"It is fun now; I had no right to dare, but I did dare to hope that I might have a glimpse of you. I was sure that I should recognise you." "If I'd dreamed of your being here, I should have recognised you," I said. "You're taller than any other man here, I think." "Men grow tall in the West, where I come from." "And strong." "Yes, and strong, too--thank God." "And brave." "Men are brave all the world over." "I should think there are none braver than you, Mr. Brett," I said. "It's glorious for a man like me to hear such kind words from a girl like you, though I don't deserve them," he answered. "But I shall try to deserve them. All my life I shall be better for having heard them from your lips. You can hardly guess what it is to me. Perhaps the thing that comes nearest to it, would be if a prisoner for life in some dark pit heard a voice of sympathy speaking to him--actually to him--from a high white star." "Oh, don't speak of yourself as a prisoner in the dark!" I cried. "What else am I, when I stop to reflect how hopelessly I must be removed by circumstances from glorious heights--where stars shine." "But there can be nothing in your circumstances, Mr. Brett," I insisted, eagerly, "which need remove you from _any_ heights. I wonder you--so brave and strong, and an American, too--can say that of yourself. Why, you can reach anything, do anything you really wish, if you just want it enough." "Do you, an English girl, a daughter of the aristocracy, tell me that?" he asked. "I do. As if that makes any difference--any real, _true_ difference, I mean, when it comes to the heart of things. Oh, I've been thinking of such matters a great deal lately. I suppose because I'm among Americans. It must be that which has put the subject so much in my head." "Tell me what you have been thinking." "Oh, I can hardly tell. But for one thing, I've begun to see that a man--a man like you, for instance, Mr. Brett--oughtn't to call himself unlucky because he's poor, and has perhaps not been able to have as many advantages as richer men. He ought simply to feel that he has it in him to make himself equal in every way with the highest." "You mean, he can 'hustle,' as the saying is with us, and get rich, so as to stand on an equality with millionaires?" "No, it wasn't money I was thinking about. I've met a good many millionaires since I've been here, but I've seen none whom you need look upon as your superior. What I mean is that you've only to be ambitious enough, and not _feel_ that you're handicapped by your start, to attain to what you want in life--yes, whatever it may be." "You mean all this, Lady Betty?" he asked quickly. "You have as much faith as that in me?"