Behind the Bronze Door by William Le Queux

You would think, judging by the newspapers, that the great balls which take place periodically in London at the Albert Hall and elsewhere presented scenes of wild delight approaching revelry. Many, in reality, are deadly dull affairs, and respectable beyond words, while others are so crowded that dancing becomes an impossibility. Of course there are always people who like to be "seen everywhere" in order to give their friends the impression that they are "in the swim" of London life, fashionable and otherwise. Such folk you will usually find to be _poseurs_ of a peculiarly unintelligent type, the sort of men and women who are never natural, never "themselves" as it is called, and who act and talk always to impress those who may see or hear them.

Among the three thousand or more men and women who had bought tickets for the great ball organized and ostensibly to be given by Aloysius Stapleton and young Archie La Planta, were hundreds of people of that type, the class of individual who, before the war, loved to squander money and still more to let folk see how recklessly they squandered it. Stapleton, who knew his world, had purposely advertised his ball with a view to what he called "roping in" these people by making a great to do regarding the many well-known social representatives who would be present, in addition to theatrical stars and other more or less Bohemian folk.