ith in any measure
or manner detrimental to Ellen. As for Miss Rasmith herself, Mrs. Kenton
would have had greater reason to be anxious about her behavior with
Boyne than Mr. Breckon. From the moment that the minister had made his
two groups of friends acquainted, the young lady had fixed upon Boyne
as that member of the Kenton group who could best repay a more intimate
friendship. She was polite to them all, but to Boyne she was flattering,
and he was too little used to deference from ladies ten years his senior
not to be very sensible of her worth in offering it. To be unremittingly
treated as a grown-up person was an experience so dazzling that his
vision was blinded to any possibilities in the behavior that formed it;
and before the day ended Boyne had possessed Miss Rasmith of all that it
was important for any fellow-being to know of his character and history.
He opened his heart to eyes that had looked into others before his,
less for the sake of exploiting than of informing himself. In the rare
intelligence of Miss Rasmith he had found that serious patience with
his problems which no one else, not Ellen herself, had shown, and
after trying her sincerity the greater part of the day he put it to
the supreme test, one evening, with a book which he had been reading.
Boyne's literature was largely entomological and zoological, but this
was a work of fiction treating of the fortunes of a young American
adventurer, who had turned his military education to account in the
service of a German princess. Her Highness's dominions were not in any
map of Europe, and perhaps it was her condition of political incognito
that rendered her the more fittingly the prey of a passion for the
American head of her armies. Boyne's belief was that this character
veiled a real identity, and he wished to submit to Miss Rasmith the
question whether in the exclusive circles of New York society any young
millionaire was known to have taken service abroad after leaving west
Point. He put it in the form of a scoffing incredulity which it was a
comfort to have her take as if almost hurt by his doubt. She said that
such a thing might very well be, and with rich American girls marrying
all sorts of titles abroad, it was not impossible for some brilliant
young fellow to make his way to the steps of a throne. Boyne declared
that she was laughing at him, and she protested that it was the last
thing she should think of doing; she was too much afraid of him