BOOK I
THE PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I
Up the sharply defined path of red baize, from curb-stone to portico, and through the wide-set doors of the big house in St. James's Square, a stream of men and women for nearly two hours had been pouring.
Fewer were arriving now, and a few were even coming out. Powdered servants were summoning, while others were dismissing carriages, and still through the open door the little crowd of huddled street folk without (ranked on either side the red pathway) could watch the difficult passage through the crowded hall of the latest tiara, and grew tired of studying the great staircase packed with a congested mass of humanity unable to move up or down.
Lady Peterborough was one of the small group of great London hostesses whose absence is held to make a difference in the season. She and Lord Peterborough had been for over a year in India and the Far East. This was the first party given on their return.
Royalty had often before honoured Peterborough House with the presence, but to-night a recently married Princess, a popular idol, was to appear with her husband and two of her husband's brothers, German princelings who had been in England since the wedding, increasing their already considerable renown as men of marked accomplishment and 'fatal attractions.' And this was also the evening, as everyone knew, upon which the
