"Why didn't you tell me he was to be here?" she demanded.
"I took it for granted you knew. He has been in the society columns of all the papers. My, has Dudley forbidden you to read also? Besides, what of it if he is here? A pretty girl like you can't expect to go about anywhere without having her disappointed lovers pop up here and there. He is very interesting."
Later Carmelita discovered to her further disquiet that Prince Rao-Singh had been placed at her right at dinner. It was a gay party that flaunted prohibition at every course and she found to her relief that she was not expected to preserve the amenities and converse exclusively with her immediate neighbors. There was more or less general hurling about of badinage, especially as the post-war liqueurs and cordials had their effect. Carmelita already knew the majority of the other guests. They were Lucy's regular crowd, the itinerant week-enders who always seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of money and time to spend and invitations to accept. They hovered upon the fringe of New York society, frowned upon by the more conservative element because of their reputed excesses but many of them of too well established family connections to be totally ignored. For the re-
