six o’clock
In the seated throng Lorne could pick out the fine head of his father , and his mother 's face , bright with anticipation , beside . Advena was there , too , and Stella ; and the boys would have a perch , not too conspicuous , somewhere in the gallery . Dr Drummond was in the second row , and a couple of strange ladies with him : he was chuckling with uncommon humour at some remark of the younger one when Lorne noted him . Old Sandy MacQuhot was in a good place ; had been since six o'clock , and Peter Macfarlane , too , for that matter , though Peter sat away back as beseemed a modest functionary whose business was with the book and the bell . Altogether , as Horace Williams leaned over to tell him , it was like a Knox Church sociable -- he could feel completely at home ; and though the audience was by no means confined to Knox Church , Lorne did feel at home . Dora Milburn 's countenance he might perhaps have missed , but Dora was absent by arrangement . Mr Milburn , as the fight went on , had shown himself so increasingly bitter , to the point of writing letters in the Mercury attacking Wallingham and the Liberal leaders of South Fox , that his daughter felt an insurmountable delicacy in attending even Lorne 's `` big meeting . ''