If living well is the best revenge, living fabulously

well can inspire rebellion--especially in those

who have to clean up after the party is over.

For "Mrs." Madeline Memory, head house-

keeper at Palm Beach s Royal Poinciana hotel,

exclusive winter preserve of the rich and famous,

the "season" of 1896-97 seems unlikely to offer

the fulfillment long denied her, restricted as it

will be to maintaining the grim facade of a prim,

dedicated employee.

Then into Maddy s chambered life barges one

of the hotel s liveliest guests, the smoothly attrac-

tive and thoroughly unattached Harrison St.

John Loring. Masquerading as a financier who

works when he chooses and plays with abandon,

Harry Loring is in fact a glib confidence man.

Though Maddy has been formally enjoined from

fraternizing with the guests, she comes to see the

genuinely affectionate "investor" as her one

chance at a splash of color on an otherwise muted

canvas, and there follows a series of elaborate

deceptions and escapades that add up to a tale of

many parts: of social portraiture (how the overin-

dulgent of that glittering age dressed, ate, and

played), of love(in an era when sex was a four-

letter word), of poses and illusions, of scandals

and white-gloved crime. The illicit, Bittersweet

romance at the heart of the narrative soars and

ebbs and constantly renews itself as it finally

draws its lovers together in an enduring com-

plicity.