


Produced by David Widger





THE LANE THAT HAD NO TURNING

By Gilbert Parker



CONTENTS

     Volume 1.
     THE LANE THAT HAD NO TURNING

     Volume 2.
     THE ABSURD ROMANCE OF P'TITE LOUISON
     THE LITTLE BELL OF HONOUR
     A SON OF THE WILDERNESS
     A WORKER IN STONE

     Volume 3.
     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

     Volume 4.
     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.

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 is not thought to be the most fortunate incident
of mortality. My application of the phrase is, therefore, different.

I have, as you know, travelled far and wide during the past seventeen
years, and though I have seen people as frugal and industrious as the
French Canadians, I have never seen frugality and industry associated
with so much domestic virtue, so much education and intelligence, and so
deep and simple a religious life; nor have I ever seen a priesthood at
once so devoted and high-minded in all the concerns the home life
of their people, as in French Canada. A land without poverty and yet
without riches, French Canada stands alone, too well educated to have a
peasantry, too poor to have an aristocracy; as though in her the ancient
prayer had been answered "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but feed
me with food convenient for me." And it is of the habitant of Quebec,
before a men else, I should say, "Born with the golden spoon in his
mouth."

To you I come with this book, which contains the first thing I ever
wrote out of the life of the Province so dear to you, and the last
things also that I shall ever write about it. I beg you to receive it as
the loving recreation of one who sympathises with the people of who you
come, and honours their virtues, and who has no fear for the unity, and
no doubt as to the splendid future, of the nation, whose fibre is got of
the two great civilising races of Europe.

Lastly, you will know with what admiration and regard I place your
name on the fore page of my book, and greet in you the statesman, the
litterateur, and the personal friend.

        Believe me,
          Dear Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
             Yours very sincerely,
               GILBERT PARKER.

20 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE,   LONDON, S. W.,
     14th August, 1900.




INTRODUCTION

The story with which this book opens, 'The Lane That Had No Turning',
gives the title to a collection which has a large share in whatever
importance my work may possess. Cotemporaneous with the Pierre
series, which deal with the Far West and the Far North, I began in
the 'Illustrated London News', at the request of the then editor, Mr.
Clement K. Shorter, a series of French Canadian sketches of which
the first was 'The Tragic Comedy of Annette'. It was followed by 'The
Marriage of the Miller, The House with the Tall Porch, The Absurd
Romance of P'tite Louison, and The Woodsman's Story of the Great White
Chief'. They were begun and finished in the autumn of 1892 in lodgings
which I had taken on Hampstead Heath. Each--for they were all very
short--was written at a sitting, and all had their origin in true
stories which had been told me in the heart of Quebec itself. They were
all beautifully illustrated in the Illustrated London News, and in their
almost monosyllabic narrative, and their almost domestic simplicity,
they were in marked contrast to the more strenuous episodes of the
Pierre series. They were indeed in keeping with the happily simple and
uncomplicated life of French Canada as I knew it then; and I had perhaps
greater joy in writing them and the purely French Canadian stories that
followed them, such as 'Parpon the Dwarf, A Worker in Stone, The Little
Bell of Honour, and The Prisoner', than in almost anything else I have
written, except perhaps 'The Right of Way and Valmond', so far as Canada
is concerned.

I think the book has harmony, although the first story in it covers
eighty-two pages, while some of the others, like 'The Marriage of the
Miller', are less than four pages in length. At the end also there are
nine fantasies or stories which I called 'Parables of Provinces'. All