Mrs.Dewey was dressed like a queen, and radiant in pearls and diamonds.

I questioned her good taste in this, as hostess; and think she knew better--but the temptation to astonish the good people of S----was too strong to be resisted.
After the curtain fell on this brilliant spectacle, Mrs.Dewey assumed a stately air, showing, on all occasions, a conscious superiority that was offensive to our really best people.

There are in all communities a class who toady to the rich; and we had a few of these in S----.
They flattered the Deweys, and basked in the sunshine of their inflated grandeur.
I was not one towards whom Mrs.Dewey put on superior airs.

My profession brought me into a kind of relation to her that set aside all pretence.

Very soon after her removal to S----, my services were required in the family, one of her two children having been attacked with measles.