rgeous chain earrings tinkling mellifluously as she nodded
and gesticulated. De Shay at once whispered in my ear that she was
X----'s very latest flame and an expensive one too. "You should see what
he buys her!" he exclaimed in a whisper. "God!" Actresses and society
women floated here and there in dreams of afternoon dresses. The
automobiles outside were making a perfect uproar. The poets and writers
fascinated me with their praises of the host's munificence and taste. At
a glance it was plain to me that he had managed to gather about him the
very element it would be most interesting to gather, supposing one
desired to be idle, carefree and socially and intellectually gay. If
America ever presented a smarter drawing-room I never saw it.

My friend de Shay, being the fidus Achates of the host, had the power to
reveal the inner mysteries of this place to me, and on one or two
occasions when there were not so many present and while the others were
chattering in the various rooms--music-, dining-, ball-, library and so
forth--I was being shown the kitchen, pantry, wine cellar, and also
various secret doors and passages whereby mine host by pressing a flower
on a wall or a spring behind a picture could cause a door to fly open or
close which gave entrance to or from a room or passage in no way
connected with the others save by another secret door and leading always
to a private exit. I wondered at once at the character of the person who
could need, desire or value this. A secret bedroom, for instance; a
lounging-room! In one of these was a rather severe if handsome desk and
a steel safe and two chairs--no more; a very bare room. I wondered at
this silent and rather commercial sanctum in the center of this
frou-frou of gayety, no trace of the sound of which seemed to penetrate
here. What I also gained was a sense of an exotic, sybaritic and purely
pagan mind, one which knew little of the conventions of the world and
cared less.

On my first visit, as I was leaving, I was introduced to the host just
within his picture gallery, hung with many fine examples of the Dutch
and Spanish schools. I found him to be as described: picturesque and
handsome, even though somewhat plump, phlegmatic and lethargic--yet
active enough. He was above the average in height, well built, florid,
with a huge, round handsome head, curly black hair, keen black eyes,
heavy overhanging eyebrows, full red lips, a marked chin ornamented by a
goatee. In a