was of the baffled search for the soul of the prosperous class.


§6

For the appreciation of the artist's management of dialogue we must move
for a page or two in Mrs. de Tomkyns' circle with Miss Lyon Hunter, Sir
Gorgius Midas the Plutocrat, Sir Pompey Bedel (of Bedel, Flunke & Co.)
the successful professional man, and the rest of the whole set, who
understand each other in the freemasonry of a common ambition to get
into another set.

_Mamma_. "Enfin, my love! We're well out of this! _What_ a gang!!!
Where shall we go next?"

_Daughter_. "To Lady Oscar Talbot's, Mamma."

_Mamma_. "She _snubs_ one so I really can't _bear_ it! Let us go to
Mrs. Ponsonby de Tomkyns. It's just as select (except the Host and
Hostess) and quite as amusing."

_Daughter_. "But Mrs. Tomkyns snubs one worse than Lady Oscar,
Mamma!"

_Mamma_. "Pooh, my love! who cares for the snubs of a Mrs. Ponsonby
de Tomkyns I should like to know, so long as she's clever enough to
get the right people."

This is the conversation in the hall between two ladies leaving a party
in one of du Maurier's most characteristic drawings. On every side there