The New York of the Van Der Luydens

The dinner was somewhat formidable business. Dining with the van der luydens was, at best, no light matter. And dining there with a duke who was their cousin, was almost a solemnity. New york took stray noblemen calmly and even except in the struthers, set with a certain distrustful haughtiness. But when they presented such credentials as these, they were received with an old fashioned cordialty that they would have been greatly mistaken in ascribing solely to their standing.