Mrs Burton Harrison

The Carcellini Emerald with Other Tales Mrs Burton Harrison

How did Ashton Carmichael come by his aristocratic and decidedly individual place as a dictator in New York's smart society? Nobody knew; nobody really cared. In his set it was sufficient for one sheep to jump, and all the rest would follow. He was as much a power as was Beau Brummell over modish London in the days of the Regency. Asked everywhere, deferred to with bated breath by new aspirants, he was seen only at the houses of authenticated fashion. In the clubs to which he belonged-and the list of them was long, following his name in the Social Register-some men affected to pooh-pooh his right to membership; but rarely was there a member of a committee on admissions found to vote against him on the score of fitness. Good-looking, gentlemanlike, amusing when it suited him to be so, sarcastic-and, on occasion, offensively snobbish-his uncertainties of mood lent zest to pursuit by his admirers.