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.
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