the summer noon
In a way the man , even with his frustrated aims in the progress of life , was so superior to the little , unconscious feminine thing whose chief assets of life were her youth and innocence , and even those of slight weight against the man 's age and innocence , that it seemed a pity . It was not a case of pearls before swine , but seemingly rather of pearls before canary-birds or butterflies , which would not defile them , but flutter over them unheedingly . However , it may be better to cast away one 's pearls of love before anything , rather than keep them . Anderson , walking along home to his dinner in the summer noon , loving foolishly and unreasonably this young girl who would never , probably , place the slightest value on his love , was not actively unhappy . After he had turned the corner of the street on which his house stood he heard the whistle of the noon-train , and soon the carriages from the station came whirling in sight . Samson Rawdy came first , driving a victoria in which sat the gentleman who had been pointed out to him as Ina Carroll 's _ fiance _ . He glanced at him approvingly , and the thought even was in his mind that had this stranger been going to marry Charlotte , instead of her sister , he could have had nothing to say against his appearance .