Excerpt from Fair to Middling Untrue, Martin began with an effort. Having fought this battle in anticipation, its reality only caused indifference. Moreover, she is to be my wife. Saying which, he irreverently scratched a match under the red-lacquer desk. Sunday morning breakfast had always been a ceremony at Madam Reid's. Her father, past diplo mat and statesman, had created the function for the benefit Of friends who declined to be entertained, herd-fash ion, with political necessities. In those long-ago days Madam Reid, an imperious girl demanding homage even then as she demanded it now, had poured coffee for a cattle-king or a noble man with equal graciousness. During her early widowhood Sunday morning breakfasts were her only form of entertainment. In due time dinner parties were resumed, and when Martin achieved his first tuxedo and ran up bills at an alarming rate, and Dare was still a gray-eyed, dusky-haired young thing, Madam Reid permitted dancing parties. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.