A Likely Story   By: William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

LIKELY STORY

BY W. D. HOWELLS.

HARPER'S BLACK & WHITE SERIES

A LIKELY STORY

[Illustration: "THE MOST EXCITING PART."]

A LIKELY STORY

Farce

BY

W. D. HOWELLS

ILLUSTRATED

[Illustration]

NEW YORK HARPER AND BROTHERS 1894

Harper's "Black and White" Series.

Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, 50 cents each.

LATEST ISSUES:

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PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, on receipt of price.

Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

Copyright, 1885, by W. D. HOWELLS.

All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL 7

II MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL 29

III MRS. CAMPBELL; MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL 34

IV JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 39

V MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 41

VI JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 43

VII MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL 44

VIII MISS RICE, MISS GREENWAY, and the OTHERS 48

IX MISS GREENWAY; MR. WELLING 50

X MISS RICE; then MR. and MRS. CAMPBELL, and the OTHERS 53

ILLUSTRATIONS

"THE MOST EXCITING PART OF IT" Frontispiece

MR. WELLING EXPLAINS Facing page 52

A LIKELY STORY

I

MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL

Mrs. Campbell: "Now this, I think, is the most exciting part of the whole affair, and the pleasantest." She is seated at breakfast in her cottage at Summering by the Sea. A heap of letters of various stylish shapes, colors, and superscriptions lies beside her plate, and irregularly straggles about among the coffee service. Vis à vis with her sits Mr. Campbell behind a newspaper. "How prompt they are! Why, I didn't expect to get half so many answers yet. But that shows that where people have nothing to do but attend to their social duties they are always prompt even the men; women, of course, reply early anyway, and you don't really care for them; but in town the men seem to put it off till the very last moment, and then some of them call when it's over to excuse themselves for not having come after accepting. It really makes you wish for a leisure class. It's only the drive and hurry of American life that make our men seem wanting in the convenances ; and if they had the time, with their instinctive delicacy, they would be perfect: it would come from the heart: they're more truly polite now. Willis, just look at this!"

Campbell, behind his paper: "Look at what?"