"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." "What is the amount, do you know?" "Upwards of two hundred thousand, Mr. de Vaux thinks." "Miss Wyllys is certainly no beauty; but, do you know, I think there is something decidedly distinguished in her appearance and manner! I was only introduced the other day; I did not happen to know the Wyllyses." "I have known them all my life, and like them all very much. I rather wonder, though, at Miss Elinor's being here as bride's-maid. But it is a reconciliation, I suppose. Perhaps she and young Hazlehurst will make up again, and we may be invited to another wedding, before long." "Perhaps so. How long does it take a young lady to resent an infidelity? A calendar month, I suppose; or, in extreme cases, a year and a day. By-the-bye, the pretty widow, Mrs. Creighton, has thrown off her weeds, I see." "Yes, she has come out again, armed for conquest, I suppose. What a flirt she is! And as artful as she is pretty, Mr. Stryker. But perhaps you are one of her admirers," continued the lady, laughing. "Of course, it is impossible not to admire her; but I am afraid of her," said Mr. Stryker, shrugging his shoulders. "I am horribly afraid of all pretty widows." "Mr. Hazlehurst does not seem afraid of her." "Not a bit--he is there half his time; but then he is young and venturesome. We old campaigners are more wary." "He is an old friend of her brother's, I believe; is Mr. Ellsworth here?" "Yes, there he is, talking to Miss Wyllys. Perhaps he may interfere with your prediction about her and my friend Hazlehurst." "Possibly; but a-propos of weddings; why don't you marry, yourself, Mr. Stryker? You have been a delightful beau now, for how many years?" asked the lady, mischievously. "Oh, these five lustres, I suppose; for I began early," replied Mr. Stryker, who had too much worldly wisdom, not to make a merit of frankness, where he could not help it. {"lustre" = a period of five years} "Six, you mean," said Mrs. de Vaux, laughing.