a great deal of what we call
common sense. Though her heart might be very much engaged, she would
hesitate to put herself in any society which thought itself superior to
her. You see I speak with great frankness."

It was a new position for Mr. Lyon to find his prospective rank
seemingly an obstacle to anything he desired. For a moment the
whimsicality of it interrupted the current of his feeling. He thought of
the probable comments of the men of his London club upon the drift his
conversation was taking with a New England spinster about his fitness
to marry a school-teacher. With a smile that was summoned to hide
his annoyance, he said, "I don't see how I can defend myself, Miss
Forsythe."

"Oh," she replied, with an answering smile that recognized his view of
the humor of the situation, "I was not thinking of you, Mr. Lyon, but of
the family and the society that my niece might enter, to which rank is
of the first importance."

"I am simply John Lyon, Miss Forsythe. I may never be anything else.
But if it were otherwise, I did not suppose that Americans objected to
rank."

It was an unfortunate speech, felt to be so the instant it was uttered.
Miss Forsythe's pride was touched, and the remark was not softened to
her by the air of half banter with which the sentence concluded. She
said, with a little stillness and formality: "I fear, Mr. Lyon, that
your sarcasm is too well merited. But there are Americans who make a
distinction between rank and blood. Perhaps it is very undemocratic, but
there is nowhere else more pride of family, of honorable descent, than
here. We think very much of what we call good blood. And you will
pardon me for saying that we are accustomed to speak of some persons
and families abroad which have the highest rank as being thoroughly bad
blood. If I am not mistaken, you also recognize the historic fact of
ignoble blood in the owners of noble titles. I only mean, Mr. Lyon," she
added, with a softening of manner, "that all Americans do not think that
rank covers a multitude of sins."

"Yes, I think I get your American point of view. But to return to
myself, if you will allow me; if I am so fortunate as to win Miss
Debree's love, I have no fear that she would not win the hearts of all
my family. Do you think that my--my prospective position would be an
objection to her?"

"Not your position, no; if her heart were engaged. But expatriation,
involving a surrender of all the habits and traditio