A Game of Great Skill

Abstract

There must have been something about the 23-year-old Smith, displaying the polished erudition expected from a diligent student of Glasgow and Oxford, and bearing a gravitas beyond his years, which well connected family friends recognised as qualities worth nurturing. Smith spent two years in distant but not idle retreat at his mother’s home in Kirkcaldy, quietly preparing to fulfil his post-Oxford ambitions and consoling her for her disappointment at his change in career.