This is the first party Lavinia takes Louise to, and the best, and the one Louise will never stop trying to get back to.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: This line serves to foreshadow how centrally parties will figure into the narrative from this point on. Even after Lavinia's death, many of the novel's major plot points occur at parties, even as Louise gets progressively more and more sick of them and starts to feel bored and dislike the whole routine. In a way, this can be compared to drug addiction, where one continually chases that first high, which forever eludes them, and they must use more and more often, but to no avail.

She is so beautiful, Louise thinks, that you even believe her.”
-- Narrator (chapter 2)

Importance: In this quote, Louise's thoughts inadvertently reveal part of the reason that she has so easily allowed herself to be swept up in Lavinia's glamorous yet empty and expensive world...