e
The discipline of virtue."

The presence of Enderby at the Tremblay concert had not been altogether
due to the excellence of the programme or the merit of the
beneficiaries; he had in fact driven over with the intention of
speaking to Ringfield on a subject of some importance--the future of
the child in the basket chair. This excellent but domineering
storekeeper was the leader of society at Hawthorne; the settlement was
not rich in old families, either English or French, and very early in
his career he and his wife had taken the helm and continued to hold it,
preserving strict notions of etiquette and maintaining a decorous state
which would have become the Lieut.-Governor of a Province. Large,
stern and florid, he was always the same in manner whether serving
behind his counter or taking up the money on Sundays: shining example
of intelligence, thrift, and British insularity, such a man as Clarence
Enderby carries the love of British institutions all over the globe,
and one forgives his syntax for the sake of his sincerity. He had
always been a fiery conservative and a staunch member of the Church of
England; and two or three months before Ringfield's arrival he had
organized what was known to all beholders passing his shop by a
japanned sign hanging outside as the "Public Library," a collection of
forty-seven volumes of mixed fiction in which the charming and highly
illuminative works of E. P. Roe were chiefly conspicuous, reposing in a
select corner of the establishment, somewhat towards the centre, and
equidistant from the dry goods, rubbers, hardware and hammocks, and
from the candies, groceries, fancy jewellery and sheet music. The
proprietors of these country "general stores" are great men in their
way: years ago they rolled up fortunes for themselves in their
district; potential Whiteleys and Wanamakers, they were the true
pioneers in the departmental store business, and on a lilliputian scale
"Enderby's" would have compared very well with the Army and Navy Stores
of London. Absence of competition creates a monopoly, and Enderby's
was the best store in a large district including Hawthorne, St. Ignace,
Beauscley, his only rival being the Yankee referred to by Crabbe, who
did not, however, bear a very good character, having been detected in
smuggling some of those old French brandies and liqueurs, although he
was outwardly a teetotaller and his place had no licence. Enderby, on
the other hand, always