Mrs. Rittenhouse Smith had achieved righteousness. That is to say, being
a Philadelphian, she was celebrated for giving successful dinners. The
person who achieves celebrity of this sort in Philadelphia is not unlike
the seraph who attains to eminence in the heavenly choir.
It was conceded that Mr. Rittenhouse Smith (he was one of _the_ Smiths,
of course--not the others. His mother was a Biddle) was an important
factor in his wife's success; for, as became a well-brought-up
Philadelphian, he attended personally to the marketing. But had these
Smith dinners been commendable only because the food was good, they
would not have been at all remarkable. In Philadelphia, so far as the
eating is concerned, a bad dinner seems to be an impossibility.
In truth, Mrs. Smith's dinners were famous because they never were
marred by even the slightest suggestion of a _contretemps_; because they
glided along smoothly, and at precisely the proper rate of speed, from
oysters to coffee; and, because--and to accomplish this in Philadelphia
was to accomplish something very little short of a miracle--they never
were stupid.
Therefore it was that Mrs. Rittenhouse Smith stood among the elect, with
a comfortable sense of security in her election; and she smelled with a
satisfied nose the smell of the social incense burned before her
shrine; and she heard with well-pleased ears the social hosannas which
constantly were sung in her praise.