things, and do not make out for themselves any clear definition of what
their feelings are or what they mean. We hear that a man has behaved badly
to a girl, when the behaviour of which he has been guilty has resulted
simply from want of thought. He has found a certain companionship to be
agreeable to him, and he has accepted the pleasure without inquiry. Some
vague idea has floated across his brain that the world is wrong in
supposing that such friendship cannot exist without marriage or question
of marriage. It is simply friendship. And yet were his friend to tell him
that she intended to give herself in marriage elsewhere he would suffer
all the pangs of jealousy, and would imagine himself to be horribly ill-
treated. To have such a friend--a friend whom he cannot or will not make
his wife--is no injury to him. To him it is simply a delight, an
excitement in life, a thing to be known to himself only and not talked of
to others, a source of pride and inward exultation. It is a joy to think
of when he wakes, and a consolation in his little troubles. It dispels the
weariness of life, and makes a green spot of holiday within his daily
work. It is indeed death to her; but he does not know it. Frank Greystock
did think that he could not marry Lucy Morris without making an imprudent
plunge into deep water, and yet he felt that Lady Fawn was an ill-natured
old woman for hinting to him that he had better not, for the present,
continue his visits to Fawn Court. "Of course you understand me, Mr.
Greystock," she had said, meaning to be civil. "When Miss Morris has left
us--should she ever leave us--I should be most happy to see you." "What on
earth would take me to Fawn Court if Lucy were not there?" he said to
himself, not choosing to appreciate Lady Fawn's civility.

Frank Greystock was at this time nearly thirty years old. He was a good-
looking but not a strikingly handsome man, thin, of moderate height, with
sharp grey eyes; a face clean shorn, with the exception of a small
whisker; with wiry, strong dark hair, which was already beginning to show