“It would be too much for any one else to say to me certainly,” said Louis, looking steadily at her, “and I cannot say the idea you suggest is exactly palatable; but I think I could hardly take offence at words of yours.” At that moment the door-bell rang, and presently Thomas announced General Reardon. “Generals seem to be the order of the day,” said Margaret, with a smile, as the visitor was crossing the hall. “I might be back in Bassett for the prevalence of titles.” Miss Trevennon greeted General Reardon with great cordiality, and set herself at once to the task of entertaining him. He called only occasionally at the Gastons’ house, as he did not enjoy their society any more than they did his. He had been in the United States Army before the war, and had been extremely popular among the officers, being possessed of a fund of anecdote and humor, which congealed instantly in the atmosphere of the Gastons’ drawing-room, but flowed freely enough in camps and barracks. He was of a good Southern family, and essentially a gentleman. His visits, as has been indicated, were not especially inspiring to the Gastons, but Cousin Eugenia had detected in her husband a faint tendency to slight this distant cousin of hers, and it was just like her, after that, to treat him with greater distinction. General Gaston, in truth, found it a little difficult to ignore the fact that he was an officer in the Federal army who had gone with the South, and certainly did not enjoy his visits; but he stood in some awe of his wife, which enabled him partially to conceal the fact that he chafed under her cousin’s companionship. When Thomas had summoned his master and mistress to the drawing-room, Mrs. Gaston seated herself near General Reardon, and at once fell into fluent conversation with him. General Gaston, for his part, established himself half-way between this couple and the pair who were seated on the other side of the fire-place. He sat very straight and erect in his chair, occasionally making a rather forced remark to General Reardon, who, in his turn, was conscious of being bored and ill at ease, but entirely unconscious of being the object of any slight whatever. It occurred to him, perhaps, that his host’s manner was peculiar, even unfortunate, but it would have taken a great deal to convey to his honest breast the suspicion that any gentleman alive could mean to slight a visitor in his own house. Mrs. Gaston, when she chose, could talk agreeably to any one on almost any subject, and she was now discussing crops and market-gardening, and listening, with great vivacity of expression, to a detailed account that General Reardon was giving of the reports his wife--whom he called “Loose,” her name being Lucy--related of the result of a little venture in the way of a market-garden which they had made.