The ladies were compelled to supply most
of the facts and all of the interest but they kept up a
gallant line of attack; and the young man, taking gratified
possession of Dora's eyes, was extremely obliged to them.
Hesketh lost no time in communicating his willingness to
be of use to Murchison, and Lorne felt all his old
friendliness rise up in him as he cordially accepted the
offer. It was made with British heartiness, it was
thoroughly meant. Lorne was half-ashamed in his recognition
of its quality. A certain aloofness had grown in him
against his will since Hesketh had prolonged his stay in
the town, difficult to justify, impossible to define.
Hesketh as Hesketh was worthily admirable as ever,
wholesome and agreeable, as well turned out by his
conscience as he was by his tailor; it was Hesketh in
his relation to his new environment that seemed vaguely
to come short. This in spite of an enthusiasm which was
genuine enough; he found plenty of things to like about
the country. It was perhaps in some manifestation of
sensitiveness that he failed; he had the adaptability of
the pioneer among rugged conditions, but he could not
mingle quite immediately with the essence of them; he
did not perceive the genius loci. Lorne had been conscious
of this as a kind of undefined grievance; now he specified
it and put it down to Hesketh's isolation among ways that
were different from the ways he knew.
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