Mayfair, May, 1927

 

IN

MAYFAIR

 

 

T H E ST I G M A
Or How One Hoxterr Shocked Four Blaxé Crashers

ITH the increasing popularity of house dances, the
Downs and their inseparable companions the Outers,
Montreal‘s E|"i\SltC|'S dr /uxr, had found life increasingly
meaningless. Itwasjustonelong round of reading the ‘-‘On Dit"
column with growing lassitude—not a hotel dance on the list.

“I don't. care a /eoptk," said Lois Down, who had been
reading that great Russian-i'e\v Yorker, Izzy Ycwman, “I'm
going to this Bienhoir affair if it breaks a leg."

“I’ve heard they fling a wicked receiving line,” remarked
Claire Outer, throwing a moribund Bogaslavski in the parrot
cage.

“I've run heavier gauntlets than the Bienboir family,”
reminisced Lois, smugly. “Remember that reception at the
Ritz where they had last ycarls heavy-weight champion
dressed up like Little Lord Fauntleroy totake theinvitations?
I thank heaven for my high school education when I think of
how my German came in with that man."

“How come?" queried Claire, lighting a Little Hatana.

“Oh, I just said ‘Rm/5 mil’ and he thought I was one of those
Ross-Smith girls that were visiting from Winnipeg. l suppose.
There were two of them in ahead of me."

TI'li\'l' wa~ the preamble which antedated the arrital on
one soft night in Spring, of a party of four at the gates of
Le Buzand, that strangely old-world home of the Bienboir
connection.

The air of easy gaiety wliich pervaded et'erytliin_i_v below
stairs, as the quartette separated for cloak and tlressing room.
was imperceptibly cooled as Claire and Lois. smiling reservedly,
mounted to the ancestral thamber where wraps were already
accumulating and an nnspealtahle frigidity pervatltztl the
bearing of st‘VCt‘Z1l figures \\'tthitL

“Be nasty in the tlrcssittg morn," wltisperctl Lois, who was
older than Claire at the game, “Look at everybody as though
the rieiglibor'< eat had tlrztgtrcd them in."

Al‘ Till; Llrcssittg table \\'a5 seated Mrs. Ian \'nlner.tble. It
was she whose hair was \\hitcd only last Suntmertn Paris
and has ttntlergone a regular bltteing etery \\'a»lt da} \ltlCL‘. She
was patting the liittgstntt shingle of it now. nhile Ttttttfcllltg
with a mixture of appraisal and indifference. her tlltl ~chool
lriend, Mrs. .v'\\'ery l’ountl Count/.,

“They were raised together, but do you think they'd flick an
eyelash in the dressing room?” \\‘l]i.'~2pCl‘L‘ul Lois. “Not. they!
Go on, now; cut the whole room dead with one rdizraltd-abroad
look."

Claire made silent room for Mrs. Cottntz before the eheval
glass.

“It’s amazing," remarked Lois in a just audible pitch from
the dressing table at which she had now succeeded Mrs. \'ul-
nerable, “how few people one knows at the parties now-a-days,
Before the war—"

The room was now filling, yet not even the ratttriradert: of
discomfort, as crowding around vital positions ensued, brougltt
a warming of the atmosphere.

“Give them all one dirty look as you walk out." prompted
Lois. “He cuts best who cuts first.' "

OINING husbands-and-escorts below was a matter of easy
routine. Yet as they wavered before that hovering look
which had ever identified the Bienboirs l:\\'l1lCl\ indeed was
symbolized by that huge bird which marked the crest and gave
its name to the seigneurial estate), Claire was conscious of that
crouching sensation m~'tineti\'e to the barnyard at the whirr of
great wings.

The moment passed #and many more. A glowing feeling of
satisfaction crept over the Phony Four as supper came. The)‘
sat it out in the library where, unntolested inspection of Mr
Bienboir's Bristol spirit bottles and all Madame’: well-lacqtteretl
reading raclu. enhanced the hour.

“The worst ordeal, of course," cmtfessetl Claire. “is: going
to be when we're dr-(rirtra'. She may spring a surprise on us
then,"

But that, too passed.

Strange! Could this getttlewrnnatt, this lIt|KlL‘\'? of the old
school, be taken in,’

“I t\l shocked ~~urpri~'etl, that“. \\lt.ll l .tin." lvreatlted Lois.
in the non-meter taxi tffittltz ltttlltt‘ "\\hn would hate
thought that a woman like that ~ l1t‘|'lhlL'l\}_'F\1lllltl.llCl' bret-t_lin_u.
could fail to know~or l\lll:l‘\ intz. ti-N il l‘_\ 7"

‘"f‘liere‘s only one e ' slanation. ttl\' dear." ,"'lwtit~tl Claire.
as she eased off ihose biting ~lt]t|1t‘t'\ inside her tztrrittge-litttits,
“Silos been missing illmttutr. l rt‘t1tenibt'r tltittkint: him I
missed it In) self itt [ltL‘ltl1r.lI‘\ " 1‘It!l',"