If he would only marry my girl now, it would all come right." The entrance of the tea-service occupied the guests for the next half hour, at the end of which the little company broke up and took leave.
Salome Levison went home more thoughtful and dreamy than ever before--more out of favor with herself, more in love with her "paladin," more resolved never to marry any man except he should be John Scott, Marquis of Arondelle.
She almost loathed the hollow world of fashion in which she lived.

Yet she went more into society than ever, though she enjoyed it so much less.
She had a powerful motive for doing so.

She attended all the balls, parties, dinners, concerts, plays, and operas to which she was invited, only with the hope of meeting again with him whose image had never left her heart since it first met her vision.
But she never was gratified.

She never saw him again in society.

John Scott was unknown to the world of fashion.
The season drew to its close.