The new
house belonged to a new man, who was supposed to have made millions out
of railways, and other gigantic achievements in the engineering line;
and the new man and his wife were friends of Mr. Smithson, and had made
the simple Georgie's acquaintance only within the last three weeks.
'Of course they are stupid, my dear,' she remarked, in response to some
slighting remark of Lesbia's, 'but I am always willing to know rich
people. One drops in for so many good things; and they never want any
return in kind. It is quite enough for them to be allowed to spend their
money _upon us._'
The house was gorgeous in all the glory of the very latest fashions in
upholstery; hall Algerian; dining-room Pompeian; drawing-room Early
Italian; music-room Louis Quatorze; billiard-room mediaeval English. The
dinner was as magnificent as dinner can be made. Three-fourths of the
guests were the _haute gomme_ of the financial world, and perspired
gold. The other third belonged to a class which Mr. Smithson described
somewhat contemptuously as the shake-back nobility.
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