his wife, and he was glad when lunch-time came,
and he started home, where preparations were going forward for the first
large party they had ever given.

CHAPTER V.

AT THE PARK.

Frank Tracy had at first grown faster than his wife, and the change in
his manner had been more perceptible; for with all her foolishness Dolly
had a kind heart, and a keen sense of right, and wrong, and justice than
her husband. She had opposed him stoutly when he raised his own salary
from $4,000 to $6,000 a year, on the plea that his services were worth
it, and that two thousand more or less was nothing to Arthur; and when
he was a candidate for the Legislature she had protested loudly against
his inviting to the house and giving beer and cider to the men whose
votes he wanted, and for whom as men he did not care a farthing; but
when he came up for Congress she forgot all her scruples, and was as
anxious as himself to please those who could help him secure the
nomination and afterward the election. It was she who had proposed the
party, to which nearly everybody was to be invited, from old Peterkin,
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 f