, not only from certain unworthy feelings which he did his
best to suppress, but also because he saw nothing but harm to be
possible from any close _rapprochement_ between Claudia and Stafford.
Kate, on the contrary, seemed to him to have set herself the task of
throwing them together; with what motive he could not understand, unless
it were the recollection of his ill-fated "Claudia." He did not think
this explanation very convincing, for he was well aware that Kate's
scorn of Claudia's attractions, as compared with her own, was perfectly
genuine, and such a state of mind would not produce the certainly active
efforts she put forth. In truth, Eugene, though naturally observant,
was, like all men, a little blind where he himself was concerned; and
perhaps a shrewd spectator would have connected Haddington in some way
with Miss Kate's maneuvers. Such, at any rate, was the view of Bob
Territon, and no doubt he would have expressed it with his usual
frankness if he had not had his own reasons for keeping silence.

Stafford's state of mind was somewhat peculiar. A student from his
youth, to whom invisible things had always seemed more real than
visible, and hours of solitude better filled than busy days, he had had
but little experience of that sort of humanity among which he found
himself. A man may administer a cure of souls with marked efficiency in
the Mile End Road, and yet find himself much at a loss when confronted
with the latest products of the West End. The renunciation of the world,
except so far as he could aid in mending it, had seemed an easy and
cheap price to pay for the guerdon he strove for, to one who had never
seen how pleasant this wicked world can look in certain of its aspects.
Hitherto, at school, at college, and afterward, he had resolutely turned
away from all opportunities of enlarging his experience in this
direction. He had shunned society, and had taken great pains to restrict
his acquaintance with the many devout ladies who had sought him out to
the barest essentials of what ought to have been, if it was not always,
their purpose in seeking him. The prince of this world was now preparing
a more subtle attack; and under the seeming compulsion of common
prudence no less than of old friendship, he found himself flung into the
very center of the sort of life he had with such pains avoided. It may
be doubted whether he was not, like an unskillful swimmer, ignorant of
his danger; but it is certain th