LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT "I am asking a great deal of you, George! I know it.

But you see how helpless I am--and read the letter--read it for yourself." He passed Phyllis's letter across the small round dining-table.

His guest took it and read it carefully through.
"How old is the young lady ?" he asked.
"Twenty-three!" "And the boy ?" "Twenty-one." "Orphans, I think you said ?" "Orphans and relationless." "Well off ?" "Moderately." Duncombe leaned back in his chair and sipped his port thoughtfully.
"It is an extraordinary situation!" he remarked.
"Extraordinary indeed," his friend assented.

"But so far as I am concerned you can see how I am fixed.

I am older than either of them, but I have always been their nearest neighbor and their most intimate friend.