"... Is it true that he paid his attentions to the mother?"
"... He hasn't a title. The real princes are the others, the Della Rovere."
"... He can buy it back; it is there in the family. He has only to pay well for it."
"... He can do that now."
"... It seems that the girl has already given him money. It is the custom in America."
More gaily, naturally, and simply towards its close, the cotillon gathered together all the couples in the room. By now all the actors had forgotten parade and performance, and were merely abandoning themselves to the great and intoxicating pleasure of living. The cotillon ended, because all wished to go to supper, to the extremely dainty, exquisite supper which, in an extremely new chic aspect, closes every special night at the "Palace." In two or three rooms the tables were ready. The company was chosen carefully, sympathetic and antipathetic were again carefully expressed, with bizarre reunions and cruel exclusions. In the ballroom the final picture still kept the crowd. Upon two little chariots, drawn by hand, appeared two great piles of green branches and wild flowers, tied with ribbons. Drawn joyfully into the middle of the room, the bundles were opened, revealing in the one Miriam Jenkyns, in the other Mabel Clarke, the two leaders of the cotillon. The greatest applause greeted this final picture, and while the pair led the final gallop, there were still some discreet exclamations directed at Mabel and Vittorio:
"Vive les fiancés!"
Blushing in her pink dress as she left the room on Vittorio Lante's arm, Mabel Clarke passed into the hall, to look for her mother to sup at the great Clarke table. And now everyone surrounded her, to congratulate her and Vittorio, and both, happy and composed, returned thanks. A few moments afterwards all were seated at table. At a table for men only, amidst young and old, all more or less dowry-hunters, their less happy and less fortunate chief, the Vicomte de Lynen, was telling in a low voice, between the langouste à la Colbert and the chaufroid de gibier, how three years ago Vittorio Lante had seduced a poor cousin of his house, how she had had a baby by him, how he had deserted mother and little daughter, and how the mother had threatened to vitrioler l'Américaine.