with his powerful influence among a certain class, and Widow Shipleigh
with her four sons, to Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire, from Grassy Spring,
Squire Harrington, from Collingwood, and Grace Atherton, from Brier
Hill. Very few who could in any way help Frank to a seat in Congress
were omitted from the list, whether Republican or Democrat, for Frank
was popular with both parties and expected help from both. Over three
hundred cards had been issued for the party, which was the absorbing
topic of conversation in the whole town, and which brought white kids
and white muslins into great requisition, while swallow-tails and non
swallow-tails were discussed in the privacy of households, and discarded
or decided upon according to the length of the masculine purse or the
strength of the masculine resistance, for dress coats were not then the
rule in Shannondale. 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,