uld suppose."

"Every chance of having everything. Very little chance of being
anything."

There was a pause. Then: "Very well, Hal, I know I can trust you to do
what you believe right, at least. That's a good deal. Festus tells me to
let you alone. He says that you must fight your own fight in your own
way. That's the whole principle of salvation in Festus's creed."

"Not a bad one," said Hal. "I'm not particularly liking to do this, you
know, Lady Jinny."

"So I can understand. Have you heard anything from Esme Elliot since she
left?"

"No."

"You mustn't drop out of the set, Hal," said the little woman anxiously.
"You've made good so quickly. And our crowd doesn't take up with the
first comer, you know."

Since Esme Elliot had passed out of his life, as he told himself, Hal
found no incentive to social amusements. Hence he scarcely noticed a
slow but widening ostracism which shut him out from house after house,
under the pressure of the Pierce influence. But Mrs. Festus Willard had
perceived and resented it. That any one for whom she had stood sponsor
should fail socially in Worthington was both irritating and incredible
to her. Hence she made more of Hal than she might otherwise have found
time to do, and he was much with her and Festus Willard, deriving, on
the one hand, recreation and amusement from her sparkling
_camaraderie_, and on the other, support and encouragement from her
husband's strong, outspoken, and ruggedly honest common sense. Neither
of them fully approved of his attack on Kathleen Pierce, whom they
understood better than he did. But they both--and more particularly
Festus Willard--appreciated the courage and honor of the "Clarion's" new
standards.

Except for an occasional dinner at their house, and a more frequent hour
late in the afternoon or early in the evening, with one or both of them,
Hal saw almost nothing of the people into whose social environment he
had so readily slipped. Because of his exclusion, there prospered the
more naturally a casual but swiftly developing intimacy which had sprung
up between himself and Milly Neal.

It began with her coming to Hal for his counsel about her copy. From the
first she assumed an attitude of unquestioning confidence in his wisdom
and taste. This flattered the pedagogue which is inherent in all of us.
He was wise enough to see promptly that he must be delicately careful in
his criticism, since here he was dealing out not opinion, but gosp