Here was perhaps, he thought, the true society woman, the high-born lady, the realization of that ideal which Mrs.Merrill and many another grande dame had suggested.
It was not so long after this again that, chancing to be in Louisville, he discovered Mrs.Carter in a very troubled social condition.

Her affairs had received a severe setback.

A certain Major Hagenback, a citizen of considerable prominence, had died in her home under peculiar circumstances.

He was a man of wealth, married, and nominally living with his wife in Lexington.

As a matter of fact, he spent very little time there, and at the time of his death of heart failure was leading a pleasurable existence with a Miss Trent, an actress, whom he had introduced to Mrs.Carter as his friend.