Chapter 6: Lord Hadley Makes a Charming First Impression

The card party at Mrs. Voss-Templeton's townhouse in Upper Brook Street was, by general consensus, the precise variety of evening that London Society existed to produce: not so grand as to inspire genuine anxiety, not so small as to suggest the hostess had suffered a reversal of fortune, and attended by exactly enough interesting people to justify the trouble of dressing. Mrs. Calloway had identified it, with the unerring tactical instinct she applied exclusively to matrimonial operations, as ideal terrain.

"The rooms are not large enough to lose anyone," she explained to Petra in the carriage, in the tone of a general reviewing favorable topography, "but not so small that one is obliged to speak to the same person twice. You will circulate."

"I had intended to breathe as well," said Petra. "I hope that is not considered extravagant."