lief to me that you have come to
your senses at last."

"Don't crow, Aunt Helen, until you are out of the woods. I may be merely
a meteor that will vanish some day as quickly as I appeared, and leave
you all in the dark."

"You are your own mistress, of course. If I take any credit to myself
for what you are to-day, Virginia, it is because I have never interfered
with anything you chose to do. I have expressed my opinion of course
when I thought you were making mistakes, but I have stopped short at
that. Others in the same position might have behaved differently; but it
is not my way. I said to myself, 'If her own good sense does not teach
her, nothing will.' So, too, now that you have justified my confidence
in you, I have no temptation to act otherwise. You will do what you
prefer, of course. But naturally I have my own ideas as to what is
desirable for you."

"You have been very good to me always," I replied, smiling at this bland
assumption of tact; "and I always like to hear what you have to say."

"Well, dear, it seems to me that with a very little trouble you can have
the most attractive house in town. One hears it so often said that we
have nothing to correspond to what the French call _salons_,--those
delightful entertainments one reads about, where every one is either
clever or distinguished. Of course every one is not really clever, but
made to appear so,--the whole secret lying in the power of some charming
and talented woman to select and combine harmoniously: even the most
stupid people (if it is necessary to invite them) are made to say
amusing things. You know of course what I mean. It has been tried here,
but rarely with success. It requires both brains and personal
attractions, and our women who possess one are too apt to imagine they
have the other also. But it has occurred to me, several times lately,
that you are just the person to attempt it. I may say without flattery,
dear, that you are considered very handsome, and people have an
impression that you are clever,--which is better even than really being
so, and I do not mean to say that you are not, for I think you are. You
have had an excellent education, and have a taste for books, and all
that sort of thing. The fact that you have been known to be peculiar
would rather add to your chances of success than otherwise, for it would
throw a little air of mystery about you. Then you have a beautiful house
and the means to entertain elegantly; and