“It’s a shame to laugh at what troubles me, John. The Follingsbees are my friends, and of course I want to treat them handsomely.”
“We will treat them just as handsomely as we treat ourselves,” said John, “and mortal man or woman ought not to ask more.”
“I don’t care,” said Lillie, after a pause. “I hate all these moral movements and society questions. They are always in the way of people’s having a good time; and I believe the world would wag just as well as it does, if nobody had ever thought of them. People will call you a real muff, John.”
“How very terrible!” said John, laughing. “What shall I do if I am called a muff? and what a jolly little Mrs. Muff you will be!” he said, pinching her cheek.
“You needn’t laugh, John,” said Lillie, pouting. “You don’t know how things look in fashionable circles. The Follingsbees are in the very highest circle. They have lived in Paris, and been invited by the Emperor.”
“I haven’t much opinion of Americans who live in Paris and are invited by the Emperor,” said John. “But, be that as it may, I shall do the best I can for them, and Mr. Young says, ‘angels could no more;’ so, good-by, puss: I must go to my office; and don’t let’s talk about this any more.”
And John put on his cap and squared his broad shoulders, and, marching off with a resolute stride, went to his office, and had a most uncomfortable morning of it. You see, my dear friends, that though Nature has set the seal of sovereignty on man, in broad shoulders and bushy beard; though he fortify and incase himself in rough overcoats and heavy boots, and walk with a dashing air, and whistle like a freeman, we all know it is not an easy thing to wage a warfare with a pretty little creature in lace cap and tiny slippers, who has a faculty of looking very pensive and grieved, and making up a sad little mouth, as if her heart were breaking.
John never doubted that he was right, and in the way of duty; and yet, though he braved it out so stoutly with Lillie, and though he marched out from her presence victoriously, as it were, with drums beating and colors flying, yet there was a dismal sinking of heart under it.
“I’m right; I know I am. Of course I can’t give up here; it’s a matter of principle, of honor,” he said over and over to himself. “Perhaps if Lillie had been here I never should have taken such a pledge; but as I have, there’s no help for it.”