"In the first place, she likes to please men."

"Oh!" came from the group.

"And that makes them like her--if it doesn't go too far, as her mother
says."

The ladies all laughed, recognising a common turn of phrase in Mrs.
Pasmer.

"I should think," said Mrs. Stamwell, "that she would believe a little in
heredity if she noticed that in her daughter;" and the ladies laughed
again.

"Then," Mrs. Brinkley resumed concerning Alice, "she has a very pretty
face--an extremely pretty face; she has a tender voice, and she's very,
very graceful--in rather an odd way; perhaps it's only a fascinating
awkwardness. Then she dresses--or her mother dresses her--exquisitely."
The ladies, with another sensation, admitted the perfect accuracy with
which these points had been touched.

"That's what men like, what they fall in love with, what Mr. Mavering's
in love with this instant. It's no use women's flattering themselves that
they don't, for they do. The rest of the virtues and graces and charms
are for women. If that serious girl could only know the silly things that
that amiable simpleton is taken with in her, she'd--"

"Never speak to him again?" suggested Miss Cotton.