Alice had been very happy,--more happy perhaps in that she had been a joint minister with Kate to her cousin George's idle fantasies, than she would have been hurrying about with him as her slave. They had tacitly agreed to spoil him with comforts; and girls are always happier in spoiling some man than in being spoiled by men. And he had taken it all well, doing his despotism pleasantly, exacting much, but exacting nothing that was disagreeable. And he had been amusing always, as Alice thought without any effort. But men and women, when they show themselves at their best, seldom do so without an effort. If the object be near the heart the effort will be pleasant to him who makes it, and if it be made well, it will be hidden; but, not the less, will the effort be there. George Vavasor had on the present occasion done his very best to please his cousin.

Alice had been very happy, more happy perhaps as a joint minister to her cousin George's idle fantasies, than she would have been with him as her slave. She and Kate had tacitly agreed to spoil him with comforts; and he had been amusing always, apparently without any effort. But it had not been effortless. George Vavasor had done his very best to please his cousin.
