the harm?"

"We all have scruples at Shampuashuh."

"About drinking wine?"

"Or cider, or beer, or anything of the sort."

"Do tell me why."

"It does so much mischief."

"Among low people," said Miss Caruthers, opening her eyes; "but not
among respectable people."

"We are willing to hinder mischief anywhere," said Lois with a smile of
some fun.

"But what good does _your_ not drinking it do? That will not hinder
them."

"It does hinder them, though," said Lois; "for we will not have liquor
shops. And so, we have no crime in the town. We could leave our doors
unlocked, with perfect safety, if it were not for the people that come
wandering through from the next towns, where liquor is sold. We have no
crime, and no poverty; or next to none."

"Bless me! what an agreeable state of things! But that need not hinder
your taking a glass of champagne _here?_ Everybody here has no scruple,
and there are liquor shops at every corner; there is no use in setting
an example."

But Lois declined the wine.

"A cup of coffee then?"

Lois accepted the coffee.

"I think you know my brother?" observed Miss Caruthers then, making her
observations as she spoke.

"Mr. Caruthers? yes; I believe he is your brother."

"I have heard him speak of you. He has seen you at Mrs. Wishart's, I
think."

"At Mrs. Wishart's--yes."

Lois spoke naturally, yet Miss Caruthers fancied she could discern a
certain check to the flow of her words.

"You could not be in a better place for seeing what New York is like,
for everybody goes to Mrs. Wishart's; that is, everybody who is
anybody."

This did not seem to Lois to require any answer. Her eye went over the
long tableful; went from face to face. Everybody was talking, nearly
everybody was smiling. Why not? If enjoyment would make them smile,
where could more means of enjoyment be heaped up, than at this feast?
Yet Lois could not help thinking that the tokens of real
pleasure-taking were not unequivocal. _She_ was having a very good
time; full of amusement; to the others it was an old story. Of what
use, then?

Miss Caruthers had been engaged in a lively battle of words with some
of her young companions; and now her attention came back to Lois, whose
meditative, amused expression struck her.

"I am sure," she said, "you are philosophizing! Let me have the results
of your observations, do! What do your eyes see, that mine perhaps do
not?"

"I cannot tell," said Lois. "Yours ou