example. And here you go, toppling my picture
over, without the least remorse.--Well, you know your own business
best, I suppose, but it's unkind of you, all the same, to destroy an
illusion. One has few enough of them in this world.--Ta-ta!"

She laughed satirically, and turned on her heel, regardless of the
effect of her words.

But Dove was not offended; on the contrary, he felt rather flattered.
He did not, of course, care in the least about what Madeleine called
her illusions; but the mental portrait she had drawn of him
corresponded exactly to that attitude in which he was fondest of
contemplating himself. For it could honestly be said that, hitherto, no
one had ever applied to him for aid in vain: he was always ready, both
with his time and with good advice. And the idea that, in the present
instance, he was being untrue to himself, in other words, that he was
letting an opportunity slip, ended by upsetting him altogether.

Until now, he had not regarded Maurice and Maurice's doings from this
point of view. By nature, Dove was opposed to excess of any kind; his
was a clean, strong mind, which caused him instinctively to draw back
from everything, in morals as in art, that passed a certain limit.
Nothing on earth would have persuaded him to discuss his quondam
friend's backsliding with Madeleine Wade; he was impregnated with the
belief that such matters were unfit for virtuous women's ears, and he
applied his conviction indiscriminately. Now, however, the notion of
Maurice as a Poor erring sheep, waiting, as it were, to be saved--this
idea was of undeniable attractiveness to Dove, and the more he revolved
it, the more convinced he grew of its truth.

But he had reasons for hesitating. Having valiantly overcome his own
disappointments, first in the case of Ephie, then of pretty Susie, he
now, in his third suit, was on the brink of success. The object of his
present attachment was a Scotch lady, no longer in her first youth, and
several years older than himself but of striking appearance, vivacious
manners, and, if report spoke true, considerable fortune. Her
appearance in Leipzig was due to the sudden burst of energy which often
inspires a woman of the Scotch nation when she feels her youth escaping
her. Miss MacCallum, who was abroad nominally to acquire the language,
was accompanied by her aged father and mother; and it was with these
two old people that it behoved Dove to ingratiate himself; for,
according