There was more freedom, more vivacity, than Lorelei was accustomed to, even in the gayest down-town resorts; the fun was swift and hilarious, there was a great deal of drinking.  Bob, after a manful struggle against his desires and a frightened resistance to the advances of Miss Wyeth, had fled to the billiard-room.  The Widow T.-B., odorous of cocktails, plowed through the intricacies of the latest dances, wallowing like a bluff-bowed tramp steamer, full to the hatches with a cargo of rum and sugar.  Bert Hayman, fatuously inflamed with Lorelei’s beauty, waged a bitter contest with the other men for her favor.  He appropriated her, he was affectionate; he ventured to become suggestive in a snickering, covert way.  His intimate manner of dancing would not have been tolerated in any public place, and Lorelei was upon the point of objecting, until she saw that the others, men and women alike, were exaggerating the movements and entwining their limbs even more pronouncedly.  Harden Fennell, Lorelei’s host, explained: 

“We don’t dance in the cafes any more.  They’re so strict it’s no fun.”

Fennell was a slight man of thirty or fifty, colorless of face and predatory of nose.  He had a shocking sense of humor, which he displayed by telling Lorelei a story that left her mute with indignation until she saw that he was quite unconscious of any breach of etiquette.  When he finally left her she was sadly bewildered and found herself wondering if the occurrences of this afternoon were not a part of some bad dream.  Certainly such an erotic atmosphere could not be considered “smart,” this complete freedom from restraint could not be a recognized social usage.  The suspicion that Fennell had presumed upon her reputation as a show-girl to lower the bars of decorum troubled her until she heard him repeat his vile story to other women.  From the general laughter she judged that her own ideas would be thought Puritanical.

She became interested in watching Miss Courtenay, the girl in the riding-habit, one of the season’s debutantes, who, it seemed, was especially susceptible to the influence of liquor.

“If you shake a bar-towel at Elizabeth she goes under the table,” Bert Hayman explained.  “We love to get her full.”  It excited great merriment when, some time later, Miss Courtenay had to be sent home in an automobile, leaving her saddle-horse to be led by her escort.

Lorelei was glad when it came time to dress for dinner.  As she went to her room Mrs. Fennell stopped her on the stairs to say: 

“My dear, you’re stunning in that little black and white.  Where did you get it?”

Lorelei gave her the name of her tailor.

“Really!  I never heard of her.”  Mrs. Fennell smiled and laid a soft hand upon her guest’s arm.  “Elizabeth Courtenay was frantically jealous of you.”

“Of me?  I don’t understand.”

“She and Bert are great friends—­and he’s gone perfectly daft over you.  Why, he’s telling everybody.”  Lorelei flushed, to the evident amusement of her hostess, who ran on:  “Oh, Bert means it!  I never heard him rave so.  Quite a compliment, my dear!  He declares he’s going to win you, so make up your mind to it—­he never takes ‘no’ for an answer.”  With a playful pat she went on her way, leaving the young wife weak with dismay.