And not the least pleasant part of it all was the sense of _bien-être_, which came from the consciousness of her irreproachable costume. It made her feel brave and confident even with the women of the party, and, this time, her somewhat timid overtures to them were far more kindly met. Gladys, who had elected to be the one of her cousins to accompany her, treated her rather differently, she thought, and, altogether, it was a delightful occasion. “Are you enjoying yourself?” asked Stafford, just as this thought was in her mind. “Oh, yes, tremendously,” she said. “For the first time since I got here I am almost forgetting to be home-sick. Almost, but not quite.” “Home-sick?” he said. “I don’t like that. Why should you be home-sick?” “Oh, I’ve almost died of it,” said Carter. “The other day, going to the races, on the line of all those splendid carriages I saw, at the side of the road, an old horse eating oats out of a nose-bag, with a ragged old darkey standing by, and somehow it made me think so of home that I almost burst into tears.” “But why should you feel so? What is it that you miss so much that could not be supplied here?” “Here? Oh, I could never feel at home here! What I miss is simply everything--the earth, and the sky, and the trees, and the darkies, and the people, and everything!” “I should like to see that wonderful country. Will you let me, some day?” “Strangers are always welcome in the South,” she said; “but you would remain a stranger there. The life would never suit you.” She felt instinctively that he did not like this, and--out of pure compassion at having hurt a person who had been so good to her--she set to work to make herself as delightful to him as she could, and with such success that Gladys, who was taking notes from a back seat, formed a conclusion, which definitely modified her future course toward her cousin. So marked was this that when, at the end of the excursion, Gladys invited their late host to come and dine informally that evening, if he had no other engagement, and when he had delightedly accepted and driven away, she followed her little country cousin to her room and offered in the pleasantest way to help her out with an evening toilet. “I have one, thank you,” Carter said, “but I’m just as much obliged.”