on companions,
Doctor Prescott and his wife, and the minister and his daughter, were
the only elders bidden, since the party was for Lucina.

"The door's open," Elmira whispered, nervously. "Is it right to knock
when the door's open, or walk right in, O Jerome?"

Jerome, for answer, stepped resolutely in, reached the knocker,
raised it, and let it fall with a great imperious clang of brass,
defying, as it were, his own shyness, like a herald at arms.

The white-clad girls on the stairs turned as with one accord their
innocently abashed faces towards the door, then pushed one another
on, and into the parlor, with soft titters and whispers.

Squire Eben Merritt's old servant, Hannah, gravely ponderous in
purple delaine, with a wide white apron enhancing her great front,
came forward from the room in the rear and motioned Jerome and Elmira
to the stairs. She stared wonderingly after Jerome; she did not
recognize him in his fine attire, though she had known him since he
was a child.

When Jerome and Elmira came down-stairs he led the way at once into
the north parlor, where the most of the guests were assembled. There
were the village young women in their best attire, decked as to heads
and bosoms with sweet drooping flowers, displaying all their humble
stores of lace and ribbons and trinkets, jostling one another with
slurring hisses of silk and crisp rattle of muslins, speaking
affectedly with pursed lips, ending often a sibilant with a fine
whistle, or silent, with mouths set in conscious smiles and cheeks
hot with blushes. There were the village young men, in their Sunday
clothes, standing aloof from the girls, now and then exchanging
remarks with one another in a bravado of low bass. In the rear of the
north parlor were Lucina and her parents, Mrs. Doctor Prescott and
Lawrence, Miss Camilla Merritt, and the Squire's friends, Colonel
Lamson, John Jennings, and Lawyer Means.

Jerome, with Elmira following, made his way slowly through the
outskirts towards this fine nucleus of the party. Lawrence Prescott
was talking gayly with Lucina, but when he saw Jerome and his sister
approaching he stood back, with a slight flush and start, beside his
mother, who with Miss Camilla was seated on the great sofa between
the north windows. Mrs. Prescott fanned herself slowly with a large
feather fan, and beamed abroad with a sweet graciousness. Her
handsome face seemed to fairly shed a mild light of approval upon the
company. Sh