No other of her wooers had ever written her a poem; no other was capable of it.  It gave Piers a distinction in her mind which more than earned her pardon.

But—­poor fellow!—­he must surely know that she could never respond to his romantic feeling.  It was pure romance, and charming —­if only it did not mean sorrow to him and idle hopes.  Such a love as this, distant, respectful, she would have liked to keep for years, for a lifetime.  If only she could be sure that romance was as dreamily delightful to her poet as to her!

The worst of it was that Piers Otway had suffered a sad wrong, an injustice which, when she heard of it, made her nobly angry.  A month after the death of the old philosopher at Hawes, Mrs. Hannaford startled her with a strange story.  The form it took was this:  That Piers, having for a whispered reason no share in his father’s possessions, had perforce given up his hopes of commercial enterprise, and returned to his old subordinate position at Odessa.  The two legitimate sons would gladly have divided with him their lawful due, but Piers refused this generosity, would not hear of it for a moment, stood on his pride, and departed.  Thus Mrs. Hannaford, who fully believed what she said; and as she had her information direct from the eldest son, Daniel Otway, there could be no doubt as to its correctness.  Piers had behaved well; he could not take alms from his half-brothers.  But what a monstrous thing that accident and the law of the land left him thus destitute!  Feeling strongly about it, Irene begged her aunt, when next she wrote to Odessa, to give Piers, from her, a message of friendly encouragement; not, of course, a message that necessarily implied knowledge of his story, but one that would help him with the assurance of his being always kindly remembered by friends in London.

Six months after came the little poem, which Irene, without purposing it, learnt by heart.

A chapter of pure romance; one which, Irene felt, could not possibly have any relation to her normal life.  And perhaps because she felt. that so strongly, perhaps because her conscience warned her against the danger of still seeming to encourage a lover she could not dream of marrying, perhaps because these airy nothings threw into stronger relief the circumstances which environed her, she forthwith made up her mind to go on the long journey with her father and Arnold Jacks.  Mrs. Hannaford did not fail to acquaint Piers Otway with the occurrence.

And those two months of companionship told in Arnold’s favour.  Jacks was excellent in travel; he had large experience, and showed to advantage on the highways of the globe.  No more entertaining companion during the long days of steamship life; no safer guide in unfamiliar lands.  His personality made a striking contrast with the robustious semi-civilisation of the colonists with whom Irene became acquainted; she appreciated all the more his many refinements.