I was paying but scant attention to my companion’s explanations about some knotty business problem that had arisen to engage the attention of J. R. Booth. It was a matter, he mentioned, that must be settled before the mail went out.
At this I pricked up my ears, realising, with a curious sense of regret, that the old man’s present ecstasy would be short-lived. This thought brought in its train a further reflection: obviously the paper enterprise was now running on a smooth and perfected basis. Therefore it must have lost its efficacy as a substitute for the railroad.
“When does Mr. Booth start his new venture?” I asked.
“But,” exclaimed my astonished companion, “you surely have not heard——”
I hastened to explain that I spoke from the merest abstract conjecture.
“Strange!” he rejoined. “As a matter of fact, a new departure is in contemplation. Come back here in two years’ time, and—well, I think you will be interested in what you see.”
MARKET DAY IN MONTREAL: SCENE IN JACQUES CARTIER SQUARE
CHAPTER VI
TORONTO AND ITS EXHIBITION
Montreal, like Quebec, is rich in historic associations, fine old buildings, and French-Canadians. To stand on Mount Royal—a precipitous park rising to a height of seven hundred and forty feet—and look down over the magnificent, ruddy city of domes and spires, with the St. Lawrence sweeping away into a lilac haze of Canadian geography, is a thrilling experience one never forgets. When I last saw that scene, little birds were singing in overhanging trees, and I heard the peaceful music of bells ringing in the old convents far below.