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“I think not.”

“Are you sure that a call upon Mrs. Halloran will not lead to this result?”

“No, I am not sure. Still, I do not apprehend any danger.”

“I should be very much afraid of the experiment.”

“But, do you not think, husband, that, apart from all these fears, I am bound to extend to Mrs. Halloran the courtesies due a neighbor?”

“I cannot, in the true sense of the word, consider her a neighbor; and, therefore, do not see that you owe her the courtesies to which you allude. It is the good in any one that really makes the neighbor. This good should ever be regarded. But, to show attentions, and give eminence and consideration to an evil-minded person, is to make evil, instead of good, the neighbor.–It is to give that power to evil which is ever exercised in injury to others.”

Mrs. Leland’s mind perceived only in a small degree the force of what her husband said.–She was not a woman who troubled herself about the characters of those who stood upon a certain level in society. Mrs. Halloran claimed her place from wealth and family connexions, and this place was rather above than below that occupied by Mrs. Leland. The temptation to call upon her was, therefore, pretty strong. It was not so much a regard for her new neighbor, as a desire to make her acquaintance, that influenced her.–Acting in opposition to her husband’s judgment, in a few days she called upon Mrs. Halloran.

She found her, to use her own words, a “charming woman.” The next move was for the daughter to call upon Mary Halloran. Before the week passed, these calls had been returned. In a month the two families–that is, the female members of them–had become quite intimate. This intimacy troubled Mr. Leland. He was a man of pure principles, and could tolerate no deviation from them. Deeply did he regret any association that might tend to weaken the respect for such principles with which he had sought to inspire the mind of his daughter. In them he knew lay the power that was to protect her in the world. But he could not interfere, arbitrarily, with his wife; that he would have considered more dangerous than to let her act in freedom. But he felt concerned for the consequence, and frequently urged her not to be too intimate with her new neighbor.

“Some evil, I am sure, will grow out of it,” he would say, whenever allusion was in any way made to the subject of his wife’s intimacy with Mrs. Halloran. “No one can touch pitch and not be defiled.”

“I really must blame you,” Mrs. Leland replied to a remark like this, “for your blind opposition to Mrs. Halloran. The more I see of her, the better I like her. She is a perfect lady. So kind, so affable, so–so”–

Mr. Leland shook his head.

“The mere gloss of polite society,” he returned. “There is no soundness in her heart. We know that, for the tree is judged by its fruit.”

“We have seen no evil fruit,” said the wife.

“Others have, and we know that others have.–Her conduct in the case of the Percys is notorious.”

“Common report is always exaggerated.”

“Though it usually has some foundation in truth. But granting all the exaggeration and false judgment that usually appertain to common report, is it not wiser to act as if common report were true, until we know it to be false?”

But it was useless for Mr. Leland to talk.–His wife was charmed with the fascinating neighbor, and would hear nothing against her. Jane, too, had become intimate with Mary Halloran, a bold-faced girl, who spent half of her time in the street, and talked of little else but beaux and dress. Jane was eighteen, and before her acquaintance with Mary, had been but little into company. Her intimacy with Mary soon put new notions into her head. She began to think more of dress, and scarcely a day passed that she did not go out with her very intimate and pleasant friend. Mrs. Leland did not like this. Much as she was pleased Mrs. Halloran, she never fancied the daughter a great deal, and would have been much better satisfied if the two young ladies had not become quite so intimate.