r a cloud. Now, I had never done anything distinctly bad, but my
one ability seemed to consist in spending money, and when I had got
through a good deal of it my friends sent me here, which was perhaps a
little rough on your country. Well, as it happened, I fell in with men and
women of the right kind--Larry, and somebody else who did more for me.
That made a difference; and while I was realizing how very little I had
got for the time and dollars I had wasted, affairs began to happen in the
old country, and I should have the responsibility of handling a good many
of them if I went back there now. It sounds abominably egotistical, but
you see what it is leading to?"

Miss Schuyler, who had no difficulty on that point, regarded him
thoughtfully. Breckenridge was a handsome young Englishman and she had
liked him from the first. Larry had fallen to another, and that perhaps
counted for more than a little to Breckenridge; but she had seen more than
one friend of hers contented with the second best. Still, she sighed
before she met his gaze.

"I think you must make it a little plainer," she said.

"Well," said Breckenridge quietly, "it is just this. You have done a good
deal for me already, and I almost dare to fancy I could be a credit to you
if you would do a little more, while it would carry conviction to my most
doubting relatives if you went back to the old country with me. They would
only have to see you."

Flora Schuyler smiled. "This is serious, Mr. Breckenridge?"

Breckenridge made her a little inclination, and while in a curious fashion
it increased Flora Schuyler's liking for him she recognized that he was no
longer the light-hearted and irresponsible young Englishman she had met a
few months ago. He, too, had borne the burden, and there was a gravity in
his eyes and a slight hardening of his lips that had its meaning.

"I never was more serious in my life, madam," he said. "I know that I
might have spoken--not more respectfully, but differently--but when I am
too solemn everybody laughs at me."

"Does it not strike you that you have only regarded the affair from one
point of view so far?"

Breckenridge nodded. "I understand. But one feels very diffident when he
knows the slight value of what he has to offer. I should always love you,
whether you say yes or no. For the rest, there is a little land in the old
country, and an income which I believe should be enough for two. It seems
more becoming to throw mys