Lord Selkirk, with royalty on his hands, naturally could not give them much of his time, and they moved about in a cluster, avoiding the ladies' trains and advising one another that it was a good thing the High Commissioner was a man of large private means; it wasn't everybody that could afford to take the job.
Yet they were not wholly detached from the occasion; they looked at it, after they had taken it in, with an air half-amused, half-proprietary.
All this had, in a manner, come out of Canada, and Canada was theirs.
One of them--Bates it was--responding to a lady who was effusive about the strawberries, even took the modestly depreciatory attitude of the host.

"They're a fair size for this country, ma'am, but if you want berries with a flavour we'll do better for you in the Niagara district." It must be added that Cruickshank lunched with Wallingham at his club, and with Tricorne at his; and on both occasions the quiet and attentive young secretary went with him, for purposes of reference, his pocket bulging with memoranda.

The young secretary felt a little embarrassed to justify his presence at Tricorne's lunch, as the Right Honourable gentleman seemed to have forgotten what his guests had come for beyond it, and talked exclusively and exhaustively about the new possibilities for fruit-farming in England.

Cruickshank fairly shook himself into his overcoat with irritation afterward.

"It's the sort of thing we must except," he said, as they merged upon Pall Mall.