I did not, I explained, wish to be unkind, but the memory of that latter-day Petronius was one of the most mirth-provoking memories of my boyhood.

Was he fair game for a chapter of a flippant nature?
But why not?
was the retort.

He himself would have adored it.
Fame came to him through the newspaper reporter.

It was a smaller New York, a more limited Fifth Avenue in those days, and Mrs.Astor ruled its society without any one to question her sovereignty.

She was about to give a great ball, and Ward McAllister, as the self-appointed and generally accepted secretary of society, was in charge of the list of invitations.
To the reporter sent to interview him Mr.McAllister explained that, owing to problems of space, only four hundred cards were to be sent out, commenting: "After all, there are only four hundred persons in New York who count in a social way." "And who are those four hundred persons ?" asked the quick-witted reporter.
On that point Mr.McAllister was more reticent.