There were five tables at this dinner, each seating ten persons.  There was a huge floral umbrella for the centrepiece, and an elaborate colour effect in flowers.  During the dance, screens were put up concealing this end of the ballroom, and when they were removed sometime after midnight, the tables were found set for the supper, with an entirely new scenic effect.

They danced until broad daylight; Montague was told of parties at which the guests had adjourned in the morning to play tennis.  All these people would be up by nine or ten o’clock the next day, and he would see them in the shops and at the bathing beach before noon.  And this was Society’s idea of “resting” from the labours of the winter season!

After the supper Montague was taken in charge by Mrs. Caroline Smythe, the lady who had once introduced him to her cats and dogs.  Mrs. Smythe had become greatly interested in Mrs. Winnie’s anti-vivisection crusade, and told him all about it while they strolled out upon the loggia of the Landis palace, and stood and watched the sunrise over the bay.

“Do you see that road back of us?” said Mrs. Smythe.  “That is the one the Landises have just succeeded in closing.  I suppose you’ve heard the story.”

“No,” said Montague, “I haven’t heard it.”

“It’s the joke of Newport,” said the lady.  “They had to buy up the town council to do it.  There was a sight-seers’ bus that used to drive up that road every day, and the driver would rein up his horses and stand up and point with his whip.

“‘This, ladies and gentlemen,’ he’d say, ’is the home of the Landises, and just beyond there is the home of the Joneses.  Once upon a time Mr. Smith had a wife and got tired of her, and Mr. Jones had a wife and got tired of her; so they both got divorces and exchanged, and now Mrs. Smith is living in Mr. Jones’s house, and Mrs. Jones is living in Mr. Smith’s.  Giddap!’”

CHAPTER XIII

Alice was up early the next morning to go to church with Harry Curtiss, but Montague, who had really come to rest, was later in arising.  Afterwards he took a stroll through the streets, watching the people.  He was met by Mrs. De Graffenried, who, after her usual fashion, invited him to come round to lunch.  He went, and met about forty other persons who had been invited in the same casual way, including his brother Ollie—­and to his great consternation, Ollie’s friend, Mr. Gamble!

Gamble was clad in a spotless yachting costume, which produced a most comical effect upon his expansive person.  He greeted Montague with his usual effusiveness.  “How do you do, Mr. Montague—­how do you do?” he said.  “I’ve been hearing about you since I met you last.”

“In what way?” asked Montague.

“I understand that you have gone with the Mississippi Steel Company,” said Gamble.

“After a fashion,” the other assented.