The room was big and bare.

There were a few fine heads of antelope upon the walls, and beneath them an armory of English-made shotguns and rifles, while a row of silver-mounted riding crops, and some handled with ivory, stood in a corner.

All these represented amusement, while two or three treatises on veterinary surgery and agriculture, lying amidst English stud-books and racing records, presumably stood for industry.

The comparison was significant, and Graham, the Winnipeg wheat-broker, noticed it as he listened patiently to the views of Colonel Barrington, who nevertheless worked hard enough in his own fashion.

Unfortunately it was rather the fashion of the English gentleman than that common on the prairie.
"And now," he said, with a trace of the anxiety he had concealed in his eyes, "I am open to hear what you can do for me." Graham smiled a little.