Robert Barr

“ I am an ardent admirer of the heroes and heroines it has sent out to India and to the furthest corners of the earth, as, indeed, my own ancestors came, to meet difficulties and to baffle them, to overcome obstacles, to conquer and to prosper, each doing something for the furtherance of the great Empire to which he or she belongs. I often think of my own grandmother—for, after all, it is hardest on the women—who died broken-hearted in exile—broken-hearted that there was no prospect of her ever seeing her own land again. ”

“ It's a solicitor's business to solicit, isn't it?"
"Really, Miss Winterbourn, I don't know what you're talking about. I have not the honour of the acquaintance of the Captain you refer to, nor do I know Mr.—Mr. What's-his-name Alden."
"But don't you know that your solicitor and Miss Braddock's solicitor have put their legal heads together in conference, quite agreeing, in that absurd English way of theirs, that the impoverished nobleman is to marry the wild, untamed heiress from the West?"
"Good Heavens!" cried the startled Earl of Dunfor. ”

“ I fancy both you and Miss Braddock see only one side of the case. You must remember that even so stubborn a thing as a fact has two or three sides. For instance, you spoke just now about the laggard fashion in which I sought out Miss Braddock, but you quite ignore the fact that for five years I have been advertising everywhere for her, or, at least, for the invisible legatee who has since materialised into Miss Braddock. Dash it all, Miss Winterbourn, do be reasonably fair! ”

“ At first he had seemed quite boyishly shy, which amazed her, for in most of the books she had read, and in many of the plays she had seen, a titled young man was rather apt to be the villain—a bold-speaking, evil-staring sort of person whom it was well to avoid. Cassalis, seventeenth Earl of Dunfor, was the first member of the aristocracy she had met, and in her capacity of secretary she consequently heard a good deal about this person whom the heiress was to dispossess. ”

“ Not till this morning did I know Miss Braddock's address, when my solicitor gave it to me, and you must admit I haven't lost any time in availing myself of the information."
Hilda Winterbourn was sitting on the end of the sofa, with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands.
"Why, Lord Dunfor, you can talk like a streak when you get started!"
"Like a what?" asked his lordship.
"It's a phrase we use out West—like a streak. I suppose it means a streak of lightning, but I don't know. Now, why did you not go to Canada when your uncle asked you to do so? ”

“ If she found me hedging, evading facts, or trying to be unnecessarily polite, she wouldn't stand it."
"I am rather sorry you dismissed that cab, Miss Winterbourn."
"Regrets are useless, Lord Dunfor. You couldn't escape in a hansom, because we could overtake you in our motor. Miss Braddock has become an expert chauffeur since we have been in England, and often drives the car herself, although she keeps an excellent man for that purpose. I hope I have convinced you that you cannot get away without our permission. ”

“ Why, I believe I'm embarrassing you at this moment with my fervour!"
"Indeed, you are not, Miss Winterbourn," replied his lordship, speaking without restraint for the first time since his entrance into the room. "I am delighted to have heard what you said, and I am sorry if you think our people over here unresponsive. I shouldn't wonder if our school system has something to do with it. We are taught to repress ourselves, and anything approaching enthusiasm is frowned upon. Now, in the Canadian schools, perhaps that is not the case." ”

“ There were too many certainties in the market, so far as noblemen were concerned, for heiresses of value to invest good money on what was merely a prospect. By the time Cassalis was verging upon thirty the sixteenth Earl died unexpectedly, and on his will being read, it was found that his extensive property and fortune were left to the eldest representative of his father's two younger brothers, whoever he or she might be, for the noble Earl had not taken the trouble to look up his Canadian relatives during his lifetime. ”

“ Even Cassalis's cold-hearted solicitor admitted the drastic nature of the action, he, having seen the woman, describing her as a middle-aged female who, even in her youth, could not have been beautiful, and on whose appearance the hardening influence of pioneer life had left an extremely unprepossessing result. ”

“ This contempt was augmented by the fact that the Earl's legal representative had actually proposed to Miss Braddock that she should make the young man a handsome allowance with which to keep up the dignity of the title. As this suggestion must have been made with the consent, if not the connivance, of Dunfor himself, Miss Winterbourn found her contempt growing into scorn. All the young men she knew in Western Canada were eager enough for money, but they would have disdained taking it from a woman, especially when they made no sort of return for value received. ”

“ Mineral lands were the making of the elder emigrant. His only son had quietly, through agents, purchased the Dunfor estates before putting forward his claim to the title. The estates, therefore, he could leave to whom he pleased—a fact that he rather gruffly impressed upon George Cassalis, the presumptive seventeenth Earl, for the sixteenth Earl was a bachelor. He urged the young man, who was then twenty-four and just out of college, to visit Canada, look about him, and accept one of the many opportunities that country afforded to youth and energy ”

“ What I should have said was that if you had taken your uncle's advice ten years ago, and gone to Canada, you might have become a more practical man than you are now. Can you, for instance, do anything useful? ”

“ We fly the British flag from every schoolhouse, and I read with amazement the other day that here in London, on some occasion or other, you were afraid to hoist your flag, in case it would offend somebody. ”