What! steal the trade of a friendly power! Tut, tut!" It was a long speech for John Murchison, but they were all excited to a pitch beyond the usual.

Henry Cruickshank had brought with him an event of extraordinary importance.

It seemed to sit there with him, significant and propitious, in the middle of the sofa; they all looked at it in the pauses.

Dr Drummond, lost in an armchair, alternately contemplated it and remembered to assert himself part of it.

As head of a deputation from the United Chambers of Commerce of Canada shortly to wait on the British Government to press for the encouragement of improved communications within the Empire, Cruickshank had been asked to select a secretary.