And it chanced to be the scene of a certain very pretty little romance
which can scarcely be passed over here.
New York, as a matter of course, copied her fashionable standards from
older lands. While Manhattan society was by no means a supine and
merely imitative affair, the country was too new not to cling a bit to
English and French formalities. The great ladies of the day made
something of a point of their "imported amusements" as having a
specific claim on fashionable favour. 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.
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