" He repeated it, too. "She was far more indebted,
I say, to grace. than to nature," and before his sharp
earnestness none were seen to smile. Nor could you forget
the note in his voice when the loss he deplored was that
of a youth of virtue and promise, or that of a personal
friend. His very text would be a blow upon the heart;
the eyes filled from the beginning. People would often
say that they were "sorry for the family," sitting through
Dr Drummond's celebration of their bereavement; and the
sympathy was probably well founded. But how fine he was
when he paid the last tribute to that upright man, his
elder and office-bearer, David Davidson! How his words
marched, sorrowing to the close! "Much I have said of
him, and more than he would have had me say." Will it
not stay with those who heard it till the very end, the
trenchant, mournful fall of that "more than he would have
had me say"?
It was a thing that Hugh Finlay could not abide in
Dr Drummond.
As the winter passed, the little Doctor was hard put to
it to keep his hands off the great political issue of
the year, bound up as it was in the tenets of his own
politics, which he held only less uncompromisingly than
those of the Shorter Catechism. It was, unfortunately
for him, a gradual and peaceful progress of opinion,
marked by no dramatic incidents; and analogy was hard to
find in either Testament for a change of fiscal policy
based on imperial advantage.
Pages:
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323