o fling to the
winds his chances of wealth for her sake--a sufficient measure of the
feelings of one of his nationality and caste. And she permitted, for an
instant, her mind to linger on the supposition that Howard Spence had
never come into her life; might she not, when the Vicomte had made his
unexpected and generous avowal, have accepted him? She thought of the
romances of her childish days, written at fever heat, in which ladies
with titles moved around and gave commands and rebuked lovers who
slipped in through wicket gates. And to think that she might have been a
Vicomtesse and have lived in a castle!

A poor Vicomtesse, it is true.

CHAPTER XI. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Honora sat still upon the bench. After an indefinite period she
saw through the trees a vehicle on the driveway, and in it a single
passenger. And suddenly it occurred to her that the passenger must be
Peter, for Mrs. Holt had announced her intention of sending for him. She
arose and approached the house, not without a sense of agitation.

She halted a moment at a little distance from the porch, where he was
talking with Howard Spence and Joshua, and the fact that he was an
unchanged Peter came to her with a shock of surprise. So much, in less
than a year, had happened to Honora! And the sight of him, and the sound
of his voice, brought back with a rush memories of a forgotten past. How
long it seemed since she had lived in St. Louis!

Yes, he was the same Peter, but her absence from him had served to
sharpen her sense of certain characteristics. He was lounging in his
chair with his long legs crossed, with one hand in his pocket, and
talking to these men as though he had known them always. There was a
quality about him which had never struck her before, and which eluded
exact definition. It had never occurred to her, until now, when she saw
him out of the element with which she had always associated him,
that Peter Erwin had a personality. That personality was a mixture of
simplicity and self-respect and--common sense. And as Honora listened
to his cheerful voice, she perceived that he had the gift of expressing
himself clearly and forcibly and withal modestly; nor did it escape her
that the other two men were listening with a certain deference. In her
sensitive state she tried to evade the contrast thus suddenly presented
to her between Peter and the man she had promised, that very morning, to
marry.

Howard Spence was seated on the ta