dollar heavily upon the
table and turned away. Catherine and her father looked at each other and
laughed outright.

"No man has ever got the best of Chester in a bargain," said Dr. Harlow,
"and I judge no woman ever will! Allow me to make up the deficit. It has
been worth more than that as entertainment!"

By this time the room was full. It was a motley crowd, as all classes of
Winsted were represented. The would-be Smart Set in rather elaborate
hats and gowns, mingled with the quieter Three R's, and their own maid
servants and the "gentlemen friends" of the latter. All the standbys,
who are always on hand at church doings and the County Fair, were out in
force. There was the oldest inhabitant, bestowing his presence with the
"nunc dimittis" air which had characterized him since old age had given
him the distinction vainly sought in other fields. There was old Mis'
Tuttle in her best black and orange bonnet, and Emeline Winslow with her
wig over one ear and a bouquet of artificial flowers under glass as her
contribution. With her came Grandma Hopkins, whose name was the only
nimble thing about her;--ponderous and elephantine, she had once, in
calling upon a fragile little old lady, stumbled in the doorway and
fallen upon her hostess, whose brittle bones had snapped under the
strain. Polly and Dorcas constituted themselves a committee to look out
for the elderly ones, taking great pains to keep Grandma Hopkins in open
spaces where a fall would do little damage. There was a very bony woman
with a smile which was surprising, it was so soft and radiant. She
brought a fat story of the Bible for the children, and offered Algernon
flowers from her garden for all summer. "Flowers are good for the soul
and the mind as well as books," she explained, "and if so be some one
comes in and can't find the book they want, 'twon't hurt 'em to see a
posy."

There was the Sloan family, decked out in the leavings of a milliner's
shop and bringing as offering a worn copy of one of Mary J. Holmes'
novels. There was a good-hearted lady, so disastrously given to
expressing enthusiasm by embracing anyone within her reach that the
heroes and heroines of the evening fought shy of her, and Tom made her
well-known tendency an excuse for withdrawing altogether and going out
to the fence behind the building where he could overlook the festive
scene and smoke a cigar surreptitiously. Not least "among those present"
was the ubiquitous reporter for t