She happened to be his ideal."
"Really, Miss De Voe," said Mr. Pierce, "you must have misjudged him.
Though Peter is now my grandson, I am still able to know what he is. He
is not at all the kind of man who allows himself to be controlled by an
ideal."
"I do not feel that I have ever known Peter. He does not let people
perceive what is underneath," said Miss De Voe. "But of one thing I am
sure. Nearly everything he does is done from sentiment. At heart he is
an idealist."
"Oh!" cried several.
"That is a most singular statement," said Mr. Pierce. "There is not a
man I know who has less of the sentimental and ideal in him. An idealist
is a man of dreams and romance. Peter is far too sensible a fellow to
be that. There is nothing heroic or romantic in him."
"Nonsense, _Paternus_," said Watts. "You don't know anything about the
old chap. You've only seen him as a cool clever lawyer. If your old
definition of romance is right: that it is 'Love, and the battle between
good and evil,' Peter has had more true romance than all the rest of us
put together.
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