Mrs. Medwin

Mrs. Medwin is a short story by Henry James, first published in Punch in 1900. The story slyly satirizes fashionable society in fin-de-siècle England. The central characters are an American brother and sister who both entertain and live off this society, which has grown bland and bored and almost exhausted. Plot summary Mamie Cutter is an American living in London. She supports herself by getting questionable people into fashionable social circles, in return for a fee. Her worthless but personable half-brother Scott Homer turns up at her apartment looking for a handout. A particularly tough case for Mamie is a certain Mrs. Medwin, who is apparently beyond the pale even by the lax standards of current English society. But Scott comes to Mamie's rescue by charming the snooty Lady Wantrigde into inviting Mrs. Medwin to one of her exclusive parties. Mamie collects her fee and Scott becomes an unexpected social success.