The Christmas holidays that season were nearly spoiled for him.

He had asked Carlia a number of times to go to the parties with him, but she had offered some excuse each time.
"Let her alone," someone had told him.
"No; do not let her alone," his mother had counseled; and he took his mother's advice.
Carlia had been absent from the Sunday meetings for a number of weeks, so when she appeared in her place in the choir on a Sunday late in January, Dorian noticed the unusual pallor of her face.

He wondered if she had been ill.

He resolved to make another effort, for in fact, his heart went out to her.

At the close of the meeting he found his way to her side as she was walking home with her father and mother.