d'Autin = Chaussee d'Antin, a fashionable Parisian street and
neighborhood}

It has been said that my arrival produced a general buzz. In less than a
minute Eudosia had made her curtsy, and was surrounded, in a corner,
by a bevy of young friends, all silent together, and all dying to see me.
To deny the deep gratification I felt at the encomiums I received, would
be hypocrisy. They went from my borders to my centre--from the lace
to the hem--and from the hem to the minutest fibre of my exquisite
texture. In a word, I was the first hundred-dollar pocket-handkerchief
that had then appeared in their circles; and had I been a Polish count,
with two sets of moustaches, I could not have been more flattered and
"entertained." My fame soon spread through the rooms, as two little
apartments, with a door between them that made each an alcove of the
other, were called; and even the men, the young ones in particular,
began to take an interest in me. This latter interest, it is true, did not
descend to the minutiae of trimmings and work, or even of fineness, but
the "three figure" had a surprising effect. An elderly lady sent to borrow
me for a moment. It was a queer thing to borrow a pocket-
handkerchief, some will think; but I was lent to twenty people that night;
and while in her hands, I overheard the following little aside, between
two young fashionables, who were quite unconscious of the acuteness
of the senses of our family.

"This must be a rich old chap, this Halfacre, to be able to give his
daughter a hundred-dollar pocket-handkerchief, Tom; one might do
well to get introduced."

"If you'll take my advice, Ned, you'll keep where you are," was the
answer. "You've been to the surrogate's office, and have seen the will of