" Something, of course, occasionally did come
of it; and, usually after years of "attention," a young
man of Elgin found himself mated to a young woman, but
never under circumstances that could be called precipitate
or rash. The cautious blood and far sight of the early
settlers, who had much to reckon with, were still
preponderant social characteristics of the town they
cleared the site for. Meanwhile, however, flowers were
gathered, and all sorts of evanescent idylls came and
went in the relations of young men and maidens. Alec and
Oliver Murchison were already in the full tide of them.
From this point of view they did not know what to make
of Lorne. It was not as if their brother were in any way
ill calculated to attract that interest which gave to
youthful existence in Elgin almost the only flavour that
it had. Looks are looks, and Lorne had plenty of them;
taller by an inch than Alec, broader by two than Oliver,
with a fine square head and blue eyes in it, and features
which conveyed purpose and humour, lighted by a certain
simplicity of soul that pleased even when it was not
understood. "Open," people said he was, and "frank"--so
he was, frank and open, with horizons and intentions;
you could see them in his face. Perhaps it was more
conscious of them than he was.
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