confident girls

p. 45:

already there are wanderers, confident girls who weave here and there among the stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous moment the center of a group and then excited with triumph glide on through the seachange of faces and voices and color under the constantly changing light.

Fitzgerald was an astute observer of a certain breed of young women, social climbers who begin with open hearts and end with emotional bankruptcy. He could be talking about Gilda Gray or Paris Hilton, the story’s the same. The Basil and Josephine Stories paint a picture of such a girl and her counterpart young man, as they both try to find that sharp peak of social victory.