in doing this he fulfilled the
highest duty that came within his province. His associates were young
men who had more money than he, and who expected him to spend as much
as they spent. The houses he visited were inhabited by people who
took it for granted that all who came in contact with them were as
rich as themselves. The Formica interest was large. When he went to
Washington with his aunt, he went the rounds of the senators' houses
and hotels in the way of calls, dinners, and parties. When he went
to Boston with her he began his visits at the right hand of Beacon
Street, and branched into the streets behind it, where as good blood
abides, though it has not the same advantage of the air of the Common.
Wherever he went expense was involved, in the way of gloves, bouquets,
cards, fees to errand boys, exchange of civilities in lunches, cigars,
ale, brandy, sherry, stage, hack, and car fare, which he bore like a
hero.

Lily Tree, the girl whom he proposed to marry, belonged to a family
of the Formica species. It sailed through society all a-taut with
convention, and was _comme il faut_ from stem to stern. Lily and
Osgood had always known each other. They passed through the season
of hoop and ball, dancing-school, tableaux, and charades together;
sympathized in each other's embryonic flirtations; and were such fast
friends that no one ever dreamed of any danger to them from love. But
as the wagon that goes from the powder-mill in safety innumerable
times at last carries the keg which explodes it, so Osgood and Lily at
last touched the divine spark which threw them out of their old world
into one they had not anticipated.

This was part of Osgood's predicament.

What made him do as he had done?

Why had Lily accepted him?

She would never, he argued, consent to go out of the area which
bounded her ideas, and which comprised a small portion of New York,
Boston, Washington, and the tour of Europe, which meant a week in
London, six months in Paris, and ten days in Rome. Unless he descended
from the Sub-Treasury, and sought some business, such as making
varnish, glue, buttons, soap, sarsaparilla, or sewing machines, could
he marry? What shrewdness had he in the place of capital to bring to
bear on the requirements of these Yankee callings? How he worried over
the prospect which looked so pleasant the night before! Champagne,
flowers, light, and perfume were gone from it. He pitied himself in
his helplessness. The thoug