It was necessary to change it again before
dinner, which was at eight o'clock; and Montague learned upon
inquiry that it was customary to make five or six such changes
during the day. The great ladies of Society were adepts in this art,
and prided themselves upon the perfect system which enabled them to
accomplish it.
All of Montague's New York acquaintances were here in their
splendour: Miss Yvette Simpkins, with her forty trunks of new Paris
costumes; Mrs. Billy Alden, who had just launched an aristocratic
and exclusive bridge-club for ladies; Mrs. Winnie Duval, who had
created a sensation by the rumour of her intention to introduce the
simple life at Newport; and Mrs. Vivie Patton, whose husband had
committed suicide as the only means of separating her from her
Count.
It chanced to be the evening of Mrs. Landis's long-expected
dinner-dance. When you went to the Landis mansion, you drove
directly into the building, which had a court so large that a coach
and four could drive around it. The entire ground floor was occupied
by what were said to be the most elaborately equipped stables in the
world.
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