in the
phrase of the place, about keeping themselves to themselves.
A strain of this kind is sometimes constant, even so far
from the fountainhead, with its pleasing proof that such
views were once the most general and the most sacred
defence of middle-class firesides, and that Thackeray
had, after all, a good deal to excuse him. Crossing the
Atlantic they doubtless suffered some dilution; but all
that was possible to conserve them under very adverse
conditions Mrs Milburn and Miss Filkin made it their duty
to do. Nor were these ideas opposed, contested, or much
traversed in Elgin. It was recognized that there was
"something about" Mrs Milburn and her sister--vaguely
felt--that you did not come upon that thinness of nostril,
and slope of shoulder, and set of elbow at every corner.
They must have got it somewhere. A Filkin tradition
prevailed, said to have originated in Nova Scotia: the
Filkins never had been accessible, but if they wanted to
keep to themselves, let them. In this respect Dora Milburn,
the only child, was said to be her mother's own daughter.
The shoulders, at all events, testified to it; and the
young lady had been taught to speak, like Mrs Milburn,
with what was known as an "English accent." The accent
in general use in Elgin was borrowed--let us hope
temporarily--from the other side of the line.
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