James. 'Who would have thought it would have so turned out?' she
said. 'My poor Oliver! to be so met after all his generous plans!
and yet Jem does want to do right!'

Unfortunately, Louis felt that, to own Oliver's generosity, it was
necessary to be out of sight of him; and finding that there was
silence and constraint in the drawing-room, he asked Isabel to walk
with him to meet James.

'One breathes freely!' said she, as they left the house. 'Was there
ever a more intolerable man?'

'Never was a man who made a more unlucky error in judgment.'

'And that is all you call it?'

'The spurious object warped the mind aside,' said Louis. 'The grand
idea was too exclusive, and now he suffers for the exclusiveness. It
is melancholy to see the cinder of a burnt-offering to Mammon,
especially when the offering was meant for better things.'

In this strain he chose to talk, without coming to particulars, till,
near the corner of the old square, they met the shouting throng of
boys, and presently James himself, descending the steps of the grim
old grey building.

'I thought you would forgive me for coming to meet you under such an
escort,' said Isabel, 'especially as it was to escape from our
Peruvian relative.'