ived her so remote. He had a sense
of her distance beyond those few yards of carpet quite incompatible
with the fact. It weighed upon him, but until she sent him a sudden
unexpected smile he did not know how heavily. It was a dissipating
smile; nothing remained before it. Lorne carefully restored his
partner's fan, bowed before her, and went straight across the room.

CHAPTER VII

It is determined with something like humour that communities very young
should occupy themselves almost altogether with matters of grave and
serious import. The vision of life at that period is no doubt unimpeded
and clear; its conditions offer themselves with a certain nakedness and
force, both as to this world and to that which is to come. The town of
Elgin thus knew two controlling interests--the interest of politics
and the interest of religion. Both are terms we must nevertheless
circumscribe. Politics wore a complexion strictly local, provincial,
or Dominion. The last step of France in Siam, the disputed influence of
Germany in the Persian Gulf, the struggle of the Powers in China were
not matters greatly talked over in Elgin; the theatre of European
diplomacy had no absorbed spectators here. Nor can I claim that interest
in the affairs of Great Britain was in any way extravagant.

A sentiment of affection for the reigning house certainly prevailed. It
was arbitrary, rococo, unrelated to current conditions as a tradition
sung down in a ballad, an anachronism of the heart, cherished through
long rude lifetimes for the beauty and poetry of it--when you consider,
beauty and poetry can be thought of in this. Here was no Court aiding
the transmutation of the middle class, no King spending money; here
were no picturesque contacts of Royalty and the people, no pageantry,
no blazonry of the past, nothing to lift the heart but an occasional
telegram from the monarch expressing, upon an event of public
importance, a suitable emotion. Yet the common love for the throne
amounted to a half-ashamed enthusiasm that burned with something like
a sacred flame, and was among the things not ordinarily alluded to,
because of the shyness that attaches to all feeling that cannot be
justified in plain terms. A sentiment of affection for the reigning
house certainly prevailed; but it was a thing by itself. The fall of
a British Government would hardly fail to excite comment, and the
retirement of a Prime Minister would induce both the Mercury and the
Ex