It was their enthusiasm, however, that gave them the wing on which they travelled.

People naturally took different views, even of this quality.

"Young Murchison's working the imperial idea for all it's worth," was Walter Winter's; and Octavius Milburn humorously summed up the series as "tall talk." Alfred Hesketh came, it was felt, rather opportunely into the midst of this.

Plenty of people, the whole of Market Square and East Elgin, a good part, too, probably, of the Town Ward, were unaware of his arrival; but for the little world he penetrated he was clothed with all the interest of the great contingency.

His decorous head in the Emmetts' pew on Sunday morning stood for a symbol as well as for a stranger.
The nation was on the eve of a great far-reaching transaction with the mother country, and thrilling with the terms of the bargain.