They greeted heartily.

"Now this IS good!" said Lorne, and he thought so.

Hesketh confided his first impression.

"It's not unlike an English country town," he said, "only the streets are wider, and the people don't look so much in earnest." "Oh, they're just as much in earnest some of the time," Lorne laughed, "but maybe not all the time!" The sun shone crisply round them; there was a brisk October market; on the other side of the road Elmore Crow dangled his long legs over a cart flap and chewed a cheroot.

Elgin was abroad, doing business on its wide margin of opportunity.