"To judge by his expression, the man seems ambitious of 'les succes de salon,' also. Where did he import his manners from, I wonder?—they have a sort of bright, new look, as if he had not yet worn the gloss off."
{"les succes de salon" = drawing-room victories (French)}
"Don't laugh at him;—he gives excellent dinners."
"Does he? Can't you introduce me, immediately? 'Ici l'ont fait noces et festins.' I seem to smell the turtle-soup, already."
{"Ici l'ont…." = wedding feasts and banquets given here
(French)}
"I doubt whether you taste it, nevertheless, until next autumn. Everybody is going out of town; they say that is the only drawback to the satisfaction of the Taylors at this wedding."
"What is the drawback, pray?"
"They cannot have as many grand parties as they are entitled to, on account of the season."
"That must be distressing, indeed, to the brides-maids. By-the-bye, I see Miss Wyllys is one of them. She is going to turn out a fortune, I hear;—do you know her?"
"From a child. Last year no one dreamed of her being a fortune; but within the last few months, Mr. de Vaux tells me, she has inherited a very handsome property from one of her mother's family; and, in addition to it, some new rail-road, or something of that kind, has raised the value of what she owned before."