little of what is called visiting society; owing perhaps to the fact
that there not being among these proprietors any persons belonging to
what is commonly called "the aristocratic class," there was a vast
deal of aristocratic pretension. The family of Mr. A-----, who had
enriched himself as a stock-jobber, turned up its nose at the family
of Mr. B-----, who had enriched himself still more as a linen-draper,
while the family of Mr. B----- showed a very cold shoulder to the
family of Mr. C-----, who had become richer than either of them as a
pawnbroker, and whose wife wore diamonds, but dropped her h's.
England would be a community so aristocratic that there would be no
living in it, if one could exterminate what is now called
"aristocracy." The Braefields were the only persons who really drew
together the antagonistic atoms of the Moleswich society, partly
because they were acknowledged to be the first persons there, in right
not only of old settlement (the Braefields had held Braefieldville for
four generations), but of the wealth derived from those departments of
commercial enterprise which are recognized as the highest, and of an
establishment considered to be the most elegant in the neighbourhood;
principally because Elsie, while exceedingly genial and cheerful in
temper, had a certain power of will (as her runaway folly had
manifested), and when she got people together compelled them to be
civil to each other. She had commenced this gracious career by
inaugurating children's parties, and when the children became friends
the parents necessarily grew closer together. Still her task had only
recently begun, and its effects were not in full operation. Thus,
though it became known at Moleswich that a young gentleman, the heir
to a baronetcy and a high estate, was sojourning at Cromwell Lodge, no
overtures were made to him on the part of the A's, B's, and C's. The
vicar, who called on Kenelm the day after the dinner at
Braefieldville, explained to him the social conditions of the place.