ent there and found his acquaintance, with several other
prominent men of affairs whom he knew, conversing in a drawing-room
with one of the most charming ladies he had ever met. She was exquisite
to look at, and one of the few people in New York whom he had found
worth listening to. He spent such an enjoyable evening, that when he
was leaving, he remarked to the lady that he would like his cousin
Alice to meet her; and then he noticed that she flushed slightly, and
was embarrassed. Later on he learned to his dismay that the charming
and beautiful lady did not go into Society.

Nor was this at all rare; on the contrary, if one took the trouble to
make inquiries, he would find that such establishments were everywhere
taken for granted. Montague talked about it with Major Venable; and out
of his gossip storehouse the old gentleman drew forth a string of
anecdotes that made one's hair stand on end. There was one all-powerful
magnate, who had a passion for the wife of a great physician; and he
had given a million dollars or so to build a hospital, and had provided
that it should be the finest in the world, and that this physician
should go abroad for three years to study the institutions of Europe!
No conventions counted with this old man--if he saw a woman whom he
wanted, he would ask for her; and women in Society felt that it was an
honour to be his mistress. Not long after this a man who voiced the
anguish of a mighty nation was turned out of several hotels in New York
because he was not married according to the laws of South Dakota; but
this other man would take a woman to any hotel in the city, and no one
would dare oppose him!

And there was another, a great traction king, who kept mistresses in
Chicago and Paris and London, as well as in New York; he had one just
around the corner from his palatial home, and had an underground
passage leading to it. And the Major told with glee how he had shown
this to a friend, and the latter had remarked, "I'm too stout to get
through there."--"I know it," replied the other, "else I shouldn't have
told you!"

And so it went. One of the richest men in New York was a sexual
degenerate, with half a dozen women on his hands all the time; he would
send them cheques, and they would use these to blackmail him. This
man's young wife had been shut up in a closet for twenty-four hours by
her mother to compel her to marry him.--And then there was the charming
tale of how he had gone away u