Baby and herself.
Sophie and her husband would come over for bridge with Beauty and Irma; so Lanny was left
free to catch up on his reading or to run over to Cannes to his workers'-education project. The
workers hadn't had any vacation, but were right where he had left them. Intellectually they had
gained; nearly all could now make speeches, and as a rule they made them on the subject of
Socialism
make them willing to get together to oppose it. They were glad to hear Lanny tell about the
wonderland of New York; many had got it mixed up with Utopia, and were surprised to hear
that it was not being spared by the breakdown of capitalism. Bread- lines and apple-selling on
the streets of that city of plutocrats—
IV
Another season on the Riviera: from the point of view of the hotelkeepers the worst since
the war, but for people who had money and liked quiet the pleasantest ever. The fortunate few
had the esplanade and the beaches to themselves; the sunshine was just as bright, the sea as
blue, and the flowers of the Cap as exquisite. Food was abundant and low in price, labor
plentiful and willing— in short, Providence had fixed everything up for you.
When Irma and Beauty Budd emerged from the hands of
a party, they were very fancy showpieces; Lanny was proud to escort them and to see the
attention they attracted. He kept himself clad according to their standards, did the. honors as
he had been taught, and for a while was happy as a young man
impressed by Emily Chattersworth, that serene and gracious hostess, and was taking her as a
model. Irma would remark: "If we had a larger house, we could entertain as Emily does." She
would try experiments, inviting this eminent person and that, and when they came she would
say to her husband: "I believe you and I could have a salon if we went about it seriously."
Lanny came to recognize that she was considering this as a career. Emily was growing feeble,
and couldn't go on forever; there would have to be someone to take her place, to bring the
fashionable French and the fashionable Americans together and let them meet intellectuals,
writers and musicians and statesmen who had made names for themselves in the proper
dignified way. As a rule such persons didn't have the money or time to entertain, nor were
their wives up to it; if you rendered that free service, it made you "somebody" in your own
right.
Lanny had said, rather disconcertingly, that she didn't know enough for the job; since which
time Irma had been on watch. She had met a number of celebrities, and studied each one,
thinking: "Could I handle you? What is it you want?" They seemed to like good food and
wine, like other people; they appreciated a fine
house and liked to come into it and sun themselves. Certainly they liked beautiful women—
these were the suns! Irma's dressing-room in the Cottage was rather small, but it contained a
pier-glass mirror, and she knew that what she saw there was all right. She knew that her
manner of reserve impressed people; it gave her a certain air of mystery, and caused them to
imagine things about her which weren't really there. The problem was to keep them from
finding out!
Each of the great men had his "line," something he did better than anybody else. Lanny
assumed that you had to read his book, listen to his speeches, or whatever it was; but Irma
made up her mind that this was her husband's naivete.
didn't. A woman observed that a man wanted to talk about himself, and a woman who was
good at listening to that was good enough for anything. She had to express admiration, but not
too extravagantly; that was a mistake the gushy woman made, and the man decided that she
was a fool. But the still, deep woman, the Mona Lisa woman, the one who said in a dignified way: "I
have wanted very much to know about that—please tell me more," she was the one who
warmed a celebrity's heart.
The problem, Irma decided, was not to get them to talk, but to get them to stop! The
function of a
it wanted a change and bring about the change so tactfully that nobody noticed it. Irma
watched the technique of her hostess, and began asking questions; and this was by no means
displeasing to Emily, for she too was not above being flattered and liked the idea of taking on
an understudy. She showed Irma her address-book, full of secret marks which only her
confidential secretary understood. Some meant good things and some bad.
Lanny perceived that this developing interest in a salon was based upon a study of his own
peculiarities. He had always loved Emily and enjoyed her affairs, having been admitted to
them even as a boy, because he had such good manners. What Irma failed to note was that
