and whether she would never be more friendly with
him.

'I don't want to be familiar, goodness knows; but really to work for
hours every day with a person who treats you as if you were her deadly
enemy, and won't allow you even to ask if she is cold, and would like
the window shut or sit nearer the fire, is annoying, you must own?' he
complained to his mother.

The latter laughed at his aggrieved expression. 'Girls don't generally
treat you so badly, do they? Well, it won't do you any harm to be
snubbed for once in your life, though it's only by a City clerk,' she
replied.

'Only a City clerk? A disguised duchess would be nearer the mark! I 'm
helping Vava with her sums--Miss Vava, I beg her pardon--one has to be
careful with any one belonging to Miss Wharton. I am surprised that she
allows me to give her sister algebra lessons, as Vava calls it. What a
stupid thing pride is, and, above all things, pride of birth. Think how
much more she would enjoy life if she would be friends with us, instead
of keeping us at a distance as if we were dirt under her feet!' cried
the young man with irritation.

'You would not take so much trouble if she were plain, and perhaps she
feels that,' observed his mother.

'I should be civil to her, and she would be civil to me, which is more
than Miss Wharton is,' observed Mr. James Jones, taking up his hat to go
to his office.

His mother looked after him with troubled eyes. 'I am dreadfully afraid
he is getting to like that girl,' she remarked to her husband.

'Then he'd better give it up, for she evidently doesn't care for him?'
replied Mr. Jones.

'He's good-looking enough to please most girls,' said his wife.

'Yes, but Miss Wharton did not go to the City to flirt or fall in love,
and I respect her all the more for it. I should like to ask her and that
little sister of hers here; but I suppose it's no use, eh?' he inquired.

'Not a bit, especially as they are moving out of town; not but what I
shall call upon them when they are settled at Blackstead, and I'll see
if I can persuade them to come and dine here then,' she said.

Stella Wharton ought to have been much flattered at the desire for her
society and the trouble these rich people were putting themselves to in
order to make the acquaintance of their son's clerk; but it is to be
feared that if she had known it would neither have flattered nor pleased
her--poor proud Stella! But the kindness of the Hackneys pleased her,
a