s, for
all their grandeur, how she do dress, to be sure. A bit of a rag of an
old shawl, and a hat on! the same as she wears every day. I've got more
respect for them as comes to instruct us than that."

And, indeed, Mrs. Tom was resplendent in a red _sortie de bal_, with a
brooch almost as big as that envied one of Mrs. Tozer's stuck into her
gown, and a cap covered with flowers upon her head. This was the usual
fashion of the Salem ladies on such rare occasions. The meeting of the
Disestablishment Society was to them what a ball is to worldly-minded
persons who frequent such vanities. The leading families came out _en
masse_ to see and to be seen. It would be wrong to say that they did not
enter into all the arguments and recognise the intellectual feast set
before them; no doubt they did this just as well as if they had come in
their commonest attire; but still the seriousness of the occasion was,
no doubt, modified by being thus made into a dissipation. The men were
not so fine, perhaps, because it is more difficult for men to be
fine--but they were all in their Sunday clothes; and the younger ones
were in full bloom of coloured satin cravats and fine waistcoats. Some
of them were almost as fine a sight as the ladies in their ribbons and
flowers.

"I suppose by the look of them this must be an influential
community--people of some pretensions," said an obese elderly minister,
who had seated himself by Phoebe, and whose eyes were dazzled by the
display. "I never expected all this dress in a quiet country place."

"Oh, yes! they are people of much pretension," said Phoebe gravely.

And then the proceedings began. Old Mr. Green, the grocer, whose son had
married Maria Pigeon, and who had long been retired from business,
occupying a house in the country and "driving his carriage," was in the
chair; and the proceedings went on according to the routine of such
assemblies, with differing degrees of earnestness on the part of the
speakers. To most of these gentlemen it was the ordinary occupation of
their lives; and they made their hearers laugh at well-known stories,
and enjoyed their own wit, and elicited familiar cheers, and made hits
such as they had made for years on the same subject, which was a
comfortable _cheval de bataille_, not at all exciting to themselves,
though they were quite willing to excite their audience, if that
audience would allow itself to be excited. Things jogged on thus for the
first hour very