As Mr Williams remarked, there
was no use in dwelling on the unpopularity of the bank,
that didn't need pointing out; folks down Moneida way
could put any newspaper wise on the number of mortgages
foreclosed and the rate for secondary loans exacted by
the bank in those parts. That consideration, no doubt,
human nature being what it is, contributed the active
principle to the feeling so widely aroused by the case.
We are not very readily the prey to emotions of faith in
our fellows, especially, perhaps, if we live under
conditions somewhat hard and narrow; the greater animosity
behind is, at all events, valuable to give force and
relief and staying power to a sentiment of generous
conviction. But however we may depreciate its origin,
the conviction was there, widespread in the townships:
young Ormiston would "get clear"; the case for the defence
might be heard over every bushel of oats in Elgin
market-place.
In Elgin itself opinion was more reserved. There was a
general view that these bank clerks were fast fellows,
and a tendency to contrast the habits and the pay of such
dashing young men, an exercise which ended in a not
unnatural query. As to the irritating caste feeling
maintained among them, young Ormiston perhaps gave himself
as few airs as any. He was generally conceded indeed by
the judging sex to be "nice to everybody"; but was not
that exactly the nature for which temptations were most
easily spread? The town, moreover, had a sapience of its
own.
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