It being necessary for me to observe strict economy, I took my passage in the steerage.' If the general had been carried up bodily to a loaded cannon, and required to let it off that moment, he could not have been in a state of greater consternation than when he heard these words.

He, Fladdock--Fladdock in full militia uniform, Fladdock the General, Fladdock, the caressed of foreign noblemen--expected to know a fellow who had come over in the steerage of line-of-packet ship, at the cost of four pound ten! And meeting that fellow in the very sanctuary of New York fashion, and nestling in the bosom of the New York aristocracy! He almost laid his hand upon his sword.
A death-like stillness fell upon the Norisses.

If this story should get wind, their country relation had, by his imprudence, for ever disgraced them.

They were the bright particular stars of an exalted New York sphere.

There were other fashionable spheres above them, and other fashionable spheres below, and none of the stars in any one of these spheres had anything to say to the stars in any other of these spheres.
But, through all the spheres it would go forth that the Norrises, deceived by gentlemanly manners and appearances, had, falling from their high estate, 'received' a dollarless and unknown man.