thing ! Tannis was a good girl , and a beautiful one ; but she was no fit mate for the fair , thorough-bred Englishman . Father Gabriel wished fervently that Jerome Carey might soon be transferred elsewhere . He even went to Prince Albert and did a little wire-pulling on his own account , but nothing came of it . He was on the wrong side of politics . The other malcontent was Lazarre M&eacute;rim&eacute;e , a lazy , besotted French half-breed , who was , after his fashion , in love with Tannis . He could never have got her , and he knew it -- old Auguste and young Paul would have incontinently riddled him with bullets had he ventured near the house as a suitor , -- but he hated Carey none the less , and watched for a chance to do him an ill-turn . There is no worse enemy in all the world than a half-breed . Your true Indian is bad enough , but his diluted descendant is ten times worse . As for Tannis , she loved Carey with all her heart , and that was all there was about it . If Elinor Blair had never gone to Prince Albert there is no knowing what might have happened , after all . Carey , so powerful in propinquity , might even have ended by learning to love Tannis and marrying her , to his own worldly undoing . But Elinor did go to Prince Albert , and her going ended all things for Tannis of the Flats . Carey met her one evening in September , when he had ridden into town to attend a dance , leaving Paul Dumont in charge of the telegraph office . Elinor had just arrived in Prince Albert on a visit to Tom , to which she had been looking forward during the five years since he had married and moved out West from Avonlea . As I have already said , she was very beautiful at that time , and Carey fell in love with her at the first moment of their meeting .
During the next three weeks he went XXXXX town nine times and called at the Dumonts ' only once .
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