As she always did on any really important day, Penelope Hayes wore red.

There was no pleasure like being envied on a mass scale.

The value of secrets is ever fluctuating although ladies who have been in society for a long time learn that a secret kept can be worth more than a secret told.

A young lady's most natural ally is her sister although sometimes our own relatives are as inscrutable to us as an antipodean.

Her heart the damned thing had begun to race and she only hoped that the rapid inflation and deflation of her chest wasn't visible beneath her fitted bodice.

They were a society whose chief vocations were to entertain and be entertained.

She felt so much aware of her own beauty it seemed inconceivable that everybody else wouldn't notice the difference too.