It is not a mere sequence of incident; from the mixture of generosity and Canniness in the fisherman who ascertains that he is to have traitor's wages before he finally decides to rescue Havelok, to the not unnatural repugnance of Goldborough at her forced wedding with a scullion, the points where character comes in are not neglected, though of course the author does not avail himself of them either in Shakespearean or in Richardsonian fashion.
"The English Novel"
George Saintsbury
Then in the silence that followed the old captain replied, with a Canniness that was almost Scotch: "On the point raised by you, O Child of Kings, I give no opinion, since you, being but a woman, if a high-born one, would not listen to me if I did, but will doubtless follow that heart of yours of which you speak to whatever end is appointed.
"Queen Sheba's Ring"
H. Rider Haggard
And so it came about that Major Bayne, possessing in a large measure the quality of "Canniness" characteristic of his race-a quality which for the benefit of the uninitiated Saxon it may be necessary to define as being a judicious blending of shrewdness and caution,-and being as well, again after the manner of his race, ambitious for his own advancement, and, furthermore, being a man of conscience, had been so entirely engrossed in the absorbing business of "watching his step" that he had paid slight heed to the affairs of any other officer, and least of all to those of the chaplain, whose functions in the battalion he had regarded, it must be confessed, as more or less formal, if not merely decorative.
"The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land"
Ralph Connor
