OTHERS.

Copyright, 1885, by W. D. HOWELLS.

_All rights reserved._

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL 7

II MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL 29

III MRS. CAMPBELL; MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL 34

IV JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 39

V MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 41

VI JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 43

VII MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 44

VIII MISS RICE, MISS GREENWAY, and the OTHERS 48

IX MISS GREENWAY; MR. WELLING 50

X MISS RICE; then MR. and MRS. CAMPBELL, and the OTHERS 53

ILLUSTRATIONS

"THE MOST EXCITING PART OF IT" _Frontispiece_

MR. WELLING EXPLAINS _Facing page 52_

A LIKELY STORY

I

_MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL_

Mrs. Campbell: "Now this, I think, is the most exciting part of the
whole affair, and the pleasantest." She is seated at breakfast in her
cottage at Summering-by-the-Sea. A heap of letters of various stylish
shapes, colors, and superscriptions lies beside her plate, and
irregularly straggles about among the coffee-service. Vis-a-vis with her
sits Mr. Campbell behind a newspaper. "How prompt they are! Why, I
didn't expect to get half so many answers yet. But that shows that where
people have nothing to do _but_ attend to their social duties they are
always prompt--even the men; women, of course, reply early anyway, and
you don't really care for them; but in town the men seem to put it off
till the very last moment, and then some of them call when it's over to
excuse themselves for not having come after accepting. It really makes
you wish for a leisure class. It's only the drive and hurry of American
life that make our men seem wanting in the _convenances_; and if they
had the time, with their instinctive delicacy, they would be perfect: it
would come from the heart: they're more truly polite now. Willis, just
_look_ at this!"

Campbell, behind his paper: "Look at what?"

Mrs. Campbell: "These replies. Why, I do believe that more than half the
people have answered already, and the invitations only went out
yesterday. That comes from