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The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2
The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2
The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2
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The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2

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Release dateNov 26, 2013
The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2
Author

Gilbert Parker

Gilbert Parker (1862–1932), also credited as Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian novelist and British politician. His initial career was in education, working in various schools as a teacher and lecturer. He then traveled abroad to Australia where he became an editor at the Sydney Morning Herald. He expanded his writing to include long-form works such as romance fiction. Some of his most notable titles include Pierre and his People (1892), The Seats of the Mighty and The Battle of the Strong.

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    The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2 - Gilbert Parker

    The Project Gutenberg EBook Lane That Had No Turning, by Parker, v2 #65 in our series by Gilbert Parker

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    **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**

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    Title: The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2.

    Author: Gilbert Parker

    Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6238] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 17, 2002]

    Edition: 10

    Language: English

    *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LANE HAD NO TURNING, PARKER, V2 ***

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    THE LANE THAT HAD NO TURNING

    By Gilbert Parker

    Volume 2.

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

    THE ABSURD ROMANCE OF P'TITE LOUISON

    The five brothers lived with Louison, three miles from Pontiac, and Medallion came to know them first through having sold them, at an auction, a slice of an adjoining farm. He had been invited to their home, intimacy had grown, and afterwards, stricken with a severe illness, he had been taken into the household and kept there till he was well again. The night of his arrival, Louison, the sister, stood with a brother on either hand—Octave and Florian—and received him with a courtesy more stately than usual, an expression of the reserve and modesty of her single state. This maidenly dignity was at all times shielded by the five brothers, who treated her with a constant and reverential courtesy. There was something signally suggestive in their homage, and Medallion concluded at last that it was paid not only to the sister, but to something that gave her great importance in their eyes.

    He puzzled long, and finally decided that Louison had a romance. There was something which suggested it in the way they said P'tite Louison; in the manner they avoided all gossip regarding marriages and marriage- feasting; in the way they deferred to her on questions of etiquette (as, for instance, Should the eldest child be given the family name of the wife or a Christian name from her husband's family?). And P'tite Louison's opinion was accepted instantly as final, with satisfied nods on the part of all the brothers, and whispers of How clever! how adorable!

    P'tite Louison affected never to hear these remarks, but looked complacently straight before her, stirring the spoon in her cup, or benignly passing the bread and butter. She was quite aware of the homage paid to her, and she gracefully accepted the fact that she was an object of interest.

    Medallion had not the heart to laugh at the adoration of the brothers, or at the outlandish sister, for, though she was angular, and sallow, and thin, and her hands were large and red, there was a something deep in her eyes, a curious quality in her carriage commanding respect. She had ruled these brothers, had been worshipped by them, for near half a century, and the romance they had kept alive had produced a grotesque sort of truth and beauty in the admiring P'tite Louison—an affectionate name for her greatness, like The Little Corporal for Napoleon. She was not little, either, but above the middle height, and her hair was well streaked with grey.

    Her manner towards Medallion was not marked by any affectation. She was friendly in a kind, impersonal way, much as a nurse cares for a patient, and she never relaxed a sort of old-fashioned courtesy, which might have been trying in such close quarters, were it not for the real simplicity of the life and the spirit and lightness of their race. One night Florian—there were Florian and Octave and Felix and Isidore and Emile —the eldest, drew Medallion aside from the others, and they walked together by the river. Florian's air suggested confidence and mystery, and soon, with a voice of hushed suggestion, he told Medallion the romance of P'tite Louison. And each of the brothers at different times during the next fortnight did the same, differing scarcely at all in details, or choice of phrase or meaning, and not

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