Drawing-rooms in Elgin had their prescribed uses--to receive in, to practise in, and for the last sad entertainment of the dead, when the furniture was disarranged to accommodate the trestles; but the common business of life went on outside them, even among prosperous people, the survival, perhaps, of a habit based upon thrift.
The shutters were opened when Lorne entered, to let in the spring twilight, and the servant pulled a chair into its proper relation with the room as she went out.
Mrs Milburn and Miss Filkin both came in before Dora did.

Lorne found their conversation enchanting, though it was mostly about the difficulty of keeping the lawn tidy; they had had so much rain.

Mrs Milburn assured him kindly that there was not such another lawn as his father's in Elgin.

How Mr Murchison managed to have it looking so nice always she could not think.

Only yesterday she and Mr Milburn had stopped to admire it as they passed.
"Spring is always a beautiful time in Elgin," she remarked.