Later on he learned to his dismay
that the charming and beautiful lady did not go into Society.
Nor was this at all rare; on the contrary, if one took the trouble
to make inquiries, he would find that such establishments were
everywhere taken for granted. Montague talked about it with Major
Venable; and out of his gossip storehouse the old gentleman drew
forth a string of anecdotes that made one's hair stand on end. There
was one all-powerful magnate, who had a passion for the wife of a
great physician; and he had given a million dollars or so to build a
hospital, and had provided that it should be the finest in the
world, and that this physician should go abroad for three years to
study the institutions of Europe! No conventions counted with this
old man--if he saw a woman whom he wanted, he would ask for her; and
women in Society felt that it was an honour to be his mistress. Not
long after this a man who voiced the anguish of a mighty nation was
turned out of several hotels in New York because he was not married
according to the laws of South Dakota; but this other man would take
a woman to any hotel in the city, and no one would dare oppose him!
And there was another, a great traction king, who kept mistresses in
Chicago and Paris and London, as well as in New York; he had one
just around the corner from his palatial home, and had an
underground passage leading to it.
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