Was it likely that the bank would bring a case so
publicly involving its character and management without
knowing pretty well what it was about? The town would
not be committed beyond the circle of young Ormiston's
intimate friends, which was naturally small if you compared
it with the public; the town wasn't going to be surprised
at anything that might be proved. On the other hand, the
town was much more vividly touched than the country by
the accident which had made Lorne Murchison practically
sole counsel for the defence, announced as it was by the
Express with every appreciation of its dramatic value.
Among what the Express called "the farming community"
this, in so far as it had penetrated, was regarded as a
simple misfortune, a dull blow to expectancy, which
expectancy had some work to survive. Elgin, with its
finer palate for sensation, saw in it heightened chances,
both for Lorne and for the case; and if any ratepayer
within its limits had remained indifferent to the suit,
the fact that one side of it had been confided to so
young and so "smart" a fellow townsman would have been
bound to draw him into the circle of speculation. Youth
in a young country is a symbol wearing all its value. It
stands not only for what it is. The trick of augury
invests it, at a glance, with the sum of its possibilities,
the augurs all sincere, confident, and exulting.
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