CHAPTER XXVI.
KATIE'S FIRST BALL In spite of Mrs.Val's oft-repeated assurance that they would have none but nice people, she had done her best to fill her rooms, and not unsuccessfully.

She had, it is true, eschewed the Golightly party, who resided some north of Oxford Street, in the purlieus of Fitzroy Square, and some even to the east of Tottenham Court Road.

She had eschewed the Golightlys, and confined herself to the Scott connexion; but so great had been her success in life, that, even under these circumstances, she had found herself able to fill her rooms respectably.

If, indeed, there was no absolute crowding, if some space was left in the front drawing-room sufficient for the operations of dancers, she could still attribute this apparent want of fashionable popularity to the selections of the few nice people whom she had asked.

The Hon.