Blooming.(The Talk of the Town)(Michelle Paige Paterson)

If there was a feeling of apprehension hanging over last week's Daffodil Project Benefit Breakfast, where Michelle Paige Paterson, the new First Lady of New York, was a guest, it may have been because the only thing most New Yorkers know about their new First Lady is something people often don't know about their own spouses: that she had an affair (and her husband did, too) and that much of the saga--both her husband's trysts and the couple's reconciliation--took place at a Days Inn on West Ninety-fourth Street. It was a strange way to begin, but the circumstances surrounding David Paterson's unexpected promotion had put things out of order: disclosure, crisis, and redemption had come first; now it was time for getting to know you.

There were a hundred and seventy people at breakfast, at the Bryant Park Grill, eating yogurt parfaits from Martini glasses. Conversation hewed mostly to daffodils--symbol of hope, of springtime, and, since last year, the official flower of New York City. Christine Quinn, the City Council Speaker, told the crowd that, to her, daffodils represent resilience: they remind her of the period after September 11, 2001, and how "this city came back to life." Lynden Miller, the public-garden designer who founded the program, for which volunteers plant daffodils in city parks, stuck to the theme. "It's tough and resilient and cheerful and loud and noisy," she said. "It comes up every year and nothing stops it. Tulips get eaten by squirrels."

Paterson, who was sitting at a front table, smiled at this image. An avid exerciser, she looked tall and fit, and was wearing a black suit, high heels, pearls, and a black pashmina. Henry Stern, the ex-Parks Commissioner, who was reminding people of their "park names"--the nicknames he habitually bestows on civil servants--said he hadn't picked one for her yet. (Helen Marshall, the Queens borough ...