The law of averages is a stringent one, and it may be assumed with
reasonable certainty, that when one ancient and respectable
family-coach runs down hill, another vehicle, probably of more modern
equipment, will go up. In the case under consideration, the operations
of this principle were less obscure than is sometimes the way with
them. As Mount Music descended, so did No. 6, The Mall, Cluhir, rise,
and Dr. Mangan's growing prosperity compensated Fate for the decline
in Major Talbot-Lowry's affairs, with a precision that, to a person
interested in the statistics of averages, might have seemed beautiful.
The Big Doctor was now the leading man in Cluhir, leader in its
councils and its politics. On his professional side, his advice and
ministrations were in demand even beyond the range of his motor car,
and the measure of his greatness may be best estimated when it is
mentioned that his motor had been the first to startle the streets of
his native town.
Major Talbot-Lowry was of the Old Guard, who, in those now far away
times, swore never to surrender to what he held to be so thoroughly
unsportsmanlike an innovation as a motor car, and the Doctor was
accustomed to offer facetious apologies when he and his car drew up at
the Mount Music hall door. This had become a fairly frequent
occurrence. Dick was not the man he had been.
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