Copyright, 1917, by
International Magazine Co.
Published, October, 1917
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| She stopped with her hand on the banister, like Louise of Prussia | [Frontispiece] |
| And then, with a clean towel, he deliberately dried her hands, finger by finger | [69] |
| “Isn’t that rather a reckless way for a man in your situation to talk?” | [91] |
| “Well, heaven itself can’t save a fool,” said Mrs. Almar | [119] |
| It was arranged that he was to bring Dorothy to dine with them that evening | [147] |
| He stood like a rock under her caress | [173] |
| “May I ask, Mr. Riatt, what rights in the matter you consider that you have?” Linburne pursued | [199] |
| “Max,” she said, “I love you” | [241] |
CHAPTER I
Mrs. Ussher was having a small house party in the country over New Year’s Day. This is equivalent to saying that the half dozen most fashionable people in New York were out of town.
Certain human beings are admitted to have a genius for discrimination in such matters as objects of art, pigs or stocks. Mrs. Ussher had this same instinct in regard to fashion, especially where fashions in people were concerned. She turned toward hidden social availability very much as the douser’s hazel wand turns toward the hidden spring. When she crossed the room to speak to some woman after dinner, whatever that woman’s social position might formerly have been, you could be sure that at present she was on the upward wing. When Mrs. Ussher discovered extraordinary qualities of mind and sympathy in some hitherto impossible man, you might be certain it was time to begin to book him in advance.
Not that Mrs. Ussher was a kingmaker; she herself had no more power over the situation than the barometer has over the weather. She merely was able to foretell; she had the sense of approaching social success.
She was unaware of her own powers, and really supposed that her sudden and usually ephemeral friendships were based on mutual attraction. The fact that for years her friends had been the small group of the momentarily fashionable required, in her eyes, no explanation. So simple was her creed that she believed people were fashionable for the same reason that they were her friends, because “they were so nice.”
During the short period of their existence, Mrs. Ussher gave to these friendships the utmost loyalty and devotion. She agonized over the financial, domestic and romantic troubles of her friends; she sat up till the small hours, talking to them like a schoolgirl; during the height of their careers she organized plots for their assistance; and even when their stars were plainly on the decline, she would often ask them to lunch, if she happened to be alone.