Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/112

114 while his wife was lying sick at the Irving House, New York. Many ladies, both from our city and New York, knew this to be the case, but, at such places, ladies will receive attentions from men, even knowing them to be broken sticks.

In a few days came off a grand dress ball; I was more than proud that my lady was called the loveliest lady in the room. I was amused watching the maneuvers of a middle-aged widow lady, from our city, of great wealth, elegantly dressed, playing off as a young girl of fifteen, with a gentleman from New York, nearly of her own age, but dressed as a young man of twenty; they were coquetting and flirting all the evening.

The ball passed off very pleasantly, till near the end, when some words occurred between a married gentleman and a young one, about a lady from New York; the young gentleman blacked both the eyes of the other gentleman, which closed the ball.

Among the ladies at Newport, I noticed one whom I had often seen at New York, Saratoga, and other places, and who had always been a leader of fashion wherever she went. With some surprise I observed that this lady was scarcely noticed by those with whom she had formerly been very intimate; and those who had once been glad to receive the slightest token of recognition from her, now swept haughtily by her, without deigning a glance.

Many surmises did I make, to account for this change in the manner of the fashionables toward the lady; but none were satisfactory. Her husband's position was exalted—his wealth was immense. There was a mystery about the matter which puzzled me,