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A

LIKELY STORY

BY
W. D. HOWELLS.

HARPER'S
BLACK & WHITE
SERIES




A LIKELY STORY


[Illustration: "THE MOST EXCITING PART."]




A LIKELY STORY

Farce


BY

W. D. HOWELLS


ILLUSTRATED

[Illustration]

NEW YORK
HARPER AND BROTHERS
1894




Harper's "Black and White" Series.

Illustrated. 32mo, Cloth, 50 cents each.


_LATEST ISSUES:_

     FIVE O'CLOCK TEA. Farce. By W. D. Howells.

     THE MOUSE-TRAP. Farce. By W. D. Howells.

     A LIKELY STORY. Farce. By W. D. Howells.

     THIS PICTURE AND THAT. A Comedy. By Brander Matthews.

     TRAVELS IN AMERICA 100 YEARS AGO. By Thomas Twining.

     MY YEAR IN A LOG CABIN. By William Dean Howells.

     EVENING DRESS. A Farce. By William Dean Howells.

     THE WORK OF WASHINGTON IRVING. By Charles Dudley Warner.

     EDWIN BOOTH. By Laurence Hutton.

     PHILLIPS BROOKS. By Rev. Arthur Brooks, D.D.

     THE DECISION OF THE COURT. A Comedy. By Brander Matthews.

     GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. By John White Chadwick.

     THE UNEXPECTED GUESTS. A Farce. By William Dean Howells.

     SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN AFRICA. By Henry M. Stanley.

     THE RIVALS. By Francois Coppee.

     WHITTIER: NOTES OF HIS LIFE AND OF HIS FRIENDSHIPS. By Annie
     Fields.

     THE JAPANESE BRIDE. By Naomi Tamura.

     GILES COREY, YEOMAN. By Mary E. Wilkins.

     COFFEE AND REPARTEE. By John Kendrick Bangs.

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

_For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers,
postage prepaid, on receipt of price._


Copyright, 1894, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

Copyright, 1885, by W. D. HOWELLS.

_All rights reserved._




CONTENTS


Chapter                                                         Page

   I   MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL                                7

  II   MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL                                  29

 III   MRS. CAMPBELL; MR. WELLING; MR. CAMPBELL                   34

  IV   JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL                     39

   V   MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL                           41

  VI   JANE; MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL                     43

 VII   MRS. CAMPBELL; WELLING; CAMPBELL                           44

VIII   MISS RICE, MISS GREENWAY, and the OTHERS                   48

  IX   MISS GREENWAY; MR. WELLING                                 50

   X   MISS RICE; then MR. and MRS. CAMPBELL, and the OTHERS      53




ILLUSTRATIONS


"THE MOST EXCITING PART OF IT"                       _Frontispiece_

MR. WELLING EXPLAINS                               _Facing page 52_




A LIKELY STORY




I

_MR. AND MRS. WILLIS CAMPBELL_


Mrs. Campbell: "Now this, I think, is the most exciting part of the
whole affair, and the pleasantest." She is seated at breakfast in her
cottage at Summering-by-the-Sea. A heap of letters of various stylish
shapes, colors, and superscriptions lies beside her plate, and
irregularly straggles about among the coffee-service. Vis-a-vis with her
sits Mr. Campbell behind a newspaper. "How prompt they are! Why, I
didn't expect to get half so many answers yet. But that shows that where
people have nothing to do _but_ attend to their social duties they are
always prompt--even the men; women, of course, reply early anyway, and
you don't really care for them; but in town the men seem to put it off
till the very last moment, and then some of them call when it's over to
excuse themselves for not having come after accepting. It really makes
you wish for a leisure class. It's only