on that night during the
intervals of the musical program.

This kindness in introducing a stranger to persons likely to be
agreeable to him struck me as a distinguishing feature of the New York
world generally. I experienced it often at the opera, where the
occupants of the grand tier form practically a social club, as well as a
mere musical gathering. On one occasion, when I was with Mr. and Mrs.
Sloane in their box, Mr. Sloane took me round to the opposite side of
the house to present me to a lady whose attractions he praised, and did
not praise too highly. I asked him the name of another of singularly
charming aspect. Her box was close to his. "Come," he said, "I will
introduce you now." Here is one of those graces of social conduct which
are, as I have observed already with reference to London, possible only
in societies which are more or less carefully restricted.

There is another matter in which the social world of New York struck me
as differing from that of London, and differing from it in a manner
precisely opposite to that which those who derive their views from the
gossip of journalists would suppose. According to ordinary rumor,
fashionable entertainments in New York are scenes of extravagance so
wild that they cease to be luxurious and assume the characteristics of a
farce. My own short experience led me to a conclusion the very reverse
of this. Certain hotels, no doubt, are notoriously over-gilded. A story
is told of a certain country couple who stayed for a night at one of
them. The wife said to the husband, "Why don't you put your boots
outside the door to be blacked?" "My dear," said the husband, "I'm
afraid I should find them gilt." I speak here of private houses and
private entertainments only. The ultrafashionable concert which I
mentioned just now is an instance. The music was followed by supper. The
company strayed slowly through some intervening rooms to the dining
room. It was full of little round tables at which little groups were
seating themselves, but when I entered the tables were entirely bare.
Presently servants went round placing a cloth on each of them. Then on
each were deposited a bottle of champagne and two or three plates of
sandwiches. That was all. At a corresponding party in London there would
have been soups, souffles, aspic, truffles, and ortolans. As it was, the
affair was a simple picnic _de luxe_. To the dinner parties at which I
was present the same observation applies. T