His lips trembled.

With a preoccupied air he arranged a handful of papers on the table.
"Why did you not come before ?" he asked at last, in a low, mechanical voice.
"It was better for a man than a boy to come." "May I ask why ?" "A boy doesn't always see a situation--gives up too soon--throws away his rights.

My father was a boy." "He was twenty-five when he went away." "I am fifty!" Sir William looked up sharply, perplexed.

"Fifty ?" "He only knew this life: I know the world." "What world ?" "The great North, the South, the seas at four corners of the earth." Sir William glanced at the top-boots, the peeping sash, the strong, bronzed face.
"Who was your mother ?" he asked abruptly.
"A woman of France." The baronet made a gesture of impatience, and looked searchingly at the young man.
All at once Gaston shot his bolt, to have it over.

"She had Indian blood also." He stretched himself to his full height, easily, broadly, with a touch of defiance, and leaned an arm against the mantel, awaiting Sir William's reply.
The old man shrank, then said coldly: "Have you the marriage-certificate ?" Gaston drew some papers from his pockets.
"Here, sir, with a letter from my father, and one from the Hudson's Bay Company." His grandfather took them.