o be in town, and the gay chat and persiflage of
the society people there assembled. Margaret shone in it. The light and
daring touch of her raillery Carmen herself might have envied, and the
spirit in which she handled the trifles and personal gossip tossed to
the surface, like the bubbles on the champagne.

It was such a pretty picture--the noble diningroom, the table sparkling
with glass and silver and glowing with masses of choicest flowers from
the conservatory, the animated convives, and Margaret presiding, radiant
in a costume of white and gold.

"After all," Morgan was saying, apropos of the position of women, "men
get mighty little out of it in the modern arrangement."

"I've always said, Mr. Morgan," Margaret retorted, "that you came into
the world a couple of centuries too late; you ought to have been here in
the squaw age."

"Well, men were of some account then. I appeal to Henderson," Morgan
persisted, "if he gets more than his board and clothes."

"Oh, my husband has to make his way; he's no time for idling and
philosophizing round."

"I should think not. Come, Henderson, speak up; what do you get out of
it?"

"Oh," said Henderson, glancing at his wife with an amused expression,
"I'm doing very well. I'm very well taken care of, but I often wonder
what the fellows did when polygamy was the fashion."

"Polygamy, indeed!" cried Margaret. "So men only dropped the a pluribus
unum method on account of the expense?"

"Not at all," replied Henderson. "Women are so much better now than
formerly that one wife is quite enough."

"You have got him well in hand, Mrs. Henderson, but--" Morgan began.

"But," continued Margaret for him, "you think as things are going that
polyandry will have to come in fashion--a woman will need more than one
husband to support her?"

"And I was born too soon," murmured Carmen.

"Yes, dear, you'll have to be born again. But, Mr. Morgan, you don't
seem to understand what civilization is."

"I'm beginning to. I've been thinking--this is entirely impersonal--that
it costs more to keep one fine lady going than it does a college. Just
reckon it up." (Margaret was watching him with sparkling eyes.) "The
palace in town is for her, the house in the mountains, the house by
the sea, are for her, the army of servants is for her, the horses and
carriages for all weathers are for her, the opera box is for her, and
then the wardrobe--why, half Paris lives on what women wear. I say
no