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"You know there are Thelma said. She turned to Bunny. "Just yesterday, I told her what I had heard about Casey Freyman and her gardener. Gardeners, I should say."

Brenda laughed. "Well, more power to her. They say Viagra can help women, too." she said.

"Sit down, you fool. I swear. Bunny, I spend most of my day mending the fences my sister cracks in this town with her foolish gossip and childish behavior."

"That's what an older sister is for," Brenda said, sitting down but petulantly,

"Please, join us. Isabel." Bunny said, gesturing toward the free chair.

I sat

"What would you like?"

"Oh. I'm not hungry, thank you."

"How about something to drink. a Bloody Marv. perhaps? Brenda is having a Mai Tai."

"No. thank you. I'll just have some iced tea. That is iced tea?" I asked. nodding at the pitcher.

"Oh. yes."

She didn't make any effort to pour it into a glass. so I began to reach for it, and, almost out of thin air. a maid appeared. poured the iced tea for me, and then, as quickly as she had come, stepped out of the room.

"Your house servants seem to come out of the woodwork," I remarked,

Bunny laughed. Thelma raised her eyebrows, and Brenda nodded. smiling.

"That's how they are supposed to appear," Bunny said.

Thelma turned her body completely toward me. "I understand you are here to dissect Palm Beach society," she said. "Put us all under a microscope."

"Not exactly dissect," I said, smiling nervously, "I'm working on a thesis paper."

"About rich people," Bunny added quickly.

"Yes." I admitted.

"I can't think of anything more boring." Thelma said. "The younger generation here is a completely spoiled. self-centered. degenerate bunch. and the older generation is absorbed with the effort to be younger. as you can see from my sister's behavior. Every club will be like the one you've just visited: every affair will be a carbon copy of the affair you've just attended."

"If you dislike it so much, why do you continue to live here?" I asked, actually curious about it.

Her sister laughed.

"Where else would I live?" Thelma snapped back at me. "Most of the rest of America is plagued with crime and filth."

And if she moved away, whom would I have for my Wednesday teas?" Bunny cried as if it were a real worry,

"You'd find someone else pretty quickly," Thelma told her.

Bunny just laughed and then leaned toward me and admitted she would.

Thelma looked satisfied that she was right. Her eyes fixed on me again. "Wh

ere are you from?"

"South Carolina," I said.

"Where?" she pursued.