Strickland read a paragraph without any especial comprehension, after which he found himself again by the stream of Alexander's life.

That friendship with Ian Rullock utterly held, he believed.

Well, Ian Rullock, too, seemed somehow a great personage.

Very different from Alexander, and yet somehow large to match....

Where had Alexander been after Edinburgh--where had he not been?
Very often Ian was with him, but sometimes and for months he would seem to have been alone.