It was the talk of the town, the pride of the market-place, Lorne
Murchison's having been selected to accompany what was known as the
Cruickshank deputation to England. The general spirit of congratulation
was corrected by a tendency to assert it another proof of sagacity on
the chairman's part; Elgin wouldn't be too flattered; Lawyer Cruickshank
couldn't have done better. You may be sure the Express was well
ahead with it. "Honour to Our Young Fellow Townsman. A Well-Merited
Compliment," and Rawlins was round promptly next morning to glean
further particulars. He found only Mrs Murchison, on a stepladder tying
up the clematis that climbed about the verandah, and she told him a
little about clematis and a good deal about the inconvenience of having
to abandon superintending the spring cleaning in order to get Lorne
ready to go to the Old Country at such short notice, but nothing he
could put in the paper. Lorne, sought at the office, was hardly more
communicative. Mr Williams himself dropped in there. He said the Express
would now have a personal interest in the object of the deputation, and
proposed to strike out a broad line, a broader line than ever.

"We've got into the way of taking it for granted," said Mr Williams,
"that the subsidy idea is a kind of mediaeval idea. Raise a big enough
shout and you get things taken for granted in economics for a long
while. Conditions keep changing, right along, all the time, and
presently you've got to reconsider. There ain't any sort of ultimate
truth in the finest economic position, my son; not any at all."

"We'll subsidize over here, right enough," said Lorne.

"That's the idea--that's the prevailing idea, just now. But lots of
people think different--more than you'd imagine. I was talking to
old man Milburn just now--he's dead against it. 'Government has no
business,' he said, 'to apply the taxes in the interests of any company.
It oughtn't to know how to spell "subsidy." If the trade was there it
would get itself carried,' he said."

"Well, that surprises me," said Lorne.

"Surprised me, too. But I was on the spot with him; just thought of it
in time. 'Well, now, Mr Milburn,' I said, 'you've changed your mind.
Thought that was a thing you Conservatives never did,' I said. 'We
don't--I haven't,' he said. 'What d'ye mean? Twenty-five years ago,' I
said, 'when you were considering whether you'd start the Milburn Boiler
Works here or in Hamilton, Hamilton offered you a