In the first place, allow me to introduce you to Mr. Augustus Anthony, who has been in the hands of Mons. Peruke for the last hour, as you will perceive by his perfumed locks; the bows of his little silk necktie, you please notice, are of the proper fashionable size, and his jacket richly embroidered. His brother John, "just from college," fixed his watch chain; so there's no use in my criticising that. Then, there's Master George Harrison, Jr., with his patent pumps and silk stockings, and his sister Jane's diamond ring outside his buff glove on the third finger. He has frequent occasion to point about the room with that hand, you notice!
Next comes Master Simpkins, who is very bashful, and stood tweeddling his thumbs, all of a cold sweat, before he ventured in; he knew that his toes ought to turn out, instead of in, but that was a defect that couldn't be rectified in a minute, and so he made up his mind to shuffle in behind Peter, the black waiter, who just passed in to arrange the candelabras.
Well, they commenced dancing and all "went merry as a marriage bell" for an hour, when Miss Tarleton was discovered crying, because "Master Simpkins had trod on her blue dress and torn off one of the flounces"—and Miss Jane Judkins was very red in the face, because one of Mr. Augustus Anthony's jacket buttons had caught in a fine gold chain upon her neck, and a little gold cross had snapped off, nobody knew where, that belonged to her sister Julia, who made her promise "certain true not to lose it;" and Miss Smith had burst her kid glove right across the hand, and couldn't think of dancing after such a disaster.
Gertrude ran to her mother in great trouble, proposing that harmony should be restored by the supper table. It looked very gay—that supper table, with its lights, and bouquets, and fancy confectionary; it seemed almost a pity to put it in confusion; but Mr. George Sales did not incline to that opinion; so he very quietly seized a dish of oysters and commenced helping himself out of it, quite oblivious of "the presence of the ladies."
Master Anthony was more gallant—he, under the influence of Miss Jane Judkins' tri-colored bows and velvet spencer, valiantly attacked, knife in hand, a fortress of ice-cream, and having freighted a gilt-edged saucer with it, was in the act of presenting it to her, with a dancing-school bow, when he unfortunately lodged the contents of the saucer on her pink skirt and lace flounces. Gertrude retired to the dressing-room with the afflicted Miss Jane, offering her all the sympathy that such a melancholy occasion called for.
When Gertrude returned to the supper room she had the pleasure of hearing Miss Taft remark, that it was "the stupidest party she ever attended; and as to the supper, it was positively shabby—only two pyramids of ice-cream! but then she had heard her mamma say that Gertrude's mother had never been to parties much, so she supposed she really didn't know any better; she (Miss Taft) intended to have a party herself, when she was twelve years old, which event was to come off in a month or two, and then they'd see a party worth dressing for."
Poor Gertrude, after all the pains she had taken, her pretty supper table "shabby," her party "stupid," and her mamma—"didn't know any better!" She was perfectly miserable—her head ached violently, and had it not been for shame, she would have cried outright.
The "ladies and gentlemen" having surfeited themselves at the "shabby supper table," had one more dance, in which nobody was suited with their partners, and several declared, pouting, that they would not dance at all, "because the music was so miserable;" and then they cloaked and hood-ed themselves, and the "rich" Miss Judkins rolled off in her father's carriage, much to the dissatisfaction of some of the other young ladies, who walked home with their little pinafore admirers, cutting up Miss Gertrude's party in a manner that showed they had not listened in vain to the remarks of their mammas about the parties they had attended.
As to Gertrude herself, when the last little foot had pattered out of the entry, she threw herself, weeping, into her mamma's lap, quite worn out with excitement and mortification.
Gertrude's mother considers the money laid out for that "party," and the "cherry silk dress," as one of the most profitable investments she ever made; for, although Miss Gertrude is now a wife and a mother, with a house of her own, she has never been known since that night, to "have a party," or to express the least desire to go to one. For, my dear children, "grown-up parties" are not a whit more profitable or satisfactory than the little miniature one that caused Gertrude so much trouble and unhappiness.