One could
almost say, standing there in the door at Murchison's,
where the line of legitimate enterprise had been overpassed
and where its intention had been none too sanguine--on
the one hand in the faded, and pretentious red brick
building with the false third storey, occupied by Cleary
which must have been let at a loss to dry-goods or anything
else; on the other hand in the solid "Gregory block,"
opposite the market, where rents were as certain as the
dividends of the Bank of British North America.
Main Street expressed the idea that, for the purpose of
growing and doing business, it had always found the days
long enough. Drays passed through it to the Grand Trunk
station, but they passed one at a time; a certain number
of people went up and down about their affairs, but they
were never in a hurry; a street car jogged by every ten
minutes or so, but nobody ran after it. There was a decent
procedure; and it was felt that Bofield--he was dry-goods,
too--in putting in an elevator was just a little
unnecessarily in advance of the times. Bofield had only
two storeys, like everybody else, and a very easy staircase,
up which people often declared they preferred to walk
rather than wait in the elevator for a young man to finish
serving and work it. These, of course, were the
sophisticated people of Elgin; countryfolk, on a market
day, would wait a quarter of an hour for the young man
and think nothing of it; and I imagine Bofield found his
account in the elevator, though he did complain sometimes
that such persons went up and down on frivolous pretexts
or to amuse the baby.
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