These social calls from gay table to gay table, at all of which Barney was welcome--for here Barney showed only his most attractive surfaces, his most brilliant facets--were in truth a very important part of Barney's business.
A little later, alone at a corner table in a quieter restaurant, Barney was eating his supper and making an inventory of his prospects.

He was in a very exultant mood.

The whiskey he had drunk had given broad wings to his self-satisfaction; and what he was now sipping from his tea-cup--it was not tea, for Barney was on the proper terms with his waiter here--this draught from his tea-cup tipped these broad wings at a yet more soaring angle.
Yes, he had certainly put it over so far.

And Maggie would certainly prove a winner.

Those fair women he had chatted with as he had moved from table to table, why, they'd be less than dirt compared to Maggie when Maggie was rigged out and readied up and the stage was set.