Tracy Park

anner had been more perceptible; for with all her foolishness Dolly had a ki

from Grassy Spring, Squire Harrington, from Collingwood, and Grace Atherton, from Brier Hill. Very few who could in any way help Frank to a seat in Congress were omitted from the list, whether Republican or Democrat, for Frank was popular with both parties and expected help from both. Over three hundred cards had been issued for the party, which was the absorbing topic of conversation in the whole town, and which brought white kids and white muslins into great requisition, while swallow-tails and non swallow-tails were discussed in the privacy of households, and discarded or decided upon according to the length of the masculine purse or the strength of the masculine resistance, for dress coats were not then the rule in Shannondale. It was said that Mr. St. Claire and Squire Harrington always

received news from New York which made it necessary for her to go there by the next train. She was exceedingly sorry, she said, and for once in her life Grace was sincere. She was anxious to attend the party, for, as she said to Edith St. Claire in confidence, she wanted to see old Peterkin in his swallow-tail and white vest, with a shirt-front as big as a platter. There was a great deal of sarcasm and ridicule in Grace Atherton's nature, but at heart she was kind and meant to be just, and after a fashion really liked Mrs. Tracy, to whom she had been of service in various ways, helping her to fill her new position more gracefully than s

she has rheumatism this morning and cannot come to-night

in the kitchen in an hour!' Mrs. Tracy said this so sharply that a flush mounted to the handsome face of the boy, who felt as if he were in som

welled and aches so she almost cries. She is awful sorry,

a into Mrs. Tracy's mind,

people where to go? The boy I engaged has disappointed me. You are rather s

ce brightening at the thought of earning fift

t have glasses as soon as she had the money to spare. Harold had seen a pair at the drug-store for one dollar, and, without knowing at all whether they would fit his grandmother's eyes or not, had asked the druggist to keep t

ked, as she detected in him

p in the hall?

ill be in the parlors until ten o'clock, a

there I could not come; he chaffs me so and twits me w

he behaves better in future,' said Mrs. Tracy, rat

Harold of the telegram, he took it

t's from Mr. Arthur, and he's coming to-ni

d caught the words that Arthur was coming that night, and, for a moment, she fe

tle kitchen where she had eaten her breakfast on winter mornings so near the stove that she could cook her buckwheats on the griddle and transfer them to her own and her husband's plates without leaving her seat. She had been happy, or comparatively so there, she said to herself, because she knew no better. But now she did know better, and she

this party she was giving would be her first and last at Tracy Park. How she wished she had never thought of it, or, having thought of it, that she had omitted from the list those who, she knew, would be obnoxious to the foreign brother, and who had only been invit

nt that Harold was still standing there, gazing curiously at her. 'You here yet? I thought you had

give the party up?' he said, af

the people invited?' she asked, ques

ll 'em not to come,' Harold suggested, thinking he mig

don it, and declining the services of Harold and his pony, she again bade him go home, wit

able, you can wear some of T

Harold's reply, as he walked away, thinking he would go in rags b

nhappy frame of mind, and she was glad when, at an hour earl

trap on us, don't it? And if he did, by Jove, he has caught us nicely. It will be somewhat like the prodigal son, who heard the sound of music and dancing, only I don't suppose Arthur has spent his substance in riotous living

wn upon the lounge near where she was standing, and actu

ely over at Tracy Park. It was in vain that her husband tried to comfort her, saying that they knew nothing positively, except that Arthur was coming home and somebody was coming with h

l tried without effect. Nothing helped her until she commenced her toilet, when in the excitement of dressing she partly forgot her disquietude, and the pain in her head grew leas. Still she was cons

to keep up and appear natural until that time Mrs. Tracy did not know, and her face and eyes wore an anxious, frightened look, which all her finery could not hide. And still she was really very handsome and striking in her dress of peach blow satin,