The Imperialist

In the small Canadian town of Elgin, the Queen's Birthday becomes a brilliant public pageant of bells, cannon fire, fireworks, processions, shopkeeping, flirtation, and civic pride. Amid the spectacle, the mysterious Mother Beggarlegs sells her gingerbread and taffy, unsettling and fascinating the town, while young Lorne Murchison's awkward kindness toward her hints at the sympathy and moral imagination that will shape him. The holiday also exposes Elgin's class divisions and family tensions. Laborers, polite society, and children each claim the day in different ways, while the Murchison household is thrown into comic chaos by a maid's sudden departure, forcing Mrs. Murchison to display her thrift, wit, and iron practicality. Naming, money, loyalty, and childhood desire all become part of the family's lively emotional economy, especially as Advena's intelligence and observation stand out. Around them, church and politics bind the town together and pull it apart. Dr. Drummond, John Murchison, Peter Macfarlane, Hugh Finlay, Lorne, and Advena debate empire, tariffs, Conservatism, Liberalism, and the future of Canada, revealing a community shaped by duty, ambition, and divided loyalties. In Elgin, public ritual and private feeling move ever closer, with youth watching keenly as romance, religion, and national identity begin to collide. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.