So it came about that the fascinating innovation of the masked ball struck the fancy of fashionable New York.

There was something very daring about the notion; it smacked of Latin skies and manners and suggested possibilities of romance both licensed and not which charmed the ladies, even as it abashed them.

There were those who found it a project scarcely in good taste; it is said indeed that there was no end of a flutter concerning it.

But be that as it may, the masked ball was given,--the first that New York had ever known, and, it may be mentioned, the very last it was to know for many a long, discreet year! Haswell says that in this year there was a "fancy" ball given by Mr.
and Mrs.Henry Brevoort and that the date was February 24th.

It certainly was the same one, but he adds that it was generally pronounced "most successful." This one may doubt, since the results made masked balls so severely thought of that there was, a bit later, a fine of $1,000 imposed on anyone who should give one,--one-half to be deducted if you told on yourself! Nevertheless, George S.Hellman says that Mrs.Brevoort's ball, February 24, 1840,--was "the most splendid social affair of the first half of the nineteenth century in New York." There was great preparation for it, and practically all "society" was asked--and nothing and nobody else.