Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/242

230 "And the hold of the land upon one is peculiar. I could never bring myself to part with an acre of it which I had either bought or inherited. Of course, during my practical expatriation for many years, my landed property here has suffered. I have often wondered at myself for holding on to it, when I could have invested the money in an English estate which really would have been much more profitable—but I could never divest myself of the feeling that the land would yet draw me back to it. However," he continued, quite gaily, "it is now so depreciated, and the new system is so impossible for the old masters to adopt, that I can't sell it, and I can't live on it—so I shall be compelled to buy an estate in England in the country, for a town house, even the Prince's Gate one, is only endurable for five months in the year."

Ethel's eyes glistened—a town house at Prince's Gate—an estate in the country! Might she not, after all, be Mrs. Romaine? And Mr. Romaine's position was so much better than that of any other American she knew; the others were all striving for recognition, but Mr. Romaine had had an assured place in English society for a generation. He