her first appearance at a grand party, and in her excitement
and timidity she did not hear Harold's thrice repeated words, 'Ladies go
that way,' but followed her husband into the gentlemen's dressing-room,
where she deposited her wraps, and then, shaking in every limb,
descended to the drawing-room, where Peterkin's boisterous laugh was
soon heard, as he slapped his host on the shoulder, and said:

'You see, we are here on time, though May Jane said it was too early.
But I s'posed half-past seven meant half-past seven and then I wanted a
little time to talk up the ropes with you. We are going to run you in,
you bet!' and again his coarse laugh thrilled every nerve in Mrs.
Tracy's body, and she longed for fresh arrivals to help quiet this
vulgar man.

Soon they began to come by twos, and threes, and sixes, and Harold was
kept busy with his 'Ladies this way, and gentlemen that.'

After Mrs. Peterkin had gone down stairs, leaving her wraps in the
gentlemen's rooms, Harold, who knew they did not belong there, had
carried them to the ladies' room and deposited them upon the bed, just
as the girl who was to be in attendance appeared at her post, asked him
sharply why he was in there rummaging the ladies' things.

'I'm not rummaging. They are Mrs. Peterkin's. She left them in the other
room, and I brought them here,' Harold said, as he returned to the hall,
never dreaming that this little circumstance, trivial as it seemed,
would be one of the links in the chain of evidence which must for a time
overshadow him so darkly.

Now, he was eager and excited, and interested in watching the people as
they came up the stairs and went down again. With the quick instinct of
a bright, intelligent boy, he decided who was accustomed to society and
who was not, and leaning over the banister when not on duty, watched
them when they entered the drawing-room and were received by Mr. and
Mrs. Tracy. Unconsciously he began to imitate them, bowing when they
bowed, and saying softly to himself:

'Oh, how do you do? Good evening. Happy to see you. Pleasant to-night.
Walk in. Ye-as!'

This was the monosyllable with which he finished every sentence, and was
the affirmation to the thought in his mind that he, too, would some day
go down those stairs and into those parlors as a guest, while some other
boy in the upper hall bade the ladies go this way and the gentlemen
that.

It was after nine when Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire arrived, with Squire