Mrs. Gaston was a very clever and agreeable woman and pretended, with some reason, to know the world. Her marriage had been considered quite a brilliant one, as General Gaston’s position, both social and official, was extremely good, and he had quite a large private fortune in addition to his pay. He was not so clever as his wife, but more thoughtful and perhaps more sincere. It was a successful marriage, and the Gaston establishment was tasteful and well ordered. Mrs. Gaston, whose health was indifferent, kept her room a good deal when she could escape the exactions of society, which she never allowed herself to shirk; and her husband was so much absorbed in his official and social duties that Margaret was often alone. “I am afraid you are frequently dull, my dear,” Mrs. Gaston said to her cousin one morning, as the latter sat beside her couch in the little dressing-room where the invalid was taking her breakfast. “It will be brighter for you when the season fairly opens; but I purposely begged you to come now, so that we might have time to make acquaintance while we are quiet. I wish Louis would come home, but there’s never any counting on him, he’s so frightfully busy all the time. I never saw a man work so hard in my life.” Margaret looked a little puzzled: “I thought you told me----” she began, “That he is well off? So he is. He has quite a nice little fortune and there’s no earthly reason why he should work so hard, except that he likes it; and from that point of view I don’t blame him. ‘Pleasure the way you like it,’ is an axiom for which I have a profound respect, and Louis undoubtedly finds his chief pleasure in application to his profession.” “What is his profession?” Margaret asked; for, although it was evident that Mrs. Gaston was very fond of her brother-in-law, she had, for some reason, said very little about him to her cousin. “He’s an architect--I thought you knew--Ames & Gaston. Have you never heard of them?” “No,” said Margaret, shaking her head and smiling, “but that does not go for much. I am finding out that I have never heard of most things.” “It’s really quite delightful that you never heard of Ames & Gaston,” said Cousin Eugenia, laughing. “I shall inform Louis promptly, though he won’t believe it, or if he does he’ll set it down to the obtuseness of Southern people--a foregone conclusion in his mind! I must tell you that I anticipate some pleasure in seeing you enlighten him on that score.” “I am afraid I shall not be able to do much,” said Margaret. “I do feel myself extremely ignorant by the side of General Gaston and yourself, especially when you talk of modern literature and art and music.”