"One has to be far from home to really appreciate its strong points," he observed meditatively; "I never shall forget how I felt after nearly a year abroad when I came suddenly upon the American flag waving over a consulate building somewhere in Italy. I hadn't an idea up to that moment that I was particularly patriotic, and I'd been enjoying my trip immensely, but I could have fallen on the neck of the wizened little chap inside just because he was born in Schenectady, New York. But as a matter of fact, Jane, our rivers are not all muddy; you ought to travel about and see more of America before you allow yourself to form cast-iron opinions about it. You've seen nothing but our seamy side yet, and quite naturally you can't help setting America down as a very disagreeable place, and bunching all Americans as cads." Jane's brilliant little face dimpled mischievously. "Oh, no, I don't," she said sweetly; "I have the highest possible esteem for Bertha Forbes. She is an American and a very superior person, I am sure." "You mean by that, I suppose, that you think her fair-minded and kind-hearted; don't you?" "I suppose I do," admitted Jane. "Bertha is clever, too, and amusing--sometimes." "Nearly all Americans are clever and amusing, in spots," he said confidently, "and numbers of us can fill the rest of the bill clear down to the ground; you'll see, Jane, when you come to know us better." She shook her head. "I am going back to England in June," she said, "and I never expect to come back." "Do you mean that you never want to come back?" Jane shrugged her shoulders slightly. "I might possibly return to travel about sometime," she admitted, her mind reverting to Mr. Towles's parting words. "I am very fond of travel." "So am I," he said somewhat ruefully, "but I fear I'll not do much of it for some years to come." Jane's eyes remained pensively fixed upon the opposite shore. She was apparently quite indifferent to Mr. Everett's future prospects, and after a short pause, which he devoted to a careful study of the girl's clear profile, he observed tentatively: "I hope you'll not lay it up against Margaret--the way she treats you and all, I mean. She's really an uncommonly good sort, when one comes to know her; but, of course, she can't--I mean she doesn't understand----" "I thought we were to forget Mrs. Belknap for this one day?" murmured Jane, with a little curl of her pretty lips. He flushed uncomfortably. "What I meant to say was this: it occurred to me that it might be advisable for you to make a clean breast of the whole thing; to--to tell Margaret all about yourself and how you came to leave England, and so put yourself right. I--I wish you would, Jane."