of pleasure, the scratch gathering a hostess can get together after

a first introduction, the sort of society, in fact, in which great

names and great shames jostle together in the same fierce quest of

enjoyment. The heat was increasing, and amid the overcrowded rooms

the quadrille unrolled the cadenced symmetry of its figures.

"Very smart--the countess!" La Faloise continued at the garden door.

"She's ten years younger than her daughter. By the by, Foucarmont,

you must decide on a point. Vandeuvres once bet that she had no