His decorous head in
the Emmetts' pew on Sunday morning stood for a symbol as
well as for a stranger. The nation was on the eve of a
great far-reaching transaction with the mother country,
and thrilling with the terms of the bargain. Hesketh was
regarded by people in Elgin who knew who he was with the
mingled cordiality and distrust that might have met a
principal. They did not perhaps say it, but it was in
their minds. "There's one of them," was what they thought
when they met him in the street. At any other time he
would have been just an Englishman; now he was invested
with the very romance of destiny. The perception was
obscure, but it was there. Hesketh, on the other hand,
found these good people a very well-dressed,
well-conditioned, decent lot, rather sallower than he
expected, perhaps, who seemed to live in a fair-sized
town in a great deal of comfort, and was wholly unconscious
of anything special in his relation to them or theirs to
him.
He met Lorne just outside the office of Warner, Fulke,
and Murchison the following day. They greeted heartily.
"Now this IS good!" said Lorne, and he thought so. Hesketh
confided his first impression. "It's not unlike an English
country town," he said, "only the streets are wider, and
the people don't look so much in earnest.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245