“Well, really!” said Lillie, in a dry, cool tone, “I suppose it was very good of you, perfectly saint-like and all that; but it does seem a great pity.  Why couldn’t these people take care of themselves?  I don’t see why you should go on denying yourself, just to keep them in the ways of virtue.”

“Oh, it’s no self-denial now!  I’m quite used to it,” said John, cheerily.  “I am young and strong, and just as well as I can be, and don’t need wine; in fact, I never think of it.  The Fergusons, who are with us in the Spindlewood business, took just the same view of it, and did just as we did; and the Wilcoxes joined us; in fact, all the good old families of our set came into it.”

“Well, couldn’t you, just while the Follingsbees are here, do differently?”

“No, Lillie; there’s my pledge, you see.  No; it’s really impossible.”

Lillie frowned and looked disconsolate.

“John, I really do think you are selfish; you don’t seem to have any consideration for me at all.  It’s going to make it so disagreeable and uncomfortable for me.  The Follingsbees are accustomed to wine every day.  I’m perfectly ashamed not to give it to them.”

“Do ’em good to fast awhile, then,” said John, laughing like a hard-hearted monster.  “You’ll see they won’t suffer materially.  Bridget makes splendid coffee.”

“It’s a shame to laugh at what troubles me, John.  The Follingsbees are my friends, and of course I want to treat them handsomely.”

“We will treat them just as handsomely as we treat ourselves,” said John, “and mortal man or woman ought not to ask more.”

“I don’t care,” said Lillie, after a pause.  “I hate all these moral movements and society questions.  They are always in the way of people’s having a good time; and I believe the world would wag just as well as it does, if nobody had ever thought of them.  People will call you a real muff, John.”

“How very terrible!” said John, laughing.  “What shall I do if I am called a muff? and what a jolly little Mrs. Muff you will be!” he said, pinching her cheek.

“You needn’t laugh, John,” said Lillie, pouting.  “You don’t know how things look in fashionable circles.  The Follingsbees are in the very highest circle.  They have lived in Paris, and been invited by the Emperor.”

“I haven’t much opinion of Americans who live in Paris and are invited by the Emperor,” said John.  “But, be that as it may, I shall do the best I can for them, and Mr. Young says, ‘angels could no more;’ so, good-by, puss:  I must go to my office; and don’t let’s talk about this any more.”

And John put on his cap and squared his broad shoulders, and, marching off with a resolute stride, went to his office, and had a most uncomfortable morning of it.  You see, my dear friends, that though Nature has set the seal of sovereignty on man, in broad shoulders and bushy beard; though he fortify and incase himself in rough overcoats and heavy boots, and walk with a dashing air, and whistle like a freeman, we all know it is not an easy thing to wage a warfare with a pretty little creature in lace cap and tiny slippers, who has a faculty of looking very pensive and grieved, and making up a sad little mouth, as if her heart were breaking.