aps for one thing, quite how much she was worth. On the
other hand, "Scarce of company, welcome trumpery," Mrs Murchison always
emphatically declared to be no part of her social philosophy. The upshot
was that the Murchisons were confined to a few old friends and looked,
as we know, half-humorously, half-ironically, for more brilliant
excursions, to Stella and "the boys."

It was only, however, the pleasure of Mr Lorne Murchison's company that
was requested at the Milburns' dance. Almost alone among those who had
slipped into wider and more promiscuous circles with the widening of the
stream, the Milburns had made something like an effort to hold out.
The resisting power was not thought to reside in Mr Milburn, who was
personally aware of no special ground for it, but in Mrs Milburn and her
sister, Miss Filkin, who seemed to have inherited the strongest ideas.
in the phrase of the place, about keeping themselves to themselves.
A strain of this kind is sometimes constant, even so far from the
fountainhead, with its pleasing proof that such views were once the most
general and the most sacred defence of middle-class firesides, and
that Thackeray had, after all, a good deal to excuse him. Crossing
the Atlantic they doubtless suffered some dilution; but all that was
possible to conserve them under very adverse conditions Mrs Milburn
and Miss Filkin made it their duty to do. Nor were these ideas opposed,
contested, or much traversed in Elgin. It was recognized that there was
"something about" Mrs Milburn and her sister--vaguely felt--that you did
not come upon that thinness of nostril, and slope of shoulder, and set
of elbow at every corner. They must have got it somewhere. A Filkin
tradition prevailed, said to have originated in Nova Scotia: the Filkins
never had been accessible, but if they wanted to keep to themselves, let
them. In this respect Dora Milburn, the only child, was said to be her
mother's own daughter. The shoulders, at all events, testified to it;
and the young lady had been taught to speak, like Mrs Milburn, with what
was known as an "English accent." The accent in general use in Elgin was
borrowed--let us hope temporarily--from the other side of the line. It
suffered local modifications and exaggerations, but it was clearly an
American product. The English accent was thoroughly affected, especially
the broad "a." The time may come when Elgin will be at considerable
pains to teach itself the broad "a," but t