THE PARTY.
The invitations had been for half-past seven, and precisely at that hour
Peterkin arrived, magnificent in his swallow-tail and white shirt front,
where an enormous diamond shone conspicuously. With him came Mrs.
Peterkin, whose name was Mary Jane, but whom her husband always called
_May_ Jane. She was a frail, pale-faced little woman, who had once been
Grace Atherton's maid, and had married Peterkin for his money. This was
her first appearance at a grand party, and in her excitement and
timidity she did not hear Harold's thrice repeated words, "Ladies go
that way," but followed her husband into the gentlemen's dressing-room,
where she deposited her wraps, and then, shaking in every limb,
descended to the drawing-room, where Peterkin's loud voice was soon
heard, as he slapped his host on the shoulder, and said:
"You see, we are here on time, though May Jane said it was too early.
But I s'posed half-past seven meant half-past seven, and then I wanted a
little time to talk up the ropes with you. We are going to run you in,
you bet!" and again his coarse laugh thrilled every nerve in Mrs.
Tracy's body, and she longed for fresh arrivals to help quiet this
vulgar man.
Soon they began to come by twos, and threes, and sixes, and Harold was
kept busy with his "Ladies this way, and gentlemen that."
After Mrs. Peterkin had gone down stairs, leaving her wraps in the
gentlemen's room, Harold, who knew they did not belong there, had
carried them to the ladies' room and deposited them upon the bed, just
as the girl who was to be in attendance appeared at her post, asking
him sharply why he was in there rummaging the ladies' things.
"I'm not rummaging. They are Mrs. Peterkin's. She left them in the other
room, and I brought them here," Harold said, as he returned to the hall,
eager and excited, and interested in watching the people as they came up
the stairs and went down again. With the quick instinct of a bright,
intelligent boy, he decided who was accustomed to society and who was
not, and leaning over the banister, when not on duty, watched them as
they entered the drawing-room and were received by Mr. and Mrs. Tracy.
Unconsciously, he began to imitate them, bowing when they bowed, and
saying softly to himself:
"Oh, how do you do? Good-evening. Happy to see you. Pleasant, to-night.
Walk in. Ye-as!"
This was the monosyllable with which he finished every sentence, and was
the affirmation to the thought in his mind that he, too, would some day
go down those stairs and into those parlors as a guest, while some other
boy in the upper hall bade the ladies go this way and the gentlemen
that.
It was after nine when Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire arrived, with Squire
Harrington, from Collingwood. Harold had been looking for them, anxious
to see the crimson satin trimmed with ermine of which Dick had told him.
Many of the guests he had mentally criticised unsparingly, but Mrs. St.
Clair, he knew, was genuine, and his face beamed when in passing him she
smiled upon him with her sweet, gracious manner, and said, pleasantly:
"Good-evening, Harold. I knew you were to be here. Dick told me, and he
wanted to come and help you, but I thought he'd better stay home with
Nina."
Up to this time no one had spoken to Harold, and he had spoken to no one
except to tell them where to go, but had, as far as possible, followed
Mrs. Tracy's injunction to be a machine. But the machine was getting a
little tired. It was hard work to stand for two hours or more, and Mrs.
Tracy had impressed it upon him that he was not to sit down. But when
Mrs. St. Claire came from the dressing-room and stood before him a
moment, he forgot his weariness, and forgot that he was not to talk, and
said to her, involuntarily:
"Oh, Mrs. St. Claire, how handsome you look! Handsomer than anybody yet,
and different, too, somehow."
Edith knew the compliment was genuine, and she replied:
"Thank you, Harold;" then, laying her hand on his head and parting his
soft, brown hair, she said, as she noticed a look of fatigue in his
eyes, "Are you not tired, standing so long? Why don't you bring a chair
from one of the rooms and sit when you can?"
"She told me to stand," Harold replied, nodding toward the parlors, from
which a strain of music just then issued.
The dancing had commenced, and Harold's feet and hands beat time to the
lively strains of the piano and violin, until he could contain himself
no longer. The dancing he must see at all hazards, and know what it was
like, and when the last guests came up the stairs, there was no hall boy
there to tell them, "Ladies this way and gentlemen that," for Harold was
in the thickest of the crowd, standing on a chair so as to look over the
heads of those in front of him, and see the dancers. But, alas for poor
Harold! He was soon discovered by Mrs. Tracy, who, asking him if he did
not know his place better than that, ordered him back to his post, where
he was told to stay until the party was over.
Wholly unconscious of the nature of his offense, but very sorry that he
had offended, Harold went up the stairs, wondering why he could not see
the dancing, and how long the party would last. His head was beginning
to ache with the glare and gas; his little legs were tired, and he was
growing sleepy. Surely he might sit down now, particularly as Mrs. St.
Claire had suggested it, and bringing a chair from one of the rooms he
sat down in a corner of the hall, and was soon in a sound sleep, from
which he was roused by the sound of Mr. Tracy's voice, as he came up the
stairs, followed by a tall, distinguished-looking man, who wore a
Spanish cloak wrapped gracefully around him, and a large, broad-brimmed
hat drawn down so closely as to hide his features from view.
As he reached the upper landing he raised his head, and Harold, who was
now wide awake and standing up, caught a glimpse of a thin, pale face,
and a pair of keen, black eyes, which seemed for an instant to take
everything in; then the head was dropped, and the two men disappeared in
a room at the far end of the hall.
"I'll bet that's Mr. Arthur. How grand he is! looks just like a pirate
in that cloak and hat," was Harold's mental comment.
Before he had time for further thought, Frank Tracy came from the room,
and hurried down the stairs to rejoin his guests.
Five minutes later and the door at the end of the long hall which
communicated with the back staircase and the rear of the house, opened,
and a man whom Harold recognized as the expressman from the station
appeared with a huge trunk on his shoulder, and a large valise in his
hand. These he deposited in the stranger's room, and then went back for
more, until four had been carried in. But when he came with the fifth
and largest of all, a hand, white and delicate as a woman's, was thrust
from the door-way with an imperative gesture, and a voice with a decided
foreign accent exclaimed:
"For Heaven's sake, don't bring any more boxes in here. Why, I am
positively stumbling over them now. Surely there must be some place in
the house for my luggage, besides my private apartment."
Then the door was shut with a bang, and Harold heard the sliding of the
bolt as Arthur Tracy fastened himself into his room.