It would do her no harm at the worst.

But very soon all these shadowy forebodings of dawning trouble vanished quite.
They were lost in the broad, sweet lights of friendship.

By-and-by, when friendship's day was done, they might arise again, called by other names and wearing a sterner face.
It was ridiculous--of course it was ridiculous; he was not going to fall in love like a boy at his time of life; all he felt was gratitude and interest--all she felt was amusement in his society.

As for the intimacy--felt rather than expressed--the intimacy that could already almost enable the one to divine the other's thought, that could shape her mood to his and his to hers, that could cause the same thing of beauty to be a common joy, and discover unity of mind in opinions the most opposite--why, it was only natural between people who had together passed a peril terrible to think of.

So they took the goods the gods provided, and drifted softly on--whither they did not stop to inquire.
One day, however, a little incident happened that ought to have opened the eyes of both.