THE OLD MAID
(The ’Fifties)
I
IN the old New York of the ’fifties a few families ruled, in simplicity and affluence. Of these were the Ralstons.
The sturdy English and the rubicund and heavier Dutch had mingled to produce a prosperous, prudent and yet lavish society. To “do things handsomely” had always been a fundamental principle in this cautious world, built up on the fortunes of bankers, India merchants, ship-builders and ship-chandlers. Those wellfed slow-moving people, who seemed irritable and dyspeptic to European eyes
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