Page:Old New York 2 The Old Maid.djvu/11

 (The ’Fifties)

N 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 Rh