made of cats; flower-arrangements
shaped like cats; and a little gold cat with emerald eyes for each
woman to take away with her, so she wouldn't forget the lunch in a
hurry. And would you believe it, not one of them saw the joke till
_Smart Sayings_ got hold of it, and published an account of the
function next week."

"What did the women do?" I asked.

"Nothing, but feel cattier than before. She's richer than ever now, for
she's married a man worth twenty millions, and the first thing he did
was to give orders to Celeste, her dressmaker, to turn out two new
dresses for his wife, every week of the year without fail, not one of
them to cost less than two hundred and fifty dollars. It was such a
strain on Celeste, thinking of new ideas, that she had to give it up
after the first year, though it nearly broke her heart."

"I should have thought it would be a strain having the dresses to
wear," said I. "Fancy getting passionately attached to one frock, but
never being able to wear it more than once or twice, on account of your
duty to the new ones always coming towards you in a long, relentless
procession, down the years. I should hate it."

"I wouldn't," said Mrs. Taylour. "I can't have too many new things, and
I always change each scrap of furniture and decoration in my own rooms
every year, so that Mr. Taylour won't get tired of them. He's such a
nervous man. But you'll meet Cora Pitchley at Newport. Her house is
there. She's a type of an American woman, just as bright as she can be.
Her second husband was a wholesale dry goods man years ago, but most
people have forgotten that, now he's worth his millions, and he's got
the most gorgeous place, quite like one of your old castles. The worst
of it is, his mother lives with them, and when she was showing the
bride--Cora--over the house (which was decorated pretty weirdly for the
first wife,) the old lady kept explaining: 'This is the Louis Seize
room; this is the Queen Anne room.' Cora just looked at the things, and
said: 'What makes you think so?' Smart, wasn't it? But Cora's changed
everything inside the house now. She loves change. She's even changed
her birthday, so as to have it in leap year; and as for her mind, she
changes it entirely at least six times a day; says that's why women
have nicer minds than men; they change them oftener. But I've gossiped
enough about a person you don't know, Lady Betty. Let's talk about
England. I run over to Paris for a month or two