It was delightful to see Northbury on this day, for so gay were the costumes worn by its inhabitants that as they passed through the narrow old streets they gave the place of their birth a picturesque and even a foreign appearance.
The Rectory was just outside the town, and, of course, all the footsteps were bending thither.

The Rector had invited his guests to assemble at three o'clock, and punctually at a quarter to that hour Miss Peters seated herself in her bay window, armed with a spy-glass to watch the gathering crowd.
Miss Peters was already arrayed in her festive clothes, but she and Mrs.
Butler thought it ungenteel not to be, at least, an hour late.

"The Bertrams will be sure to be late," remarked the good lady to her sister, "and we, too, Martha, will show that we know what's what." "Which we don't," snapped Mrs.Butler.

"We are sure and certain to be put in the wrong before we are half-an-hour there.

However, I agree with you, Maria; we won't be among the hurryers.