The Husband Hunters2 (Pages 18 . 38)

 The next chapter is about Caroline Astor and her importance in New York's exclusive society. Caroline Webster "Lina" Schermerhorn Astor (September 22, 1830 – October 30, 1908) was a prominent American socialite of the second half of the 19th century. 

She was married to William Backhouse Astor. William Backhouse Astor Jr. (July 12, 1829 – April 25, 1892) was an American businessman, racehorse owner/breeder, and yachtsman who was a member of the prominent Astor family. 

Their house was on Fifth Avenue. The Mrs. William B. Astor House was a mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at 840-841 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of 65th Street, completed in 1896 and demolished around 1926.

.This chapter also describes how Ward McAllister became a self-appointed arbiter of society in New York. Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of America, widely accepted as the authority to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society.

Ward created small committes of 25 men, called the Patriarchs. In 1872, McAllister founded the "Society of Patriarchs" which was a group of 25 gentlemen from New York Society. The group of 25 were "representative men of worth, respectability, and responsibility". Beginning with the 1885–1886 season, the Patriarchs threw a ball each year, known as the Patriarchs Ball, which each member was entitled to invite four ladies and five gentlemen to, thereby establishing the invitees as fit for society. The first Patriarchs Ball was held at Delmonico's, with the Balls, which were difficult to obtain invitations to, receiving significant press coverage. 

In January Mrs Astor has her annual ball. This ball was perhaps the most regular and representative function of fashionable New York society. It has been given by Mrs. Astor on the first or second Monday of each recurring January for over a quarter of a century, save for a few years when the hostess was in mourning.

The American young women who went to England and married British aristocrats were called Belles. An example of this was Mary Leiter. Mary Victoria Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston  (née Leiter; 27 May 1870 – 18 July 1906) was a British aristocrat of American background who was Vicereine of India, as the wife of Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India. Mary was introduced to London society in 1890.  She met a young man, George Curzon, a Conservative Member of Parliament who was thirty-five years old, had been representing Southport for eight years, and was heir to the Barony of Scarsdale.