It was said that Mr.St.Claire and Squire Harrington always wore them to dinner, but they were the nobility _par excellence_ of the town, and were expected to do things differently from the middle class, who had their bread to earn.

Old Peterkin, however, whom Frank in his soliloquy, had designated a _canal bummer_, had become a rich man, and was resolved to show that he knew what was _au fait_ for the occasion; a new suit throughout, in the very latest style, was in progress of making for him, and he had been heard to say that 'Tracy should have his vote and that of fifty more of the boys to pay for his ticket to the doin's'.

This speech, which was reported to Mrs.Tracy, reconciled her to the prospect of receiving as a guest the coarsest, roughest man in town, whose only recommendation was his money and the brute influence he exercised over a certain class.
Dolly has scarcely slept for excitement since the party had been decided upon, and everything seemed to be moving on very smoothly and in order.
They were to have music, and flowers, and a caterer from Springfield, where a lovely party-dress for herself of peach-blow satin was making, and nothing occurred of any importance to disturb her until the morning of the day appointed for the party, when it seemed as if every evil culminated at once.

First, the colored boy who was to wait in the upper hall came down with measles.

Then Grace Atherton drove round in her carriage to say that it would be impossible for her to be present, as she had received news from New York which made it necessary for her to go there by the next train.