nd Miss Croup to take luncheon with her quite informally on the
following Tuesday. She would have made it a dinner, but in that case her
husband would have been at home, and it would have been necessary to
invite Mr. Burke, and she was not yet quite sure about Mr. Burke.

This invitation, which soon became known throughout the town, decided
the position of Mrs. Cliff at Plainton. When that lady and her family
had gone, with her carriage and pair, to the mansion of the Buskirks on
the hill, and had there partaken of luncheon, very informally, in
company with three of the most distinguished ladies of Harrington, who
had also been invited very informally; and when the news of the
magnificent repast which had been served on the occasion, with flowers
from the greenhouse nearly covering the table, with everything tied up
with ribbons which could possibly be so decorated, and with a present
for each guest ingeniously concealed under her napkin, floated down into
the town, there was no woman in that place who could put her hand upon
her heart and honestly declare that hereafter Mrs. Cliff could look up
to anybody in Plainton.

This recognition, which soon became obvious to Mrs. Cliff, was a source
of genuine gratification to that good lady. She had never been inclined
to put herself above her neighbors on account of her fortune, and would
have been extremely grieved if she had been convinced that her wealth
would oblige her to assume a superior position but when that wealth
gradually and easily, without creating any disturbance or commotion in
her circle, raised her of itself, without any action on her part, to the
peak of social eminence in her native place, her genuine satisfaction
was not interfered with in the least degree by her conscience. Her
position had come to her, and she had assumed it as if she had been born
to it.

But whenever she thought of her preeminence,--and she did not think of
it nearly so often as other people thought of it,--she determined that
it should make no difference to her; and when next she gave a high
tea,--not the grand repast to which she intended to invite the Buskirks
on the hill,--she invited Miss Cushing. Now, there were people in
Plainton who did not invite the dressmaker to their table, but Mrs.
Cliff had asked her when they were all poor together, and she would have
her now again when they were not all poor together.

As the winter went on, Burke became more and more interested in M