"Oh, they--why, they go even to the Mabille," said Mimi, "and--well--perhaps there is a certain similarity between ....!"
"Oh, no, no," interrupted Zoë, "they have very decent manners; Capriani even turned out of his house lately a person who came without an invitation."
"Really?" said Zinka, "that, certainly, shows great progress; but is it true that at the Conte's last ball neither the eldest daughter, nor her husband was present?"
"Yes," Zoë admitted. "Those are some of the insolent airs with which Larothière contrives to awe his father-in-law."
"Go on," said Mimi.
"I do not say that only the élite appear at these balls. C'est toujours le monde à côté, as they say in Paris, but,--good Heavens! these Caprianis have been of service to me, and they always heaped me with attentions, but here they are beginning to behave positively disagreeably to me."
"Perhaps your services in your native country have not answered their expectations," said Mimi, "Pistasch told me that you had been invited to Schneeburg on purpose to introduce the Caprianis into Austrian society. Was that only one of his poor jokes, or ...."
"I really did promise to do my best ...."
"My dear Zoë'," exclaimed Mimi Dey horrified, "had you clean forgotten your Austria?"
"No, I had not forgotten it, only I fancied that in the last twenty-five years you might have conformed somewhat to the spirit of the age; but no, you are precisely the same as ever. When will you cease to entrench yourselves behind triple barriers?"