And she was the Palm Beach correspondent of a society paper they naturally accepted her advice.

She warned them that in New York the waiting-list is already interminable, and that, if you hoped to break into New York society, the clever thing to do was to lay siege to it by way of the suburbs and the country clubs.

If you went direct to New York knowing no one, you would at once expose that fact, and the result would be disastrous.
She told them of a couple like themselves, young and rich and from the West, who, at the first dance to which they were invited, asked, "Who is the old lady in the wig ?" and that question argued them so unknown that it set them back two years.

It was a terrible story, and it filled the Keeps with misgivings.

They agreed with the lady correspondent that it was far better to advance leisurely; first firmly to intrench themselves in the suburbs, and then to enter New York, not as the Keeps from Keepsburg, which meant nothing, but as the Fred Keeps of Long Island, or Westchester, or Bordentown.
"In all of those places," explained the widow lady, "our smartest people have country homes, and at the country club you may get to know them.
Then, when winter comes, you follow them on to the city." The point from which the Keeps elected to launch their attack was Scarboro-on-the-Hudson.