Afterward she had clinched matters by importing _en masse_
a world-famed troop of dancers from the theatre at Monte Carlo to her
villa at Mentone, paying them a thousand pounds for the evening; but her
reward had been adequate. She was becoming a sort of habit--like a
comfortable old coat--among the great, who like comfortable old coats as
well as do those who are not great, and quite important persons were
already forgetting to allude to her as a weird creature in confessing
that they had accepted her invitations. She had even become of
consequence enough to snub Lady Dauntrey at the opera in Monte Carlo,
although, early in the season, the Dauntreys had been the first members
of the peerage who had adorned her villa. As for Mrs. Holbein, of whose
acquaintance she had almost boasted in prehistoric days when Sir Henry
was only an alderman, Lady Meason now loudly refused to know her.
At first, Mrs. Cayley-Binns and her daughter (spelt Alys) had looked
from afar off at the magnificent villa of this notable hostess, and had
read enviously the paragraphs in London and Riviera papers describing
her entertainments, not missing one of the long list of names attached.
Then one day they had come across the name of Miss Constantia Sutfield,
a woman who had been governess to a royal princess. Morton Cayley,
M. D., their distant cousin, had cured Miss Sutfield of a malady
pronounced fatal by other physicians with fewer letters after their
names. He was unfortunately a very distant cousin; but when he was young
Mrs.
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