"No; because I ought not to be selfish, ought to go back and help."

"Ah," said he, "I am getting new lights every moment. Then you don't go
to parties just to enjoy yourself?"

She opened wide, serious eyes. "Oh, no." He smiled down at her very
kindly, "You shall go right away," he said, releasing her. "I will not
keep you another instant from dear Mr. Hardcastle and that nice Mrs.
Upjohn. But before you go let me tell you, Miss Phebe, that, if only in
view of your latest confession, I do not think you commonplace at all!"




CHAPTER III.

GERALD.


It was another article of the Joppian creed, that there was no such thing
possible as a purely Platonic friendship between a young man and a young
woman; there must always be "something in it": either a mitten for him,
or a disappointment for her, or wedding-cake for all--generally and
preferably, of course, the wedding-cake;--and belonging to such
friendship as lawfully as a tail belongs to a comet, was a great,
wide-spreading area of gossip. It was only in the case of Phebe Lane that
this universal and common-sense rule had its one particular and
unreasonable exception; and it was acting upon a speedily acquired
knowledge of this by-law, that Mr. Halloway boldly pursued his plan for
metamorphosing his young friend, right under the open eyes and ears of