It was not the sort of thing Lorne expected; but we know him unsophisticated and a stranger to the heart of the Empire, which beats through such impediment of accumulated tissue.

Nor was it the sort of thing they got from Wallingham, the keen-eyed and probing, whose skill in adjusting conflicting interests could astonish even their expectation, and whose vision of the essentials of the future could lift even their enthusiasm.
One would like to linger over their touch with Wallingham, that fusion of energy with energy, that straight, satisfying, accomplishing dart.
There is more drama here; no doubt, than in all the pages that are to come.

But I am explaining now how little, not how much, the Cruickshank deputation, and especially Lorne Murchison, had the opportunity of feeling and learning in London, in order to show how wonderful it was that Lorne felt and learned so widely.

That, what he absorbed and took back with him is, after all, what we have to do with; his actual adventures are of no great importance.
The deputation to urge improved communications within the Empire had few points of contact with the great world, but its members were drawn into engagements of their own, more, indeed, than some of them could conveniently overtake.

Mr Bates never saw his niece in the post-office, and regrets it to this day.