“I always knew that some time or other the plebeian Bennington blood would crop out,” went on Mrs. Haldene.  “But we must not criticize the dead,” benignly.

“We shall have to receive her.”

“After a fashion,” replied Mrs. Haldene, opening her prayer-book.  Her tone implied that things would not go very smoothly for the interloper.  “All this comes from assimilating English ideas,” she added.

Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene was one of those fortunate persons who always have their names in the society columns of the Sunday newspapers.  Either she was among those present, or she gave a luncheon, or she assisted at a reception, or was going out of town, or coming back.  Those who ran their husbands in debt to get into society always looked to see what Mrs. Haldene had been doing the past week.  The society reporters, very often smug young women of aristocratic but impoverished families, called her up by telephone every day in the week.  Mrs. Haldene pretended to demur, but the reporters found her an inexhaustible mine of tittle-tattle.  Sometimes they omitted some news which she considered important; and, as the saying goes, the hair flew.  She found many contestants for the leadership; but her rivals never lasted more than a month.  She was president of hospital societies, orphan asylums, and the auxiliary Republican Club, and spoke at a bimonthly club on the servant question.  Everybody was a little afraid of her, with one exception.

The society columns of the Sunday newspapers have become permanently established.  In every city and hamlet from New York to San Francisco, you will find the society column.  It is all tommyrot to the outsider; but the proprietor is generally a shrewd business man and makes vanity pay tribute to his exchequer.  The column especially in early summer, begins something like this: 

June will be a busy month for brides, and King Cupid and his gala court will hold sway.  The bridal processions will begin to move this week in homes and churches.  On Wednesday, at high noon, the marriage of Miss Katherine Challoner, the well-known actress, and Mr. John Bennington, of this city, will be solemnized in New York.  Only the immediate relatives will be present.  Richard Warrington, our own celebrated townsman, will act as best man.  The announcement comes as a great surprise to society, as Mr. Bennington was looked upon as a confirmed bachelor.

And again you will find something of this sort: 

April 22—­Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene leaves next week for Washington, where she will be the guest of Senator Soandso’s wife.

April 29—­Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene left yesterday for Washington.

May 6—­Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene, who is visiting in Washington, will return next week.

May 13—­Mrs. Franklyn-Haldene has returned home from a delightful visit in Washington.

Sometimes, when there was no escape from it, Mr. Franklyn-Haldene’s name also appeared.