Page:Costume, fanciful, historical, and theatrical (1906).djvu/222

 CHAPTER XV OF FANCY DRESS fancy-dress ball of private enterprise has nowadays comparatively little patronage. The hostess is willing, but the guest is weak, and while idleness is at the root of most social pleasure, the effort required to assume the virtue or vice of some other personality is placed without the pale of popularity. There have been, of course, some historical exceptions, such as the famous balls given by the Duchess of Devonshire and the Countess of Warwick, but similar triumphs seem scarcely possible except in these exalted circles, when the attendance is great because not to be present is to argue yourself unasked.

There are public fancy-dress balls in plenty, and the Ice Carnival has just lived its little day—or night, and now and again some daring creature, unversed in the ways of her world, issues invitations with the words "Fancy Dress" printed on the corner of the card, which declares her determination to be "At Home" at some club or another. But disappointment generally waits upon the result: the numbers who accept are few, and of these many will consider themselves exempt from wearing the motley, and will beg the question in the 178