How immense a nerve the old man had to make such a will,
which outraged every convention of social and family life; which was, in
effect, a proclamation that his son Carnac had no place in John Grier's
scheme of things, while John Grier's wife was rewarded like some faithful
old servant. Yet some newspapers had said he was a man of goodwill, and
had appreciation of talent, adding, however, the doubtful suggestion that
the appreciation stopped short of the prowess of his son Carnac in the
field of Art. It was evident John Grier's act was thought by the
conventionalist to be a wicked blunder.
As Carnac saw the world where there was not a single material thing that
belonged to him, he had a sudden conviction that his life would run in
other lines than those within which it had been drawn to the present
time. Looking over this wonderful prospect of the St. Lawrence, he had an
insistent feeling that he ought to remain in the land where he was born,
and give of whatever he was capable to its life. It was all a strenuous
problem. For Carnac there was, duly or unduly, fairly or unfairly, a fate
better than that of John Grier. If he died suddenly, as his father had
died, a handful of people would sorrow with excess of feeling, and the
growing world of his patrons would lament his loss.
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