AND so Mrs. Vere wanted you in her theatre-party!” said Cousin Eugenia to Margaret, the next morning, as they were driving about in a flutter of preparation for Christmas. Margaret had sent off a charming box home, and she was now assisting Mrs. Gaston in the completion of her various Christmas schemes.  
“Yes,” she answered quietly, “and I declined.”
 
“Louis told me about it. It’s just as well you got out of it. He was afraid he had ventured too far in advising you. He said he felt he had no sort of right to do it, and that, in most cases, he should have held his peace; but he couldn’t bear to think of you in the midst of Mrs. Vere’s set, and he found the impulse to prevent it too strong to be resisted.”
 
“He was quite right,” said Margaret, feeling a little of pleasure in the considerate interest implied in what Mr. Gaston had said. “I should not have wanted to go, in any case, but I might not have known how to avoid it, and he gave me the means. I felt very thankful to him. But what is it that makes both you and Mr. Gaston distrust Mrs. Vere?”
 
Cousin Eugenia gave a little .
 
“Mrs. Vere is extremely pretty,” she said, “and of course she has admirers. She is certainly very free in her ways with them, but I know no more than that, and I certainly don’t care to know more. I asked Louis why he objected to your going with her, and he said, with that frown of his, that you could not possibly find any pleasure in her acquaintance. He would say nothing more, but I felt sure, by the way he looked, that there was a good deal kept back.”
 
“I wonder at Alan Decourcy,” said Margaret.
 
“Do you?” said Mrs. Gaston. “I don’t. I have long since ceased to wonder at any man’s admiring any woman.”
 
“But how can he? He is so fastidious.”
 
“Perhaps I used the wrong word,” said Mrs. Gaston; “to admire a woman is one thing and to find her amusing is another. I fancy Mr. Decourcy finds Mrs. Vere amusing—most men do, indeed—and your cousin is the sort of man with whom that is . With men of a certain type the woman who can furnish them most amusement will ever have the strongest hold upon them, and to that type I rather think your fascinating cousin belongs. As I said, most men find Mrs. Vere amusing, and as her husband does not look after her at all, the coast is clear for them to come and be amused; and they come.”
 
“I don’t think Mr. Gaston finds her amusing,” said Margaret.
 
“Louis! I should think not!” said Mrs. Gaston, warmly. “My dear, you don’t know Louis yet—perhaps you never will. Very few people besides Edward and I know what that boy is. I know him, through and through, and I unhesitatingly declare that he’s an angel. I believe he’s of a different grain from other men. Mrs. Vere could no more ensnare him than she could put on a mist-cloud; and for that reason—because she knows her usual are powerless with him—she is anxious to get him in her . I’ll do her the justice to say her efforts have been masterly. She’s left no stone unturned. She’s tried the musical , and invited him to warble duets with her. That must have been a temptation, for you know how he loves music, and her voice is charming. She’s tried the charity dodge, and has come to him with tears in her eyes to get him to make plans for cottages she proposed to for poor people on her estate in the outer antipodes. He told me about that himself, and what do you suppose was his answer to her appeal? He told her that when she had made arrangements with the builder to go to work, to tell the latter to write to him on the subject and he would gladly furnish the plans for her cottages and feel himself honored in advancing her good work—begged her not to mention the question of payment, and bowed her out of his office with the assurance that the bu............