That just such elements as we give to the
individual, the individual gives back to us? That the sides we show are
the sides seen by the world. There were people who could truly believe
that Peter was a ward boss; a frequenter of saloons; a drunkard; a liar;
a swearer; a murderer, in intention, if not in act; a profligate; and a
compromiser of many of his own strongest principles. Yet there were
people who could, say other things of him.
But more important than the opinion of Peter's friends, and of the
world, was the opinion of Peter's wife. Was she right in her theory that
she was the only one who understood him? Or had she, as he had once
done, reared an ideal, and given that ideal the love which she supposed
she was giving Peter? It is always a problem in love to say whether we
love people most for the qualities they actually possess, or for those
with which our own love endows them. Here was a young girl,
inexperienced in world and men, joyfully sinking her own life in that of
a man whom, but a few months before, had been only a matter of hearsay
to her.
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