"
"Oh, I thought that it was Elsie that was sending you. However, it's no
matter. The point is that you are becoming acquainted with the luxuries
of life. You are being tried by the insidious softness of the world."
He regarded her with some inward irritation. He had a half-defined
conviction that she was mocking him, and that her words were more than
mere badinage. He was not without a suspicion that his cousin was
sometimes histrionic, and that many things which she said were to be
regarded as stage talk. He did not know how far to take her seriously,
and this gave him a feeling at once confused and uncomfortable. To be
played with as if he were not of discernment ripe enough to perceive
her raillery or as if he were not of consequence sufficient to be taken
seriously, offended his vanity; and the man whom the devil cannot
conquer through his vanity is invulnerable. Wynne had no answer now for
the words of Mrs. Staggchase. He contented himself with a glance not
entirely free from resentment, at which she laughed.
"I wonder, Cousin Maurice," she said, "if you realize how completely
you have changed in the ten days you have been here.
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