"I have been spending the morning with your good wife, Mr. Emerson," she began "How nicely she is getting on! And what a splendid little fellow the baby is getting to be! He will look just like you: that is plain to be seen already."
"Yes; I flatter myself there is not a nicer boy of his age in town," replied Joe. "And how is Aggy? Do you think she is going on pretty well?"
"Oh, yes, indeed: I left her very happy over a present she had just received from her cousin,—the prettiest thing of the kind I ever saw!"
"From her cousin!" said Joe, with a darkening brow. "You don't mean to say that Mrs. Caswell has had the impudence to send her a present, and that she has been fool enough to accept it?"
Mrs. Van Horn shrugged her shoulders a little.
"Dear me! What a forgetful creature I am! I quite forgot that I was to say nothing about it. Dear Agnes is so placable and so forgiving: she thought she would accept the present and say nothing to you. And here I have let the cat out of the bag the very first thing: you see I am so unused to having secrets. But, pray, Mr. Emerson, don't tell Agnes that I betrayed her. It certainly is a beautiful present, and must have been very expensive,—rather too much so for Mrs. Caswell's means, I should say; but, then, I presume, she thought she could afford to stretch a point for the sake of gaining her ends."
"She will find that she has not gained her ends this time," said Joe, angrily.
"Oh, I don't know. She always had a great knack of gaining an influence over people. She has always regularly hoodwinked Mrs. Trescott, and even Mrs. Campion, who fancies herself so shrewd; and she can turn poor, dear Madge round her finger, you know. But, pray, Mr. Emerson, don't betray me!" Then she said to her husband, after Joe was out of hearing, "I flatter myself that was rather well done."
"Yes, it was; and it will never do to let Emerson come under Caswell's influence just now. He is restive as it is; was talking this very morning about conscience and honour and all that, because I wanted him to bring young Haskins to our house to-night; but soon brought him to terms. He is the easiest person in the world to manage, if you only go to work right."
Joe's previous dispute with his partner had no tendency to make him more amiable. He went directly up to Agnes's room and demanded at once to see that rag Mrs. Caswell had had the impudence to send her, and asked her how she dared receive a present from that woman. Agnes prevaricated and cried, and finally went into hysterics; but Joe was inexorable. With his own hands, he wrapped up the blanket in a newspaper and sent it back to Mrs. Caswell with an insulting message,—which, however, the man had the discretion not to deliver.