MRS. TRACY'S DIAMONDS.
Mrs. Tracy was going to have a party--not a general one, like that which
she gave when our readers first knew her, and Harold Hastings stood at
the head of the stairs and bade 'the ladies go this way and the
gentlemen that.' Since Dolly had become so exclusive and a leader of
fashion, she had ignored general parties and limited her invitations to
a select few, which, on this occasion, numbered about sixty or seventy.
But the entertainment was prepared as elaborately as if hundreds had
been expected, and the hostess was radiant in satin and lace, and
diamonds, as she received her guests and did the honors of the occasion.
The September night was soft and warm, and the grounds were lighted up,
while quite a crowd collected near the house to hear the music and watch
the proceedings.
Mrs. Tracy would have liked to have had Jerry in the upper hall, where
Harold had once stood.
'It would help to keep the child in her place,' she thought, 'for she is
getting to feel herself of quite too much consequence, with so much
attention from Arthur.'
But her husband promptly vetoed the proposition, saying that when Jerry
Crawford came to the park house to an entertainment it would be as a
guest, and not as a waiter.
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