evening came he dressed with his usual care, verified the hour of his
engagement, and went out to dine with the Loftuses.




CHAPTER V

What the _Bandar-log_ think now the jungle will think later.
--Maxim of the _Bandar-log_, RUDYARD KIPLING.


It was Sybell Loftus's first season in London since her second marriage
with Mr. Doll Loftus. After a very brief sojourn in that city of
frivolity she had the acumen to discover that London society was
hopelessly worldly and mercenary; that people only met to eat and to
abuse each other; that the law of cutlet for cutlet was universal; that
young men, especially those in the Guards, were garrisoned by a full
complement of devils; that London girls lived only for dress and the
excitement of husband-hunting. In short, to use her own expression, she
"turned London society inside out."

London bore the process with equanimity, and presently Sybell determined
to raise the art of dinner-giving from the low estate to which she
avowed it had fallen to a higher level. She was young, she was pretty,
she was well-born, she was rich. All the social doors were open to her.
But one discovery is often only the prelude to another. She soon made
the further one that in order to raise the tone of social gatherings it
is absolutely necessary to infuse into them a leaven of "clever people."
Further light on this interesting subject showed her that most of the