her any
more. Yet now that I was again near her I was eager to meet and talk with
her. I had often felt myself superior to other fellows of my age on
account of this very experience of living down a passion; but since I had
received her note I might have known that my experience had done little
for me--that I had merely been removed from temptation; for, school myself
as I might, my blood was leaping in my veins at the thought of looking
into her eyes again. One cannot be twenty and be wise at the same time.
But then in some matters a man is never wise, let his age be what it may.

Mrs. Dwight's parlors were long and spacious and splendidly furnished.
They were well filled too before we entered, for we were so anxious to do
the most truly elegant thing to-night that we had put off making our
appearance until long past ten o'clock. Whatever expectations we may have
had of making a sensation in the rooms were considerably damped by the
awkwardness of our debut. Jack knew the house, and at once skirted the
crowd to find what he wanted, but Harry and I were obliged to stand still
in a corner, ignorant of everything save the name of our hostess, waiting
for something to turn up. The ordeal was not so disagreeable as it might
seem. The band played in the alcove, the women were well dressed and, to
our eyes, radiantly beautiful, while the men appealed to our critical
curiosity. Plenty of our college dons were there, and many of the leading
men of the day, but more interesting to us were the perfectly-dressed,
graceful society-men a little beyond our own age: these we watched
carefully, with the superior air of contempt with which every man of every
age views the social success of others; yet we envied them nevertheless.
In one of these we simultaneously recognized an old friend, and exclaimed
together, "If there isn't Thorpe!"

And Thorpe indeed it was, better dressed, handsomer, more consummately the
finished man of the world, than ever. He was conversing with a stout,
elderly lady with gray puffs stiffly fixed on her temples and white
feathers in her braids, who was discoursing fluently to him on some
subject in which he seemed profoundly interested. Suddenly, however, his
eyes dilated and his face gained expression: he had met my eyes and nodded
with a half smile, and within five minutes he had adroitly bestowed the
old lady in an easy-chair and planted three professors before her, and was
shaking hands with us. We were ra