"I am going to have my _salon,_ or at all events the beginning of it,
at once," said Betty to Sally Carter on the afternoon of her arrival,
"and I want you to help me."

"I am ready for any change," said Miss Carter. Her appearance was
unaltered, and she had spoken of Emory's death without emotion.
Whether she had put the past behind her with the philosophy of her
nature, or whether his marriage with a woman for whose breed she had a
bitter and fastidious contempt had killed her love before his death,
Betty could only guess. She made no attempt to learn the truth.
Sally's inner life was her own; that her outer was unchanged was
enough for her friends.

"I am going to give a dinner to thirty people on the sixth of January.
Here is the list. You will see that every man is in official life.
There are eight Senators, five members of the House, the British
Ambassador, and the Librarian of Congress. Some of them know my desire
for a _salon_ and are ready to help me. I shall talk about it quite
freely. In these days you must come out plainly and say what you want.
If you wait to be too subtle, the world runs by you. I am determined
to have a _salon,_ and a famous one at that. This is an ambitious
list, but half-way methods don't appeal to me."

"Nobody ever accused you of an affinity for the second best, my dear;
but you may thank your three stars of luck for providing you with the
fortune and position to achieve your ambitions: beauty and brains
alone wouldn't do it. Senator North," she continued from the list in