Mrs.Deacon Soper was directed, of course, to the ladies' dressing-room, and her husband to the other apartment, where gentlemen were to leave their outside coats and hats.

Then came Mr.and Mrs.Briggs, and then the three Miss Spinneys, then Silas Peckham, Head of the Apollinean Institute, and Mrs.
Peckham, and more after them, until at last the ladies' dressing-room got so full that one might have thought it was a trap none of them could get out of.

In truth, they all felt a little awkwardly.

Nobody wanted to be first to venture down-stairs.

At last Mr.Silas Peckham thought it was time to make a move for the parlor, and for this purpose presented himself at the door of the ladies' dressing-room.
"Lorindy, my dear!" he exclaimed to Mrs.Peckham,--"I think there can be no impropriety in our joining the family down-stairs." Mrs.Peckham laid her large, flaccid arm in the sharp angle made by the black sleeve which held the bony limb her husband offered, and the two took the stair and struck out for the parlor.