As for the men, who for the most part, and far more so than the women, were immune from scandalmongery, they gave way, not only because of the obligations of social life, not only so as not to be singular and to show themselves complacent, but perhaps to please certain ladies of the Palace Hotel or ladies outside, which they could not succeed in doing except by gossiping with more or less wit. It was impossible to pay court to Madame Lawrence--the lovely professional beauty of the year--a useless court, as a matter of fact, in results, but which deceived only in its appearance, without telling her all the scandals which had been invented and were passing to and fro about her. It was impossible to see her interested or smile unless they repeated all the grotesque and perverse things which the other women had invented or were inventing about her. It was impossible to enter the circle of Madame d'Aguilar, the rich and munificent Brazilian--who every day had ten people to lunch and fifteen to dinner, had three carriages always at the disposal of her friends, and gave _cotillons_, with gifts of great value--without being mettlesome, or a witty chronicler of the rarest scandal. It was impossible to accompany on a walk the little Marquise d'Allart, pale and pink like fragile Dresden china, but greedy and hungry and thirsty for _potins_. She would exclaim peevishly: "_Mais n'en savez vous pas un d'inédit, de potin? Rien que les vieux, les usès? Allons, cherchez, cherchez!_" Giorgio Galanti, an Italian gentleman from Bologna, whose wit was as fine as a hair, very quick, a fascinating _conteur_, had found a method, the secret of which he offered to those who had no other, of conquering the feminine spirit. He used to go day and night outside the "Palace," into the other hotels of the Dorf and Bad, wherever he had discovered a beautiful woman or a pretty girl, and after a conversation on vague subjects, he would say: "_Madame, connaissez vous le dernier potin du 'Palace'? Il est épatant, je vous assure._" The effect was certain. Immediately seized by curiosity, tickled in her latent snobbishness, wishing to know all the little mysteries of Olympus--the "Palace"--the lady from the Grand Hotel, the "Schweizerhof," the Hôtel du Lac, the "Victoria," would turn her beautiful eyes to Giorgio Galanti, which told him that not only were they questioning him, but were promising him the reward of indiscretion.