In these northern climes just as the days get longer they immediately start to get shorter. A good reason to retire to tropical places since in the north the denizens live for 2 months out of the entire year and spend the other 10 anticipating these.

Society so-called (was it this way as well at the time of the Duc de Saint Simon?) is largely women and gays. The latter are usually quite poor, live in studio apartments and pay their way by being escorts. There are two kinds of gays--the regular guys and the self-creations who think they are somehow important but who like Bernard Lafferty are a pack of frauds.