mystery, and those who
understand it appear to have exhausted in mastering it their capacity for
understanding anything else. It is a dance in which the greatest freedom
is permitted, and in which liberties are taken and encouraged, which
would be resented under other circumstances. The figures really depend
upon the leader of the dance, who can set such as he chooses, or devise
them, if he has wit enough. All the rest are compelled to follow his
example. The dance is thoroughly suited to the society we are
considering, and owes its popularity to the liberties, to use no stronger
term, it permits.

[Picture: THE GERMAN]

The _toilettes_ of the persons present are magnificent. The ladies are
very queens in their gorgeousness. They make their trails so long that
half the men are in mortal dread of breaking their necks over them; and
having gone to such expense for dry goods in this quarter, they display
the greatest economy about the neck and bust. They may be in "full
dress" as to the lower parts of their bodies, but they are fearfully
undressed from the head to the waist.

Towards morning the ball breaks up. The guests, worn out with fatigue,
and not unfrequently confused with liquor, take leave of their hosts and
go home. Many of them repeat the same performance almost nightly during
the season. No wonder that when the summer comes they are so much in
need of recuperation.

VII. MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

Only wealthy marriages are tolerated in New York society. For men or
women to marry beneath them is a crime society cannot forgive. There
must be fortune on one side at least. Marriages for money are directly
encouraged. It is not uncommon for a man who has won a fortune to make
the marriage of his daughter the means of getting his family into
society. He will go to some young man within the pale of good society,
and offer him the hand of his daughter and a fortune. The condition
demanded of the aforesaid young man is that he shall do what may lie
within his power to get the family of the bride within the charmed
circle. If the girl is good looking, or agreeable, the offer is rarely
refused.

When a marriage is decided upon, the engagement is announced through one
of the "society newspapers," of which there are several. It is the
bounden duty of the happy pair to be married in a fashionable church. To
be married in or buried from Grace or St. Thomas's Church, is th