They had a luncheon of fresh venison and partridges and trout, and in the afternoon a hunt.  The more active set out to track the deer in the snow; but most prepared to watch the lake-shore, while the game-keepers turned loose the dogs back in the hills.  This “hounding” was against the law, but Bertie was his own law here—­and at the worst there could simply be a small fine, imposed upon some of the keepers.  They drove eight or ten deer to water; and as they fired as many as twenty shots at one deer, they had quite a lively time.  Then at dusk they came back, in a fine glow of excitement, and spent the evening before the blazing logs, telling over their adventures.

The party spent two days and a half here, and on the last evening, which was Thanksgiving, they had a wild turkey which Bertie had shot the week before in Virginia, and were entertained by a minstrel show which had been brought up from New York the night before.  The next afternoon they drove back to the train.

In the morning, when they reached the city, Alice found a note from Mrs. Winnie Duval, begging her and Montague to come to lunch and attend a private lecture by the Swami Babubanana, who would tell them all about the previous states of their souls.  They went—­though not without a protest from old Mrs. Montague, who declared it was “worse than Bob Ingersoll.”

And then, in the evening, came Mrs. de Graffenried’s opening entertainment, which was one of the great events of the social year.  In the general rush of things Montague had not had a chance properly to realize it; but Reggie Mann and Mrs. de Graffenried had been working over it for weeks.  When the Montagues arrived, they found the Riverside mansion—­which was decorated in imitation of an Arabian palace—­turned into a jungle of tropical plants.

They had come early at Reggie’s request, and he introduced them to Mrs. de Graffenried, a tall and angular lady with a leathern complexion painfully painted; Mrs. de Graffenried was about fifty years of age, but like all the women of Society she was made up for thirty.  Just at present there were beads of perspiration upon her forehead; something had gone wrong at the last moment, and so Reggie would have no time to show them the favours, as he had intended.

About a hundred and fifty guests were invited to this entertainment.  A supper was served at little tables in the great ball-room, and afterward the guests wandered about the house while the tables were whisked out of the way and the room turned into a play-house.  A company from one of the Broadway theatres would be bundled into cabs at the end of the performance, and by midnight they would be ready to repeat the performance at Mrs. do Graffenried’s.  Montague chanced to bo near when this company arrived, and he observed that the guests had crowded up too close, and not left room enough for the actors.  So the manager had placed them in a little ante-room, and when Mrs. de Graffenried observed this, she rushed at the man, and swore at him like a dragoon, and ordered the bewildered performers out into the main room.