A few moments of chatter, then she and Bob were led into the house again and up to a cool, wide bedroom.  As Lorelei removed her motor-coat and bonnet she exclaimed breathlessly:  “What a gorgeous house!  And those people!  They weren’t the least bit formal.”

Bob laughed.  “Formality is about the last thing they’re famous for.  There’s liable to be too much informality.  Say!  You made those dames look like the Monday morning wash-ladies’ parade.  I knew you would.”

“You said this was the younger set—­but that awful Thompson-Bellaire widow is here, and that blonde girl I met with her.”

“Alice Wyeth?”

“Yes.  I thought she was going to kiss you.”

Bob grinned.  “So did I. She will, too, if she feels like it.”

“Won’t you have anything to say about it?”

“What could I say?  Alice does just as she likes.  So does everybody else, for that matter.  I’ve never gone in for this sort of thing very much.”

After a moment Lorelei ventured, “I suppose they’re all hard drinkers—­”

“That wasn’t spring water you saw in their glasses.”

“Are you—­going to?” Lorelei eyed him anxiously.

“I can’t very well make myself conspicuous by refusing everything; I don’t want to look like a zebra in a hen-yard—­and a cocktail before dinner wouldn’t hurt anybody.”  Noting his wife’s expression he kissed her lightly.  “Now don’t spoil your first party by worrying over me.  Just forget you’re married and have a good time.”

Music greeted them as they descended the stairs, and they found some of the guests dancing to the strains of a giant orchestrion built into the music-room.  Hayman promptly seized upon Lorelei and whirled her away, but not before she saw the Wyeth blonde making for Bob as an eagle makes for its prey.

Society was tango-mad.  The guests could not wait for evening, but indulged their latest fancy in the open air and in the light of day.  Doubtless the Naiads used to dance in daylight, when they made merry, but modern terpsichorean figures are suitable only for the evening.  The spectacle of a red-faced, harem-skirted matron wabbling through a one-step, her billowing amplitude restrained only by a boneless six-inch corset, is even less classic than the antics of a dancing bear.

Guests continued to arrive from time to time; some from Westchester and the Connecticut shore, others from neighboring estates.  One couple in riding-clothes, out for a gallop, dismounted and stayed for a trot.  The huge tiled terrace began to resemble a Broadway the dansant.