time under any of the ordinary circumstances of country life.
Conventionalities lost their prominence in friendly intercourse with
Selden. It was not, however, that he himself desired to dispense with
convention. His intense wish to "do the right thing," and avoid giving
offence was the most ingenuous and touching feature of his broad
cosmopolitan good nature.

"If I ever make a break, sir," he had once said, with almost passionate
fervour, in talking to Mr. Penzance, "please tell me, and set me on the
right track. No fellow likes to look like a hoosier, but I don't mind
that half as much as--as seeming not to APPRECIATE."

He used the word "appreciate" frequently. It expressed for him many
degrees of thanks.

"I tell you that's fine," he said to Ughtred, who brought him a flower
from the garden. "I appreciate that."

To Betty he said more than once:

"You know how I appreciate all this, Miss Vanderpoel. You DO know I
appreciate it, don't you?"

He had an immense admiration for Mount Dunstan, and talked to him a
great deal about America, often about the sheep ranch, and what it might
have done and ought to have done. But his admiration for Mr. Penzance
became affection. To him he talked oftener about England, and listened
to the vicar's scholarly stories of its history, its past glories and
its present ones, as he might have listened at fourteen to stories from
the Arabian Nights.

These two being frequently absorbed in conversation, Mount Dunstan was
rather thrown upon Betty's hands. When they strolled together about the
place or sat under the deep shade of green trees, they talked not only
of England and America, but of divers things which increased their
knowledge of each other. It is points of view which reveal qualities,
tendencies, and innate differences, or accordances of thought, and the
points of view of each interested the other.

"Mr. Selden is asking Mr. Penzance questions about English history,"
Betty said, on one of the afternoons in which they sat in the shade. "I
need not ask you questions. You ARE English history."

"And you are American history," Mount Dunstan answered.

"I suppose I am."

At one of their chance meetings Miss Vanderpoel had told Lord Dunholm
and Lord Westholt something of the story of G. Selden. The novelty of it
had delighted and amused them. Lord Dunholm had, at points, been touched
as Penzance had been. Westholt had felt that he must ride over to
Stornham to see the c