with it.

Finally he hit upon the plan of having Aileen invited to go somewhere
some distance off--Boston or New Orleans, where a sister of his wife
lived. It was a delicate matter to engineer, and in such matters he was
not exactly the soul of tact; but he undertook it. He wrote personally
to his wife's sister at New Orleans, and asked her if she would, without
indicating in any way that she had heard from him, write his wife and
ask if she would not permit Aileen to come and visit her, writing Aileen
an invitation at the same time; but he tore the letter up. A little
later he learned accidentally that Mrs. Mollenhauer and her three
daughters, Caroline, Felicia, and Alta, were going to Europe early in
December to visit Paris, the Riviera, and Rome; and he decided to ask
Mollenhauer to persuade his wife to invite Norah and Aileen, or Aileen
only, to go along, giving as an excuse that his own wife would not leave
him, and that the girls ought to go. It would be a fine way of disposing
of Aileen for the present. The party was to be gone six months.
Mollenhauer was glad to do so, of course. The two families were fairly
intimate. Mrs. Mollenhauer was willing--delighted from a politic point
of view--and the invitation was extended. Norah was overjoyed. She
wanted to see something of Europe, and had always been hoping for some
such opportunity. Aileen was pleased from the point of view that Mrs.
Mollenhauer should invite her. Years before she would have accepted in
a flash. But now she felt that it only came as a puzzling interruption,
one more of the minor difficulties that were tending to interrupt her
relations with Cowperwood. She immediately threw cold water on the
proposition, which was made one evening at dinner by Mrs. Butler, who
did not know of her husband's share in the matter, but had received a
call that afternoon from Mrs. Mollenhauer, when the invitation had been
extended.

"She's very anxious to have you two come along, if your father don't
mind," volunteered the mother, "and I should think ye'd have a fine
time. They're going to Paris and the Riveera."

"Oh, fine!" exclaimed Norah. "I've always wanted to go to Paris. Haven't
you, Ai? Oh, wouldn't that be fine?"

"I don't know that I want to go," replied Aileen. She did not care to
compromise herself by showing any interest at the start. "It's coming
on winter, and I haven't any clothes. I'd rather wait and go some other
time."

"Oh, Aileen Butler!" exc