ntroduced all of his party in turn, and he
readily joined them, speaking of his pleasure in doing so.

"I shall be able to exchange my seat and obtain one with you," he
said. "We shall be early, but I am glad of it. Mr. Hallam and his fine
company have been performing in Philadelphia, and as we now welcome
them back to New York, nearly all the notable people of our city will
be present. Unless Mr. Hardy wishes to do so, it will give me pleasure
to point them out to you."

"No, no!" exclaimed Master Benjamin. "The task is yours, Edward, my
lad. You can put more savor and unction into it than I can."

"Then let it be understood that I'm the guide and expounder," laughed
Charteris.

"He has a great pride in his city, and it won't suffer from his
telling," said Master Benjamin.

They were now in Nassau Street near the improvised theater, and many
other link boys, holding aloft their torches, were preceding their
masters and mistresses. Heavy coaches were rolling up, and men and
women in gorgeous costumes were emerging from them. The display of
wealth was amazing for a town in the New World, but Mr. Hardy and his
company quickly went inside and obtained their seats, from which they
watched the fashion of New York enter. Charteris knew them all, and
to many of them he was related.

The number of De Lanceys was surprising and there was also a profusion
of Livingstons, the two families between them seeming to dominate the
city, although they lived in bitter rivalry, as Charteris whispered to
Robert. There were also Wattses and Morrises and Crugers and Waltons
and Van Rensselaers, Van Cortlandts and Kennedys and Barclays and
Nicolls and Alexanders, and numerous others that endured for
generations in New York. The diverse origin of these names, English,
Scotch, Dutch and Huguenot French, showed even at such an early date
the cosmopolitan nature of New York that it was destined to maintain.

Robert was intensely interested. Charteris' fund of information was
wonderful, and he flavored it with a salt of his own. He not only knew
the people, but he knew all about them, their personal idiosyncrasies,
their rivalries and jealousies. Robert soon gathered that New York was
not only a seething city commercially, but socially as well. Family
was of extreme importance, and the great landed proprietors who had
received extensive grants along the Hudson in the earlier days from
the Dutch Government, still had and exercised feudal rig