Produced by David WidgerTHE MONEY MASTER CompleteBy Gilbert ParkerCONTENTS     EPOCH THE FIRST     I        THE GRAND TOUR OF JEAN JACQUES BARBILLE     II       THE REST OF THE STORY TOMORROW     III      TOMORROW     EPOCH THE SECOND     IV       THIRTEEN YEARS AFTER AND THE CLERK OF THE COURT TELLS A STORY     V        THE CLERK OF THE COURT ENDS HIS STORY     VI       JEAN JACQUES HAD HAD A GREAT DAY     VII      JEAN JACQUES AWAKES FROM SLEEP     VIII     THE GATE IN THE WALL     IX       MOIJE SUIS PHILOSOPHE     X        QUIEN SABEWHO KNOWS     XI       THE CLERK OF THE COURT KEEPS A PROMISE     XII      THE MASTERCARPENTER HAS A PROBLEM     EPOCH THE THIRD     XIII     THE MAN FROM OUTSIDE     XIV      I DO NOT WANT TO GO     XV       BON MARCHE     EPOCH THE FOURTH     XVI      MISFORTUNES COME NOT SINGLY     XVII     HIS GREATEST ASSET     XVIII    JEAN JACQUES HAS AN OFFER     XIX      SEBASTIAN DOLORES DOES NOT SLEEP     XX       AU VOIR MSIEU JEAN JACQUES     XXI      IF SHE HAD KNOWN IN TIME     EPOCH THE FIFTH     XXII     BELLS OF MEMORY     XXIII    JEAN JACQUES HAS WORK TO DO     XXIV     JEAN JACQUES ENCAMPED     XXV      WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE     EPILOGUEINTRODUCTIONThis book is in a place by itself among the novels I have written Manycritics said that it was a welcome return to Canada where I had made myfirst success in the field of fiction This statement was only meagrelyaccurate because since The Right of Way was published in 1901 I hadwritten and given to the public Northern Lights a book of shortstories You Never Know Your Luck a short novel and The World forSale though all of these dealt with life in Western Canada and notwith the life of the French Canadians in which field I had made myfirst firm impression upon the public In any case The Money Master wasfavourably received by the press and public both in England and Americaand my friends were justified in thinking and in saying that I was athome in French Canada and gave the impression of mastery of my materialIf mastery of material means a knowledge of the life and a sympathywith it then my friends are justified for I have always had an intensesympathy with and admiration for French Canadian life I think theFrench Canadian one of the most individual original and distinctivebeings of the modern world He has kept his place with his owncustoms his own Gallic views of life and his religious habits with anassiduity and firmness none too common He is essentially a man ofthe home of the soil and of the stream he has by nature instinctivephilosophy and temperamental logic As a lover of the soil of Canada heis not surpassed by any of the other citizens of the country English orotherwiseIt would almost seem as though the pageantry of past French Canadianhistory and the beauty and vigour of the topographical surroundingsof French Canadian life had produced an hereditary pride andexaltationperhaps an excessive pride and a strenuous exaltation butin any case there it was and is The French Canadian lives a moresecluded life on the whole than any other citizen of Canada though thenative adventurous spirit has sent him to the Eastern States ofthe American Union for work in the mills and factories or up to thefarthest reaches of the St Lawrence Ottawa and their tributaries inthe wood and timber tradeDomestically he is perhaps the most productive son of the North Americancontinent Families of twenty or even twentyfive are not unknownand when a man has had more than one wife it has even exceeded thatLife itself is full of camaraderie and good spirit marked by religioustraits and sacerdotal influenceThe French Canadian is on the whole sober and industrious but when hebreaks away from sobriety and industry he becomes a vicious elementin the general organism Yet his vices are of the surface and do notdestroy the foundations of his social and domestic scheme A FrenchCanadian pony used to be considered the most virile and lasting stockon the continent and it is fair to say that the French Canadiansthemselves are genuinely hardy longlived virile and enduringIt was among such people that the hero of The Money Master Jean JacquesBarbille lived He was the symbol or pattern of their virtues andof their weaknesses By nature a poet a philosopher a farmer and anadventurer his life was a sacrifice to prepossession and race instinctto temperament more powerful than logic or common sense though he wasalmost professionally the exponent of bothThere is no man so simply sincere or so extraordinarily prejudiced asthe French Canadian He is at once modest and vain he is