Chapter 5

"What do people marry for?" Margot regarded him indignantly over the neglected pyramid of luscious, tempting strawberries, "To--to be happy together--to have a clinking time!" Her voice shook. "And this is to be a gorgeous season. Balls--balls! right on from now to the end of July--then from the autumn all through winter. Period Costume Balls, reviving the modes, music, and manners of Ancient Civilisations--Carthagenian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Gothic--got up and arranged by the Committees of the Cercle Moderne, …