The Novel Does Not Simply Recount Experience,

Princess Bibesco Delighted In A Semi-ideal World - A World Which, Though Having A Counterpart In Her Experience, Was To A Great Extent Brought Into Being By Her Own Temperament And, One Might Say, Flair.

Plot Is The Knowing Of Destination.

The Craft Of The Novelist Does Lie First Of All In Story-telling.

Dress Has Never Been At All A Straightforward Business: So Much Subterranean Interest And Complex Feeling Attaches To It. As A Topic ... It Has A Flowery Head But Deep Roots In The Passion. On The Subject Of Dress Almost No One, For One Or Another Reason, Feels Truly Indifferent: If Their Own Clothes Do Not Concern Them, Somebody Else's Do. ... Ten Minutes Talk About Clothes (except Between Perfect Friends) Tends To Make Everyone Present Either Overbearing, Guarded Or Touchy.

Characters Are Not Created By Writers. They Pre-exist And Have To Be Found.