brethren will not agree with me in this, but, in spite
of them, it is my belief.' With disdain, my visitor would reply: 'You
are easily satisfied, sir.' And so on, from day to day, these interviews
would go on; all were Huguenots, Pilgrims, or Puritans. I would
sometimes call one a Pilgrim instead of a Puritan, and by this would
uncork the vials of wrath."

To the credit of the post-Knickerbocker Petronius it must be said that
he was ever content with his lot. If there were poses to laugh at, there
were qualities to respect. A meaner soul might have turned the peacock
prestige to financial account. "Had I charged a fee for every
consultation with anxious mothers on this subject" (that of introducing
a young girl into New York society) "I would be a rich man." A Wall
Street banker visiting him in his modest home in Twenty-first Street
exclaimed against the surroundings, offering to buy a certain stock at
the opening of the Board, and send the resulting profits in the
afternoon of the same day. Commodore Vanderbilt, who apparently never
forgot that first dinner, once advised: "Mac, sell everything you have
and put it in Harlem stock; it is now twenty-four; you will make more
money than you know how to take care of."

But steadfastly McAllister refused to be tempted. So long as his cottage
was a "cottage of gentility," why try to augment his fortune? "A
gentleman can afford to walk; he cannot afford to have a shabby
equipage," he once said. That distinction which he felt to be his was
not to be impaired by his trudging afoot.

It is not in the pictures of his youth, winning his way into society to
rule it; but come to ripe years, secure in his position, imparting his
creed on points of social usage, with mellow dogmatism laying down the
law in all matters of vintages and viands, that he is most impressive.
"My dear sir, I do not argue, I inform."

It was that spirit that led to the dictum that made him famous. "My dear
boy, there are only four hundred persons in New York who really count
socially." It was as if he had said: "Decant all your clarets before
serving them, even your _vin ordinaire_. If at a dinner you give both
Burgundy and claret, give your finest claret with the roast, your
Burgundy with the cheese. Stand up both wines the morning of the dinner,
and in decanting, hold the decanter in your left hand, and let the wine
first pour against the inside of the neck of the decanter, so as to
break its fall." Dou