A strange fancy took them, however, for the manner of passing their afternoons. After dinner they seated themselves round a table, and, in complete silence wrote to each other charming little notes containing the ideas that were passing in their minds. The "Penny Post," as they called it, so completely absorbed them, that they did not interrupt it, even when strangers came in. -from "Madame de Staël" A queen of society is a woman who, by force of her reputation, good management, abilities, manners, and even her rank and fortune commands a circle of persons of eminence, of fashion, and of celebrity. So say "Grace and Philip Wharton"-a dual pseudonym for one writer, British author KATHERINE BYERLEY THOMSON (1797-1862), who also wrote the three-volume Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745-by way of introduction to this charming two-volume collection of biographies of some of the most marvelous women of their day. In Volume II we meet: . Madame Récamier . Lady Hervey . Madame de Staël . Mrs. Thrale-Piozzi . Lady Caroline Lamb . Anne Seymour Damer . La Marquise du Deffand . Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu . Mary, Countess of Pembroke . La Marquise de Maintenon First published in 1861, this is a replica of the beautifully illustrated 1890 second edition. It will delight readers of aristocratic lives and fans of modern fabulosity.