Nathan Free, Natalie Bound

We arrived at the front door and were ushered to the ballroom, our names announced. In so many ways so different from the intimate affairs of the tearoom, the drawing room, the salon. But in so many ways so similar. The skills we showed off to Thumper, about saying nice things without saying meaningful things, the fluff and fog that kept social occasions working. But also the tense and thoughtful byplay and messages that I had been learning from Rabert Frantlin.