nd to me, unless
perhaps because there may be a force of attraction between two
extremes."

"Yes; I should not fancy you at all like him," Mabel said, trying to
impress him with her intimate knowledge of Dudley's nature.

"No, not at all. In the first place, he has been so differently brought
up: he has travelled, seen a great deal of the world, and profited by
this experience, and I don't believe has ever had to take a thought of
dollars and cents: thus he is naturally liberal both in his ideas and
with his money. I am not,--not because I don't wish to be, but because I
cannot be. Secondly, he is another animal physically,--an athlete born;
while I have never engaged in any sport, know nothing of such matters,
nor could I learn them. And then there is such a vast difference
mentally between us: his mind is as quick and nimble as his muscles,
while mine is much like a muddy stream, I'm afraid,--opaque and
sluggish. Yes, I have often wondered over his friendship for me."

"I think you are detracting from your own virtues in order to flatter
his," said Mabel, smiling, but rejoicing inwardly over the happy
selection she had made in the college catalogue.

Manton protested that he had said no more than the truth, and continued
to sound the praises of his friend until the hour for Mabel's luncheon
arrived, when he departed for his solitary stroll upon the beach,
delighted, though by no means as much so as Mabel was, at having found a
friend of Dudley's.

After this it happened, if not by actual design, at any rate with
suspicious frequency, that Manton took the short cut to the beach and
that Mabel read her books and wrote her letters in the pine wood. One
day when they met thus, and after their acquaintance had grown to be
some three weeks old, Manton found the young lady (whom he had never
regarded in any other light than that of Dudley's betrothed) very
abstracted and apparently little inclined to lend the customary willing
ear to his tales of their mutual friend. This troubled him sorely. That
there had been some lovers' quarrel he could not doubt, and it pained
him to think that any cloud should have arisen to darken the brightness
of his friend's existence.

"Have you heard from Mort to-day?" he asked suddenly, in his blunt
fashion.

After a moment's hesitation, Mabel acknowledged that she had, but
further than that she vouchsafed him no information, and he soon
concluded to continue his journey to the beach,