A short time ago I asked a very high and mighty personage if she did not fear the change that must come when she left Constantinople.

She answered with great frankness: 'I feel that most of what you say is correct, but before I came here I was very small fry; now I know I am a swell, and mean to enjoy myself.' She was like those reckless ones who cried: 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' I have seen a stand made by one or two of these mighty ones, an attempt to break down the system of pompous exclusiveness, but that attempt unfortunately failed.
I must say that the foreign colonies in Pera are much to blame, for they worship with all their minds and all their strength their different chiefs and chieftainesses, and human nature being weak, &c.

&c.
Apart from the 'sacred circle' there is a nice little society where people go in for enjoying themselves, and succeed in doing so very comfortably; but even there, with some few exceptions, there is that secret longing for one or two of the swells--even a junior secretary of an embassy is looked upon as a desideratum.
The Greeks keep very much to themselves; so do the Armenians.

The Turks are exceedingly fond of going into society, but their domestic arrangements tend to prevent their entertaining.
His Majesty the Sultan frequently invites European ladies to his dinner parties, and those who have had that honour must have thoroughly enjoyed the delicious music and the pleasant entertainments after dinner at the Palace of Yildiz.

I don't see why His Imperial Majesty's example is not followed by some of his subjects; perhaps we may yet come to that by-and-by.
In what I have said about society in Pera I have not meant to be personal or offensive in any way.