e wished to speak of him he had no reason to
oppose her wish. "I've heard it's all changed a good deal. There are
still distinguished lawyers, and lawyers who get on, but they don't
distinguish themselves in the old way so much, and they get on best by
becoming counsel for some powerful corporation."

"And you think he has talent?" she pursued. "For that, I mean."

"Oh, I don't know," said Westover. "I think he has a good head. He can
do what he likes within certain limits, and the limits are not all on
the side I used to fancy. He baffles me. But of late I fancy you've seen
rather more of him than I have."

"I have urged him to go more to you. But," said Mrs. Vostrand, with a
burst of frankness, "he thinks you don't like him."

"He's wrong," said Westover. "But I might dislike him very much."

"I see what you mean," said Mrs. Vostrand, "and I'm glad you've been
so frank with me. I've been so interested in Mr. Durgin, so interested!
Isn't he very young?"

The question seemed a bit of indirection to Westover. But he answered
directly enough. "He's rather old for a Sophomore, I believe. He's
twenty-two."

"And Genevieve is twenty. Mr. Westover, may I trust you with something?"

"With everything, I hope, Mrs. Vostrand."

"It's about Genevieve. Her father is so opposed to her making a foreign
marriage. It seems to be his one great dread. And, of course, she's very
much exposed to it, living abroad so much with me, and I feel doubly
bound on that account to respect her father's opinions, or even
prejudices. Before we left Florence--in fact, last winter--there was a
most delightful young officer wished to marry her. I don't know that
she cared anything for him, though he was everything that I could have
wished: handsome, brilliant, accomplished, good family; everything
but rich, and that was what Mr. Vostrand objected to; or, rather, he
objected to putting up, as he called it, the sum that Captain Grassi
would have had to deposit with the government before he was allowed to
marry. You know how it is with the poor fellows in the army, there;
I don't understand the process exactly, but the sum is something like
sixty thousand francs, I believe; and poor Gigi hadn't it: I always
called him Gigi, but his name is Count Luigi de' Popolani Grassi; and he
is descended from one of the old republican families of Florence. He is
so nice! Mr. Vostrand was opposed to him from the beginning, and as soon
as he heard of the sixty t