"Can you wonder," Claudia said on this occasion, "that men are immoral
when ladies in society rather pride themselves than otherwise on
imitating the _demi-monde_?"
"Have you ever noticed," Ideala answered, indirectly, "how frequently a
word or phrase which you know quite well by sight, but have never
thought of and do not understand, is suddenly brought home to you as it
were? You come across it everywhere, and at last take the trouble to
find out what it means in self-defence. That expression--_demi-
monde_--has begun to haunt me since I came to town, and I feel I
shall be obliged to look it up at once to stop the nuisance. We went to
a theatre the other night, and when we were settled there I saw my
husband in the stalls with a lady in flame-coloured robes. I didn't
know he was in town. The rest of our party saw him, too, and the
gentlemen had a mysterious little consultation at the back of the box.
Then one of them left us, but returned almost immediately, and told us
the carriage had not gone, and hadn't we better try some other theatre
--the piece at that one was not so good as they had supposed.
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