The girl of course looked surprised, but she caught my eye, and
entered into the joke, and we both waited for developments. Then she
suddenly said to him, 'Now let's talk about something else.' It was too
much for me. I nearly choked. I don't know what followed. Miss Jevons
turned and asked me something. But when I looked again, I could see the
perspiration standing on Peter's forehead, while the conversation went
by jerks and starts as if it was riding over a ploughed field. Miss
Callender, whom he took in, told me afterwards that she had never had a
harder evening's work in her life. Nothing but 'yeses' and 'noes' to be
got from him. She wouldn't believe what I said of the old fellow."
Three or four such experiences ended Peter's dining out. He was
recognized as unavailable material. He received an occasional card to a
reception or a dance, for anything in trousers passes muster for such
functions. He always went when invited, and was most dutiful in the
counter-calls. In fact, society was to him a duty which he discharged
with the same plodding determination with which he did his day's
studies.
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