Nor could we have learned in the hostile camp the current gossip of Tuxedo, Meadowbrook, Lenox, Morristown, and Ardsley; of the mishap to Mrs. "Jimmie" Whettin, twice unseated at a recent meet; of the woman's championship tournament at Chatsworth; or the good points of the new runner-up at Baltusrol, daily to be seen on the links. Where we might incur knowledge of Beaumont "gusher" or Pittsburg mill we should never have discovered that teas and receptions are really falling into disrepute; that a series of dinner-dances will be organised by the mothers of debutantes to bring them forward; and that big subscription balls are in disfavour, since they benefit no one but the caterers who serve poor suppers and bad champagne. Mrs. takes only Scotch whiskey and soda. "But I'm glad," she confides to Horace Milbrey on her left, "that you haven't got to followin' this fad of havin' one wine at dinner; I know it's English, but it's downright shoddy." Her host's eyes swam with gratitude for this appreciation. "I stick to my peg," she continued; "but I like to see a Chablis with the oysters and good dry sherry with the soup, and a Moselle with the fish, and then you're ready to be livened with a bit of champagne for the roast, and steadied a bit by Burgundy with the game. Phim sticks to it, too; tells me my peg is downright encouragement to the bacteria. But I tell him I've no quarrel with _my_ bacteria. 'Live and let live' is my motto, I tell him,--and if the microbes and I both like Scotch and soda, why, what harm. I'm forty-two and not so much of a fool that I ain't a little bit of a physician. I know my stomach, I tell him." "What about these Western people?" she asked Oldaker at her other side, after a little. "Decent, unpretentious folks, somewhat new, but with loads of money." "I've heard how the breed's stormin' New York in droves; but they tell me some of us need the money." "I dined with one last night, a sugar-cured ham magnate from Chicago." "_Dear_ me! how shockin'!" "But they're good, whole-souled people." "And well-_heeled_--and that's what we need, it seems. Some of us been so busy bein' well-familied that we've forgot to make money." "It's a good thing, too. Nature has her own building laws about fortunes. When they get too sky-scrapy she topples them over. These people with their thrifty habits would have _all_ the money in time if their sons and daughters didn't marry aristocrats with expensive tastes who know how to be spenders. Nature keeps things fairly even, one way or another." "You're thinkin' about Kitty and the duke." "No, not then I wasn't, though that's one of the class I mean. I was thinking especially about these Westerners."